DIY noisebox makes crazy noises - ambient noise machine

New DIY noisebox (wooden box with assorted springs and doorstop attached to it, two piezo pickups inside), running into my digital audio workstation (DAW), where I mangle it with various forms of audio software.

[@lordmemester8798]

What some people can do with seemingly innocuous sounds never fails to amaze me. Excellent work!

[@MLoerAudio]

All through the magic of way too many audio plugins. Thanks for watching!

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

I'm totally building something like this now for scoring horror tracks and for general, natural ambient SFX. Great stuff.

[@MLoerAudio]

Nice! Consider an active preamp. If it’s just a passive piezo it attenuates a ton of low end. Doesn’t matter for me since I use so much processing, but if you want more raw piezo sounds a decent preamp is probably the way to go for a more even frequency response

[@greengooflight]

Blaster Beam lol

[@louadmurphy2587]

You don't need a spaceship to do good soundcrafts and it's never desappointing please continue

[@miki890098]

With how simple and effective it is, this could be a standard instrumenr

[@MLoerAudio]

Thanks for watching!

[@soundscapes4619]

Your creation has real potential. I'm not kidding. I think it should be called the "Bruce Springthing" it can be used to make strange sound effects in monster movies.

[@MLoerAudio]

Haha. I love the name. Thanks so much!

[@Brahkolee]

Very interesting. I’d love to see a breakdown of how it’s constructed and how it works. This would be a great tool for all kinds of amateur artists- Film students come to mind.

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you very much! It's a ton of fun to play with. Film soundtracks are a great fit for sounds like these--if you haven't already, check out Mark Korven's Apprehension Engine, and his work for the soundtracks of The Witch and The Lighthouse. There are a ton of good tutorials on how to make gadgets like this. This is a good one for a basic version: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g5nWZYBuo8aib6c&ab_channel=RDGMStudio And then if you want to go big, there's an amazingly detailed tutorial on how to DIY an apprehension engine: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnm7hnivmNp0g7s&ab_channel=FilmMasters

[@500usd4]

I could honestly listen to an entire album of this

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you very much! I have more weird soundscapes coming out all the time!

[@fortheloveofnoise9298]

This, some reverb, some delay, some Paul stretch= endless possibilities

[@RetroPlus]

I like that you made it stereo

[@vincentlajoie1664]

This is exactly what I meant to do since about 8 years.. experimenting springs.. and doing some cheap PVC's instruments just like BMGroup... You Man made my day ..! Thank You !

[@MLoerAudio]

You should so it! Such a cheap and fun project.

[@henkuli]

Beautiful textures, love the resonance of metal...

[@MLoerAudio]

Thanks!

[@Musik_Arbeiter]

This sounds incredible! I would love to build/buy one of these, I hope in the future you may share your awesome creation! Thank you for the video 😄👍

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you so much! It wasn't a hard build at all. If you have a drill, a screwdriver, and a soldering iron, you can knock one together in a day. Thanks for watching!

[@undergroundradio87.9]

That thing is cool.🤩🤩 We had a local artist play a set on-air in-studio using something like that. They ran it through guitar pedals and used a synthesizer module with it.

[@MLoerAudio]

Dope! I wish I had some more guitar pedals to use with it. I could especially use a stereo reverb. Someday.

[@stuartchapman5171]

I use noise box's, tape loops and diy drone synths through a stack of pedals. I sometimes use a diy matrix mixer to run the signals parallel and series and to cause feedback loops. It's too much fun. There's been some exceptional stereo reverbs on the market for a few years now. You can get great "last years" models cheap now. I love the Cathedral but it's a bit large, I bought a Polara, my go to would be the MXR300 you can switch it to stereo abd use TRS jacks, small simple to use a load of good algorithms and there's an almost infinite pad in there. Many cheap ones sound just that and the MXR has massive headroom so you won't get nasty clipping or shutdown if you give it the hottest of signals.

[@stuartchapman5171]

@MLoerAudio I've ended up with a Polaris, the most affordable quality I could find. My only gripe is that the verbs don't go anywhere near infinite. I'm going to try adding some controllable feedback into it, though , to see if it will coax some longer reverbs from it. Thd reverse mode with vocals is complete horror show, irs only got full wet on that algorithm though, but again, with the right controls off board, you could introduce some dry signal in somewhere. Good mixing of signals and signal paths, is as useful in creating sounds as fx, but a lot easier and cheaper and is a very fun creative dabbit hole. It's a great starting point for the building and hacking of audio lx. Switching and rotary control box's are the basic simplest builds, but the building block foundation of everything else.

[@AnthonyGoodley]

​@@MLoerAudioThe Korg NTS-1 kit is awesome. It's so worth it just for the effects alone. It let's you download custom oscillators, delays and reverbs as well. Tons of free and paid add-ons for it.

[@MLoerAudio]

@@AnthonyGoodleythanks for the tip! Those things are neat. So you can use it as a stereo processing unit? I’ll look into that!

[@foxylovelace2679]

When mom says you have horror movies at home....

[@kampuiching7464]

Great job !

[@rlt9492]

Basement noises!

[@sleepy_onion4838]

Love your style guy!

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you!

[@ThePsychicFish]

Sick contraption dude 🤘🤘

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you very much!

[@cirasvira]

sounds great

[@INFINITESYKOSIS]

beautiful noise 👍

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you very much!

[@INFINITESYKOSIS]

@@MLoerAudio 🤜🤛

[@nyokoyorokonde]

Die Piezo's direkt mit Interface verbinden? Einfach, aber genial. Ich dachte, es wäre komplizierter. Danke für den Clip

[@MLoerAudio]

Yes, it works pretty well! Without an active preamp, the piezo’s frequency response is somewhat attenuated. For a more full-frequency response, I’d need an active preamp, but I’m using so much digital processing that it doesn’t really matter. Thank you for watching!

[@nyokoyorokonde]

@@MLoerAudio Thank you for the acoustic insights and your quick answer to my question. It was my pleasure🤗.

[@NickProkhorenko]

Very cool sounds, i like it so... 🤔 At this moment 1:04 was one of the best horror sounds.

[@MLoerAudio]

Lots and lots of reverb! Or convolution, which often ends up being more interesting than reverb. Thanks for watching!

[@K-ORA]

Fantastic, my kind of sound box :D lol 🤘

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you very much!

[@beammeup6610]

I'm personally a fan of the acoustic version of the sproingngngnnn instrument.

[@MLoerAudio]

As does my 3-year-old. But he has since kicked and broken all the doorstoppers in my house.

[@beammeup6610]

@CrepuscularObelisk hahaa. Might as well use them for music now that they are no longer connected to the door

[@paulis7319]

That's crazy cool!

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you very much! Pretty easy to do, too, only tools needed are a drill, screwdriver, hot glue gun, and (optionally, there are ways around it) a soldering iron

[@paulis7319]

@@MLoerAudio Nice! Yeah it looks pretty simple to make. If I get decide to do it I'll probably build a larger box, or a box with different sections for different effects (lifetime carpenter/DIY hobby).

[@MLoerAudio]

@@paulis7319that’s awesome, do it! That’s something I’m hoping to learn more of, woodworking. Would love to get into building more customized devices, including Arduino-based MIDI devices in custom wood enclosures. Someday. Anyway, enjoy, and feel free if you have any questions about the build!

[@paulis7319]

@@MLoerAudio Making custom MIDI things sounds fun, too! The tech part would be a little over my head but that's what learning is for (the MODX was WAY over my head when I got it).

[@stavinaircaeruleum2275]

Someone has a bright future in sfx design.

[@threblog]

impressive. i'd be even more impressed to see this used to make an album

[@MLoerAudio]

Thanks very much!! I'm slowly working towards more systematic music releases. Slow progress between work and childcare, but I'll get there. I've got my first live gig booked next month, and I'll be posting footage from that! If you'd like to hear some longer-form, more produced stuff I did, including some sounds from this noisebox, along with a fair bit of synth stuff, here's a song-ish thing I produced a little while back: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3iskJlrbMuGepI&ab_channel=M.Loer

[@SemblanceMusic]

Yeah piezo/contact mic's are fun huh

[@svenjeppesen1725]

sick

[@philxdev]

I think that would be a nice tool and so expandable getting a big wooden box and some springs and other contraptions with some mics, guitar pickups....maybe also something with a fluid... and then you can sample the shit out of it... and build it into whatever you want to create or mingle it through effects and filters.. thank you for the demo.

[@MLoerAudio]

Thanks for watching!

[@douglaspropperii5477]

Nice work :D what method did you use to have the audio in the video?

[@MLoerAudio]

Thanks so much! All of the audio processing is done in my computer. The noisebox has two inexpensive piezo pickups connected to jacks; I plug those straight into my audio interface, which sends the audio to my computer where I use Reaper (an inexpensive but excellent DAW) as well as free or inexpensive audio plugins to mangle the sound. Each knob on the MIDI controller on the left (my Akai MIDIMix) is linked to the wet/dry blend of one or more audio plugins. So, for example, I might turn one knob and, in doing so, blend in some distortion feeding into a reverb feeding into a convolution plugin. Nothing fancy--if you play with different types of reverb, delay, distortion, EQ, tremolo, pitch shifting, etc., and layer them together, you very quickly get some totally alien sounds. This video might demonstrate it a bit more clearly: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZomtqIKPebGYiZI&ab_channel=CrepuscularObelisk

[@TrebizondMusic-cm6fp]

Time for N.U. Unruh to pass the torch.

[@MLoerAudio]

You’re too kind!

[@VooDooMusic]

doingles, dongles, bingles and bongles. love it

[@BlackMasterRoshi]

i've always felt the doorstopper to be a solo instrument.

[@MLoerAudio]

Etude for doorstopper in D minor. Sounds lovely. Thanks for watching!

[@danieltx7066]

my cat plays the door stop. thankfully, she confines her practice to daytime.

[@MLoerAudio]

@@danieltx7066 wire a piezo to it and get weird！

[@martinespinomusic]

Hey brother, what is the other device that you’re using to change the filters and all that I love how you’re able to do that

[@MLoerAudio]

Thanks for watching! The black thing with knobs is a MIDI controller (Akai MIDImix). Each knob is mapped to the wet/dry blend of one or more audio plugin, processing the audio output of the piezo box in my DAW. Blending a bunch of plugins successively-reverb, distortion, convolution, pitch shifting, etc-creates some really crazy sounds

[@schh5462]

I imagine as a soundtrack for resident evil

[@user-gd7qj6dp1m]

How is it connected to the audio interface?

[@MLoerAudio]

Each piezo pickup is wired to a standard guitar 1/4” jack. Then I used guitar patch cables to connect it to my interface

[@GlazeonthewickeR]

Very fuckin cool!

[@setvikyadvik]

wow

[@PCcardboard1354]

Okay when is the album.

[@MLoerAudio]

One of these days! Prepping for my first live show on April 10, which I’ll (hopefully, barring technical fuckups) record and post here. Thanks for watching!

[@fishbarbeque8540]

@@MLoerAudioWOW!!! OKAY!!!

[@WhatsTherapy]

lets goo

[@nosmoking2933]

Sounz like Einsturzende Neubauten.

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you very much! I wasn't familiar with Einsturzende Neubauten--very interesting sound!

[@Mahzf]

What are the on pc specs for sound design?

[@MLoerAudio]

Focusrite Scarlet 4i4 into MacBook Pro running Reaper for my DAW

[@kengruz669]

I dare say, Stanley Kubrick may have wanted to use this for "2001" during some of the later scenes if he had access to this.

[@MLoerAudio]

Thank you very much!

[@gregosyesyez828]

What effect is being used at 3:32?

[@MLoerAudio]

Hello! I'm not sure. For most of these sounds, you're hearing lots and lots of plugins blended in incrementally, so I'll have a bit of reverb, a bit of distortion, a bit of octave down, etc., etc. Definitely part of the sound is Reaper's built-in Avocado Ducking Glitch Generator, which gives it that glitchy stuttering effect. I hope this helps!

[@frankthomas8782]

Reaper + Valhalla Super Massive?

[@MLoerAudio]

Yes indeed! Along with a bunch of stock Reaper plugins, and some other odds and ends. Izotope Trash 2 is another I use a lot

[@key-chain]

the doohickey

[@darklightmotion5534]

Average synth nerd

[@MLoerAudio]

I won’t argue with nerd or average. No synths involved in this video, though :)

[@darklightmotion5534]

@@MLoerAudio true. I am more of a producer, writer, sampler, and composer than a synth nerd but the community fills me with awe. I don't even like the sounds but the process to get them is so creative and once in a blue moon I do sample something wild from yall

[@ktor538]

Your clipping

[@MLoerAudio]

Yes. My clipping

[@archer8096]

Dooooiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnggggg

[@MLoerAudio]

The most beautiful sound in the world

[@CleoKawisha-sy5xt]

it doesnt sound good

[@robertjc605]

Get an old acoustic guitar, mic it up and you can build something very quickly and very easily 😊.