How do i start?

[tarrare]

I started making HNW a while ago from found sounds/field recordings etc along with some MIDI stuff, but I'm looking to start working with synth stuff or other physical equipment. I'm young, dumb and broke as shit. Where do I start off? Thanks again

[NoiseWiki]

I started making HNW a while ago from found sounds/field recordings etc along with some MIDI stuff, but I'm looking to start working with synth stuff or other physical equipment. I'm young, dumb and broke as shit. Where do I start off? Thanks again

Well an easy way to get access to synth stuff since it appears you have a computer is to check out this thread viewtopic.php?f=11&t=328

As for hardware.. deals can be found occasionally at yard sales, pawn shops, relatives attics, craigslist, ebay, reverb, muffwigglers.com etc.

Another great option is to look into building your own devices. To that end you might want to check out books by Forrest Mims

http://www.forrestmims.com/engineers_mini_notebook.html

https://www.electroschematics.com/category/audio/

I realize that it might be a steep learning curve but it comes with a high payoff if you can get into it.

[Indeterminacy]

A proper contact mic, an ODB-3 and any amplifier.

Profit.

[RUBBISH]

A mixer of some sort.
Amp and amps and speakers and loudhorns and megaphones
Mics, vocal and whatever else you find and can afford.
Cords lots of cords and adaptors
Power strips and power supply for pedals also 9 volt batteries
Soldering iron and other tools
(electrical tape lil tiny screw drivers and so on)
Contact mics
(learn to make them..do feel free to experiment with old headphones and speakers)
Pedals...fucking pedals a whole mess of pedals.
Synths of various sort and types
Tape players and tape decks and other playback and recording devices including turntables that have numerous noise uses beyond playing a record
Acoustic objects to use with contavt Mic from tiny metal bb's in a tiny metal tin up to 55 gallon drums and dumpsters or whatever go nuts.
Tools to play above objects...drills and grinders have kinda in my opinion been done enough but also HOT METAL SPARKS are always impressive and fun.
Be careful!

Thrift stores pawn shops garage sales and auctions are all good places to find gear and other neat things.

Now
Record and release a tape.

[crochambeau]

Usually takes a few rounds of bruises and black eyes, but if you can put your finger on what it takes to keep pieces of equipment ill suited to work with one another in good operating condition without letting the magic pixies try to smoke you out everything is fair game.

Synths are fantastic, but often expensive. Aside from the obvious no cover charge digital fruit that is out there, any beat to shit bog standard keyboard feeding some gain and a feedback loop can be a delight.

Above all, have fun, keep learning, and don't let any humor deficient aspects get you down. hump

[parasitenurse]

Gen Thalz makes a couple HNW-specific synths that are pretty cool and relatively inexpensive. If youre on a tight budget tho try messing with making tape loops and a walkman, high gain distortion pedals and octave pedals. Danelectro and behringer are easily accessible and affordable brands.

[Rubby]

Don't worry about how you are supposed to start- people seem to forget that noise started by people doing the opposite of what you are "supposed" to do with anything. Your attitude/curiosity is way more important than your gear. You basically look all around you and think, what of this garbage can make cool noise and can i manipulate it somehow. As others have pointed out, you could get an entire project out of a contact mic, speaker and mixer.
Having said that, if you do wanna use synths and stuff there are those Korg Duo things that are like $40 brand new. But seriously, even if you don't learn how to solder, you can get a contact mic for $5, a distortion pedal from a pawn shop, and the only limit is your creativity.

[RUBBISH]

Don't worry about how you are supposed to start- people seem to forget that noise started by people doing the opposite of what you are "supposed" to do with anything. Your attitude/curiosity is way more important than your gear. You basically look all around you and think, what of this garbage can make cool noise and can i manipulate it somehow. As others have pointed out, you could get an entire project out of a contact mic, speaker and mixer.
Having said that, if you do wanna use synths and stuff there are those Korg Duo things that are like $40 brand new. But seriously, even if you don't learn how to solder, you can get a contact mic for $5, a distortion pedal from a pawn shop, and the only limit is your creativity.

Agree.


I had no clue how to make noise when I started I just started off by recording anything that sounded neat to me with a handheld tape recorder. Started actually cutting up tapes and retaping them together. My first actual noise release was an anti record and I had no idea that GX had already done that. I put spekaers on my old guitar and made feedback. Casio cs1 loops. Pedals? I had no idea people used pedals for noise.
I got a 4 track tape deck.
I tried and tried to get shows locally and played...ruined...open mics.

Noise is no limits
Go Fucking nuts and see what happens!

[¾ dead]

It's strange to me that so many people seem to get into noise with no idea of "how to do it", as opposed to falling into it naturally, or even completely by mistake. I think most "doers" of noise just fall into it. Everyone finds their own way.

think something a lot of people who simply "do" noise have in common is a natural fascination with sound capture and manipulation, which is devoid of any real meaning or creative pretensions. It just "feelz guud". People drawn to playing with sound will go about this using whatever is available. People like this inevitably come to discover there are entire scenes/subcultures based around the concept of "noise as music" after the fact. I think a lot of people latch onto that because it gives some level of rationality to the idea of filling up microcassettes with hours upon hours of strung-together field recordings as a "hobby" and not a form of autism or social degeneracy.

Look around you. What do you see? What is your heart yearning for? It's all there in front of you. You just have to FEEL it, and to let the feeling guide you. If it's not guiding you anywhere, ask yourself why you're even interested, and if your heart is really in it at all.

Capture and manipulate everything you can by any means necessary. Everyone and their grandma has a phone. A lot of people have multiples. Maybe try bouncing recordings back and forth between two of them. COMPUTERS! Christmas popcorn tins are endlessly useful. Drag a chair across the floor. Scream into a cup. Get a turntable and put a fork on the tonearm and play your Corelle ware. Throw water on the stove eye. The possibilities are fucking endless, and you haven't even left the kitchen yet.

IMHO, a sampler is the best kind of "synth". Loads of hardware options. Sticking with rough-and-ready means and using what you already have in a computer + MIDI peripherals is probably the best. All I ever used on my computer was a mouse. Good enough.

[NoiseWiki]

It's strange to me that so many people seem to get into noise with no idea of "how to do it", as opposed to falling into it naturally, or even completely by mistake. I think most "doers" of noise just fall into it. Everyone finds their own way.

I dunno.. I kinda assume in this day and age of the internet everybody assumes there's a tutorial for anything they're interested in and there probably is.

But yea .. where to start .. well start with anything you can get your hands on.. if you have a computer or a smart phone then you can do alot. I got my start with a guitar I bought from a guy in my dorm for $20 bucks, restrung it with bailing wire, plugged it into my shitty half broken stereo preamp, playing with an electric toothbrush my parents had bought me and recorded it with a tape deck I had probably owned since I was 12.

Buying pedals wasn't really an option.. as I couldn't afford anything.. I'd borrow equipment or invite people over to jam that had fx units.

Anyway I guess I'd say the most important thing to acquire is a way to record otherwise the sky is the limit as to what you can make noise with.