How to "blur" audio?

skiphunt

I regret asking the question here. Can admin please delete the thread. Thx

shazbot

"Blurring" makes me think of spectral smearing and FFT stuff. Live has a couple spectral tools like the one in the video.

Noise reduction tools would also be another route like Reapers native noise reduction effect.

But for something more old school I would try a vocoder with a full wet short reverb after it.

NeuM

@skiphunt said:
I regret asking the question here. Can admin please delete the thread. Thx

Don't worry about it! I guarantee someone here will figure it out.

skiphunt

@NeuM said:

@skiphunt said:
I regret asking the question here. Can admin please delete the thread. Thx

Don't worry about it! I guarantee someone here will figure it out.

I’m not worried in the slightest. I just did a Google search on how to “blur” audio and there’s a lot of info. Thinking I should’ve done a simple Google search first.

Evidently, many have asked the exact same question, ie. audio effect that’s similar to a visual blur effect.

wim

Hey, maybe take only the wet (processed) signal from a reverb? The various parameters of the reverb such as size, diffusion, and dampening could be used to adjust the sound. Throwing a chorus after the reverb wet signal could add some added color and movement.

[Deleted User]

@skiphunt said:

@NeuM said:

@skiphunt said:
I regret asking the question here. Can admin please delete the thread. Thx

Don't worry about it! I guarantee someone here will figure it out.

I’m not worried in the slightest. I just did a Google search on how to “blur” audio and there’s a lot of info. Thinking I should’ve done a simple Google search first.

Evidently, many have asked the exact same question, ie. audio effect that’s similar to a visual blur effect.

Why don't you enlighten us with what you found?

Despite saying it's like blurring a photo, a 2 dimensional pattern of light and shade is not something that maps directly to frequencies changing over time where there is no 2 dimensional frame at all (ie a sound). Some software does this, but it's a mapping parameters that don't actually line up at all. As you can tell if you listen to a sound created out of a face image, does it sound like a face looks?

The closest analogy to blurring sound that makes sense to me is a mixture of reverb and reverse reverb, parts of the sound appear and build up towards the main sound event, and fade out the same way, like if you blurred a charcoal image by rubbing your finger backwards and forwards over it. Others might imagine it differently.

jolico

You can blur by removing sharpness (attack).

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/attack-softener/id1504605178

skiphunt

Evidently there's an effect in FL Studios called "Blur" that does what I'm asking about.

To reiterate... this isn't important and it's not specifically something I'm trying to do. I heard what sounded like a "blur" in the Flaming Lips recordings and thought I'd ask here on the forum... purely out of curiosity.

It's not really an echo/delay/reverb sounding effect, but sounds more like the resolution of sound is being blurred out with a lack of definition... much like a blur effect on a digital photo.

Most of the things I've tried just end up sounding more muffled than blurred.

I'm not going to go into everything I found, but suffice to say... if you merely google how to use audio effects to get a blurred sound... you'll find plenty. It's actually a common question and other sound enthusiasts on other forums seem to know exactly what that term alludes to.

I think I could get pretty close utilizing SpaceFields. SpaceFields allows you to load up an audio file that it converts into convolution reverb (I think).

Someone here mentioned using noise. This one video illustrating how to do a vocal "blur" uses a Convolution Reverb plugin with Pink Noise as the IR file.

I'm sure there are many other ways this could be accomplished though. Velvet Machine says that you can "blur" audio in it's app description.

Once again, I'm not trying to do anything in particular. I was just curious and since I know there are lots of iOS audio enthusiasts on this board... who like to tweak with sound sculpting... that it would've been an easy question to answer. I guess it was too vague for the folks here. But no worry... Google search to the rescue

Here's the video:

Samu

So in short Velvetmachine can do this...
https://phonolyth.com/products/velvet-machine

bleep

@rs2000 said:
If by blur you mean some kind of sound freezing effect then the simplest solution is to load white noise as an impulse response into Thafknar and mix to taste.

As always, @rs2000 was spot on with his reply on p. 1

shazbot

ooh yes +1 for Velvet Machine, a good candidate for this imo

McD

@skiphunt said:
I regret asking the question here. Can admin please delete the thread. Thx

I'm sorry you feel that way. There's a lot of good information here with my takeaway being
"IR Recording" apps can do something that hard to do with the usual FX apps.

Did anyone mention any Granular apps like the beloved Spacecraft (which is Granular lite since the sound material never seems to disappear and get blurred into formless noise) or
Tardigrain which blurs like a street sweeper.

rs2000

@bleep said:

@rs2000 said:
If by blur you mean some kind of sound freezing effect then the simplest solution is to load white noise as an impulse response into Thafknar and mix to taste.

As always, @rs2000 was spot on with his reply on p. 1

Thanks for reading the full post

skiphunt

@McD said:

@skiphunt said:
I regret asking the question here. Can admin please delete the thread. Thx

I'm sorry you feel that way. There's a lot of good information here with my takeaway being
"IR Recording" apps can do something that hard to do with the usual FX apps.

Did anyone mention any Granular apps like the beloved Spacecraft (which is Granular lite since the sound material never seems to disappear and get blurred into formless noise) or
Tardigrain which blurs like a street sweeper.

No. I regretted it because I thought it was one of those simple questions, ie. "Yep, what you're describing is easily accomplished using this.."

It was really just a fleeting curiosity while I was listening to the Flaming Lips and riding my motorcycle. I thought it'd be a no-brainer question instead of having to grow a thread into multiple pages. I only regret asking it here first. In hindsight, I would've done a google search first. Then maybe brought the question here once I'd researched it a bit more.

skiphunt

@rs2000 said:

@bleep said:

@rs2000 said:
If by blur you mean some kind of sound freezing effect then the simplest solution is to load white noise as an impulse response into Thafknar and mix to taste.

As always, @rs2000 was spot on with his reply on p. 1

Thanks for reading the full post

Oh, I read your full post. The part about "freezing effect" kind of through me. However, when the dude in the video mentioned IR and noise, I immediately recalled your suggestion.

I don't think I have any effects that I can load up a noise file as an IR. I know you mentioned Thafnar but I don't have that one. I've got Auria Pro but it's crashing and I'm not sure if I can load noise as an IR in it. SpaceFields might be a good option but I don't have absolute control of that one yet.

I've tried Velvet Machine, but I haven't figured out quite how to dial it in specifically for "blurring" yet. I might reach out to that dev. He's been really helpful and friendly in the past. It's just that he's in Russia and I don't think he can communicate out at the moment. I'd connected with him on Slack though, so I'll see if he can offer some suggestions.

thx!