Glitch Beat Making Tools
by Chad Glenn
A glitch can be defined as a minor malfunction, mishap, technical problem or snag. When manufactured intentionally in the digital realm and replicated over several musical bars while being processed through distortions, decimators, manglers, sample granulation, spectral analysis, morphing, resynthesis and cross synthesis, you have an art form. Made popular by names such as Aphex Twin, Autechre, Squarepusher, Plaid, BT, and Hybrid, to name a few, the rules and techniques used to make glitch music are ever expanding.
Beyond the manual slicing and surgical precision arrangement required to produce such feats of sonic greatness, there are some very effective tools to help this process along. Here are some of the better ones in no particular order:
Some of these are free, simple, and straightforward, while some of the others require an intellectual and financial investment.
If you’re lucky enough to own a Virus T1, a recent upgrade to the OS unveils Atomizer which is a new realtime performance beat slicer, stutterer and mangler. Check out the video below for a taste of its sonic blunt force trauma.