POETRY AND DISTORTION - Part 2: The iZotope Trash 2 Bible with Poetmistry

In this Lux Cache tutorial series, we explore the left-field uses of standard software processing effects to create unique types of distortion, the multilayered puzzle of bringing drive & character to otherwise ordinary sounds. In part 1, New York based poet & club prodigy Poetmistry takes a deep-dive into the mechanics of Trash 2, unravelling the codes and creative disruptions of iZotope’s most versatile distortion plugin.

This tutorial is available as both a Patreon text post and .pdf document format. We ask you kindly to not share Lux Cache content outside of the Patreon, our contributors rely on your donations.

• An accompanying ‘Poetry & Distortion’ sample pack designed by Poetmisty is available here for all Lux Cache subscribers.
• 14 bespoke iZotope Trash 2 presets designed by Poetmistry are available for Premium Subscribers on the Lux Cache Patreon.

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Introduction

Trash 2 is an absolute beast, and that’s because it’s not just a distortion effect but actually a series of six different modules: a filter (Filter 1 & 2), a waveshaper (Trash), a physical modeling effect (Convolve), a compressor (Dynamics), and a delay (Delay). With all of these different parts, the plug-in can be a bit overwhelming, so I’m going to focus on the elements I actually use to create interesting sounds (as opposed to just explaining every single feature). To accompany my explanations, I’ve created a series of presets and a sample pack to provide examples of how to effectively use the different modules. As you read this tutorial, I suggest that you open up these presets to mess around with them, or when possible, rebuild your own version of the preset from scratch to better understand how they are constructed.

Contents

1. PRESET MANAGER
   
2. TRASH
   
3. CONVOLVE
   
4. FILTER
   
5. GRAPH
   
6. DYNAMICS
   
7. DELAY
   
8. AUTOMATION
   
9. BONUS TIP: USER-LOADED CONVOLUTION
   

Trash 2

1. Preset Manager

Before we dive in, I wanted to take a quick moment to talk about the preset window and show you how to install the presets that come with this tutorial. First, you need to find the “iZotope” folder on your computer (this was created during installation, but won’t be where the plug-in itself is installed—likely it is just among your documents and other files). In this folder, you should find a subfolder labeled “Trash 2,” and within that, there should be a subfolder called “Global Presets.” Place the “Lux Cache” folder full of .xml files that came with this tutorial inside the “Global Presets” folder.

When you open up Trash 2, you can access the preset window by clicking the “preset” button in the bottom right hand corner (it also may pop up automatically). If you ever want to start with a blank patch, you can click “default.” I would also suggest creating a new folder so that you can save your own presets (click the “new folder” button while you have “default” selected so that you don’t create a folder within one of the other preset groups). To add a new preset, open the preset window whenever you have the desired settings and click the “add” button.” I also do suggest that you mess around with the presets Trash 2 comes with (they’re really good). Picking one that you like and then diving into the specific settings that it uses is one of the best ways to learn how to use the plug-in.

2. Trash

Trash 2 is composed of several different modules, all of which you can see at the bottom of the window.

Not surprisingly, we’ll start by talking about the “Trash” module, which contains two waveshapers and two filters. To select this module and change the settings, click on the big black button under “TRASH” (the yellow light indicates which module you are on). If the settings that appear are greyed out or your changes don’t seem to make much of a difference to the sound, then make sure the little power button to the top left of the black button is selected and yellow (this turns the module on). As a note, you don’t necessarily need to use all the modules or have them all turned on.

There’s a lot going on in the “Trash” module, so I’m going to focus on what I think is most important. On the lefthand side, you’ll see a tab that says “Stage 1.” This represents the first waveshaper. You can turn it on and off by clicking the little yellow power symbol next to the wording (same with stage 2, which is turned off by default). Under “Type,” you’ll see a whole range of different wave shapes grouped into different categories. In the center of the screen you’ll see the “shape grid.” When I first started using the plug-in, I was really focused on understanding and shaping my own unique waves. However, after a lot of experimenting, I found direct manipulation of the graph to be less rewarding than I expected. My suggestion is to start with the different wave shapes that they have listed in the “Type” menu on the left hand side and tweak them as necessary. A note on selecting wave shapes: you can change the drive and aggressiveness of each wave after you select it, so pick a shape based on tone or the weird idiosyncrasies it provides rather than just how “hard” it sounds. To manipulate your waveshape, I recommend messing with three things. First, I would play with the “Drive” slider. Then, I would mess around with the slider on the very right edge of the shape grid. Finally, I would drag around the handhold on the yellow line in the shape grid. All of these affect the aggressiveness and volume of the sound. I can’t quite give a technical explanation of the differences between each, but I’ve found it to be worth experimenting with all of them. Additionally, I want to point out the “Gain” and “Mix” sliders. “Gain” can be used to increase or decrease the output of the final sound coming out of this particular waveshaper. “Mix” is a dry/wet knob that can be very useful for toning back the weirder sounding curves.

Next to the “Shape” tab, you will see the filter tab, which you have to turn on by clicking the little power button next to the text. This is a very rough, but useful filter that I like to use for either drastically cutting out the highs (especially when using some very fuzzy wave shapes) or boosting the lows (useful for when the wave shape begins to destroy the signal enough that it begins to take away a lot of the bass. Additionally, note the “Stage 2” tab. Yes, there is a whole other waveshaper and filter for you to use. If you were disappointed that I didn’t dive more into manipulating the shape grid, I hope you’re now truly seeing how much depth you can get between all the shape types, the waveshaper parameters and the two filters. Generally speaking, it can be really useful to dial in a good sound with “Stage 1” and then use “Stage 2” to get some additional character and detail (often using the “Mix” knob to dial things in). That being said, you can also try to blow the roof off on “Stage 1” and then do it again on “Stage 2.”

Almost all of the presets provided make use of the “Trash” module in various ways, so there’s no specific preset I’d draw your attention to for understanding this module. However, to help understand the “multiband” mode of this module, I would suggest looking at the preset “krish-sonic.” The multiband setting lets you go even deeper by allowing you to use a different set of waveshapers on different parts of the frequency spectrum of the sound (i.e. we can distort the highs one way and the lows another way). To turn multiband mode on, click the multiband button in the top right. The numbers that light up allow you to move between the different bands. You can change the range of the bands by moving the using the little handholds that divide up the graph of the frequency spectrum at the top. Be aware that you can also solo the different bands by clicking the tiny “S.” In general, I haven’t found the multiband mode to be that effective for dividing up the frequency spectrum of single consistent sound (i.e. if you wanted to distort the high and low end of a clean 808 differently), but I’ve found that is very powerful and interesting when working with sounds that have different things going on in the high and low ends (i.e. a drum loop or some fx textures).

I think that’s about it for the “Trash” module! If I have any high level advice, it would be that there isn’t any particular incisive setting or quirky trick that is critical to this module. Rather than getting lost in the technical details, I encourage you to just try combining different wave shapes, stages, filters, and settings in lots of different combinations. Most importantly, don’t worry too much about the overall sound, but rather seek to encourage the strange idiosyncrasies you find along the way. You can always layer a dry copy of the sound back in at the end if you feel that some of the body of the sound has been lost. Additionally, we can use the other modules in Trash 2 to enhance the qualities that we begin to foster in the waveshapers.

Finally, if you’re still feeling overwhelmed by choice, here is a list of curve types that I particularly liked as I was experimenting. Distort —> Blues Driver, Busted, Elastic Trash, Sandpaper; Drive —> Cactus, Grungey Crunch; Faulty —> pretty much all of them; Heavy —> Cracked Actor, Impaler, Nasty Boy; Retro —> Plateau.

3. Convolve

While there isn’t quite as much technical depth to using the “Convolve'' module, this is very much “where the magic happens,” especially if you aren’t just looking for super crunchy, fuzzy high end distortion. Convolve is a physical modeling effect, which basically means that it takes another waveform as an input (say, a snare) and then tries to make your sound resonate in the same way that the snare would. It’s the same principle behind Ableton’s Corpus and any sort of convolution reverb plug-in. The result is the wonderful ability to fundamentally reshape the tone and texture of a sound. In this module, we can squash a huge bass into the rough, low groan of something being dragged along the ground or transform the rich, full tone of tom into a sharp, vibrating metallic attack.

In terms of the parameters available for manipulation, there isn’t quite as much for us to do other than try out all the different “impulse responses” that the plug-in has on offer. There are a lot of great settings, and they will drastically alter the sound that you have until you turn on the “Convolve” module. I particularly like the responses in the “Devices,” “FX” and “Mech Animal” categories. Additionally, be sure to mess around with different “Mic" modes to alter the tone and to use “Separate” and “Width” to increase the stereo width of the sound. As always, after you’ve really gone crazy with these settings, it can sometimes be advisable to bring down the “Mix” slider to bring back some of the original sound.

Honestly, you can do a lot with just this module and the “Trash” module (check out the presets “big808” and “big808-2” for examples). As a creative constraint it can also be fun to try starting your sound design by turning on and dialing in settings for the “Convolve” module before you start messing with the “Trash” module.

4. Filter

The filters in Trash 2 work similarly to most other filters, but there are few things worth keeping in mind while using them. What you might first notice is that the filters don’t seem to have a particularly drastic effect on the sound relative to what you might expect. For example in the “krish-sonic” preset, we end up using a high pass filter to significantly boost the very, very low end of the signal. You might expect some extreme bass action from this filter, but the effect on it’s own is not alarming. The filters within the “Trash” module allow for much more drastic cuts, but I feel like “Filter 1” and “Filter 2” serve a different purpose. One is simply a more subtle sculpting of the sound. However, where these filters are even better served is when they are used before and after the “Trash” module. Here, the filters really allow you to bring out the more subtle characteristics of a sound in a way that can really be latched onto by the effects in the other modules. To get a sense of this, turn off all the modules except “Filter 1” in the “krish-sonic” preset and then try turning “Filter 1” on and off to see what it does by itself. Then turn all the modules on, now turn “Filter 1” on and off and see what the effect is on the sound. Hopefully, there will be a noticeable difference!

If you click on the filter type in “Filter Info” section you can see that there are a bunch of different filter types. There’s actually quite a wide variety of tonal options that are definitely worth exploring. I particularly like the “Synth” and “Vowel” filter types. The “Vowel” filter types can be particularly interesting if you use them after the “Trash” module to really butcher the sound before it hits any of the other modules. You can get some really great textures from this filter if you boost the resonance/gain, and you can always layer the final output with the original sound if it ends up taking away too much of the low end of the sound. Embracing the more subtractive nature of some of these filters can be really exciting if you use them before sending the signal into other modules.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that you can add an LFO or an envelope to all of the different points on the filter. Given how much the waveshapers will amplify the resonant peaks of the sound, you can add some really nice movement to your sound by either having a peak that is moving up and down the mid range with an LFO (try doing this with the “Vowel” filter for a gargling sound) or a peak that reduces during the attack of the sound with an envelope.

To check out some different uses of the filter modules, look at the “pickuphighs,” “scratch808,” and “tunnel drum” presets. Be sure to note where the modules are placed in the graph.

5. Graph

Given all my talk of signal flow between the modules, it’s probably now worth mentioning the “Graph” button. You’ll find it in a small band above the module buttons, and when you open it you’ll see a signal flow diagram between all the modules. You can probably guess what this allows us to do. By dragging and dropping the different arrows, we can change the order of the modules through which the signal is routed. This is a really powerful element of Trash 2 and allows for a lot of variability in sounds. Consider putting the “Convolve" before the “Trash” so the resonance gets distorted. Consider putting “Delay” near the beginning of the signal flow so each repeats are affected by all the other modules. Or put a filter at the end to fine tune the whole thing. You can also drag “Filter 1” and “Filter 2” on top of each other so that they act in parallel. Check out the “drum crunch,” “gate-fun,” and “metal krish” presets for more ideas on creatively routing the signal using the graph.

6. Dynamics

The “Dynamics” module is a compressor/gate with a multi-band and sidechain mode. If you’ve ever used a compressor before, this module won’t feel particularly foreign to you, and you can use it very much as you would normally use a compressor. With that in mind, I’m just going to talk about a few of the ways I like to use this compressor in the context of Trash 2 rather than explaining exactly how a compressor works.

In Trash 2, the “Trash” module’s more extreme settings can not only bring out the quieter elements of our sounds, but also create unique or unheard sonic artifacts of their own. Similarly, the “Convolve” module can introduce resonance tails and new sounds altogether. One of the best uses of the “Dynamics” module is to help highlight and bring out those artifacts. To do this, extreme compression settings can be very interesting to play around with. I suggest experimenting with pushing the ratio past 10:1 and dropping the threshold below -20db. Faster attack (<30ms) and release (<100ms) times will help exaggerate these effects. To really hear these sorts of settings at work, make sure you’re working with samples that have a wider dynamic range (i.e. loud and soft parts) and are not too cluttered with different sounds. You may also want to play around with the “Gain” slider in the “Trash” module so that the signal isn’t so loud that it’s always fully triggering the compressor. If you pair these sorts of sounds with wilder distortion curves in the “Trash” module, you’ll begin to hear the compressor pulling out the tail ends of snares or bringing out the dirt coming off the top of a kick. If your sound doesn’t naturally have the kind of dynamics that suit this sort of technique, one quick way to introduce some dynamic variance is by using the “Gate.” Whereas a compressor makes the loud parts quieter, a gate can make the quiet parts disappear altogether. By raising the gate threshold and increasing the gate ratio, we can isolate just the peaks of a certain sound. Oftentimes, very fuzzy distortion settings really just push a sound into a monotonous wash of noise. Using a gate can introduce empty space back into the sound, which can allow the peaks and transients to really get the full benefits of the distortion curves being used. To get the full effects of the gate, experiment with moving the “Dynamics” module behind the “Trash” module in the “Graph” so that your signal is gated before it gets distorted.

It’s also worth mentioning the multiband and sidechain modes of the compressor. The sidechain button allows you to compress or gate your signal based on an external input source (say, the kick drum coming from another track). You assign the external source in the actual plug-in window that’s within your effects chain in Ableton. In it’s more subtle use, this can help create space in a mix between two competing elements. However, if you apply more extreme compression settings based on some other track and then mute that track you can also create pumping effects in your distorted signal that can provide desirable rhythmic qualities. Consider, for example, sidechaining your sound based on a four to the flour kick, muting the kick, and then using the “Graph” to place the “Dynamics” module at the beginning of the signal, letting these rhythmic pulses be affected by all the other modules in turn. The multiband mode allows you to apply different compression settings to different parts of the frequency spectrum of your sound. This can help us fine tune our signal, or used more creatively, lets us stack a number of the different compression techniques we’ve talked about on top of each other. Consider gating the low end band to isolate the peaks of a kick, compressing the mids to bring out some texture, and sidechaining the highs to add movement to the top end.

To check out some different uses of the “Dynamics" module, look at the “gate-fun,” “krish-sonic,” and “early delay” presets. Be sure to note where the module is placed in the graph.

7. Delay

The delay module, while not particularly complicated, provides a lot of interesting possibilities for our sound design process. To bring delay into your sound, make sure to not only turn on the “Delay” module, but also bring up the “Wet” slider, so you can actually hear the effect you’re creating. The major feature to note is all of the different delay “modes” you can select between. There were many instances where I did not find drastic differences between the delay modes, and so I don’t have a huge sense of hierarchy or preference when it comes to them. The most notable difference appears to be in the way the “Trash” setting interacts with the different delay modes. For the first three modes (“Tape,” “Tape/Tube,” “Analog”), the “Trash” setting will increase the distortion and saturation of the repeats, whereas for the second two modes (“Lo-Fi Digital,” “Broken Bit”), the “Trash” setting will begin to break down and degrade the sound. Again, many times these different settings will not overwhelmingly change the sound, but it’s always worth quickly clicking around between them to see if any particular setting better brings out the specific tonal qualities you’re looking for. Additionally, I should briefly mention the high/low pass filter at the top of the “Delay” module, which I often use to remove the delay from the very low end of my sound.

My favorite thing to do with the delay is to drop the “delay” time very low (<50ms) and then slowly increase the “feedback.” This creates a sort of resonance that can often bring metallic and tonal qualities into your sound. This sort of technique is actually similar to what is going on in the “Convolve” module, and so it gives us another place to play around with that sort of sonic quality. Dialing in the right “delay” time and “feedback” settings can do a lot, but changing the position of the delay in the graph really expands our possibilities. I already mentioned putting the “Delay” module before the “Trash” module, but I’ve been especially interested in putting the “Delay” module before the “Dynamics” module so that the compressor can really bring out the delay tails. Finally, consider where the “Delay” module is in relation to the “Convolve” module as our delay can give us a sort of second chance to apply these sorts of resonant convolution effects. To check out some different uses of the “Delay” module, look at the “synth-eater,” “metal-krish,” and “big808” presets. Be sure to note where the module is placed in the graph.

8. Automation

A quick note on automation: while Trash 2 does not have assignable LFOs or Envelopes within the plug-in itself, you can automate certain parameters from within Ableton. To do this, first click on or change the parameter that you want to automate within the Trash 2 pop-up window. Then go to the Ableton effect window (in the effect chain of the track at the bottom of the screen), which has a big black XY square with a yellow dot on it. Click on one of the dropdown menus below the square and you should be able to select the parameter that you just clicked in Trash 2. From here, you can automate the parameters as normal, or even better, bring in the Max4Live LFO or envelope to control these parameters. Automating certain parameters can have really extreme effects (i.e. automating the “delay” time) or create more subtle movements in the sound (i.e. automating the mix slider in the distortion stages of the “Trash" Module).

9. Bonus Tip: User-loaded Convolution

There’s one final element to Trash 2 that doesn’t really have all that much to do with distortion, but is definitely worth mentioning. If you look at the top of the “impulse response” section in the “Convolve” module, you’ll notice a “load” button. This button allows you to load your own sounds to act as the response for this module. The “Convolve” module obviously already has a lot of interesting impulse responses, but most of them are focused on replicating the resonance of a particular object or space. If we begin to play around with longer or more musical samples, we can use the “Convolve” module in really interesting melodic and rhythmic ways. The following examples are best done using Trash 2 as an effect on an audio track.

There are three techniques that I’ve found particularly successful. The first is to convolve a sample with itself. To do this, place a sample onto your audio track. Let’s say we have a synth loop. Open up Trash 2 and turn off all the modules except for “Convolve” (you can add others back later, but start with “Convolve” by itself so you can see the effect). Then, for the impulse response, load the same synth loop that you placed in the audio track. This should actually end up producing a distortion-like effect on the overall sound.

The second technique is best accomplished with one percussive loop and one non-percussive/melodic loop. Let’s say we had a pad loop and a drum break. Place the pad sample into the audio track and the drum break as the impulse response. This should add a rhythmic element to the pad sound that mirrors the drum break.

The third technique is best accomplished with a percussive loop and short melodic sample. Let’s say we had a drum  break and a single note of a synth. Place the drum break in the audio track and the synth sample as the impulse response. The drum sounds in the break should now almost sound as if they’re being replaced by the synth note.

Overall, you can think about these techniques as ways to remap the texture of one sample onto the rhythms of another (or vice versa). It’s reminiscent of what you can do by pulling an external source into a vocoder, and it’s worth using Trash 2 just for this ability alone. Check out the “Convolve” folder in the sample pack for a number of different examples using this technique.

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Poetmistry is a New York based producer, poet and sound artist. His recent release My Downstairs Box (2019​-​2020) is now available on Bandcamp and check out his website poetmistry.com

You can follow him on Instagram and Twitter : @poetmistry