Actually, that's pretty much what Hendrix and the Beatles and others did, but they just turned the tape around to play it backward. If I remember properly, I think Geo. Harrison even learned the notes of a song backward, so when he turned the tape over it would have that effect, but the way he wanted it. Same basic thing, different technology.

All the notes end with a "schwuuuUTH!", or "thwaACK"because the attack is now at the end.

Perhaps you are talking about losing the attack altogether? Some guys work the volume knob. They'll hit a note or chord with the volume down on the guitar, then turn it up, usually with their pinky. Takes some practice, and a handily-placed volume knob, like on a Strat, to do that.

Alternately, you could run through a volume pedal, and back off the pedal for attack, then fade it in. Takes some coordination, but people do that too.

Some processors, like the POD, have an "autoswell" setting. The note fades in after you hit it, losing the attack, but it ain't backward.

For a true backward effect, it has to be backward so it gets that "ThwaCK" thing going.

Hope this helped.

Happy Holidays,

Kapt.Krunch

Eventide has a "Reverse" effect that will do what I think you're looking for.

Don't know if the plug-in has it... I know from the H3000 on they do.

HTH,
X

NO NO NO NO NO, what you really want to do in software is one of the coolest things you will ever hear or do. It's something we used to do with the analog multitrack tapes as well, back in the day. It was also great on the Outer Limits, Star Trek and others! Try this on vocals as well.

What you need to do is highlight and reverse the entire track that you want this "pre-sound" to occur. Once that track is reversed, add a nice plate emulated reverb with a nice tight short reverb, in stereo or mono and no pre-delay. Now render that track out to a new wave file, in stereo or mono. Once you do that, take that wave file and insert it in place of the original track. Reverse it again and voilà!!

Now take 2 hits of LSD and call me in the morning
Ms. Remy Ann David

RemyRAD wrote: What you need to do is highlight and reverse the entire track that you want this "pre-sound" to occur. Once that track is reversed, add a nice plate emulated reverb with a nice tight short reverb, in stereo or mono and no pre-delay. Now render that track out to a new wave file, in stereo or mono. Once you do that, take that wave file and insert it in place of the original track. Reverse it again and voilà!!

That's an interesting scenario. I'm going to print that out and try it on one of my more spacey tunes. Sounds like the reverb will slide in from the front, backward through the whole thing, but the original sound is still forward, by the time it's finished? I've got a long Pink Floyd/King Crimson-ish morph thing with a long intro that I've been trying to add something to because it's too static. Something like that may add some interesting noises. I may even try volume swells and THEN that...just to see what happens.

I wasn't completely sure what Dave was shooting for. I just threw a few ideas in the air to see if that's what he MAY have been referring to. What exactly DO those backward settings, like in the Eventide that was referenced, actually do? It seems it can't be real-time backward, because it doesn't know where the end of the note is, which will now be the beginning. Seems that would take the time that it takes between notes. Do you have to play to a tempo setting, or something? I've never used one.

Thanks,

Kapt.Krunch

The EventideH3000 will reverse each 1 to 1400ms of time. (user adjustable)
So the song still sort of plays in the correct order but each time interval is reversed. Naturally the longer you set it for, the longer the latency.
It's not quite as cool as reversing the whole thing, or the spacey effect that Remy speaks of,but it is another approach and can be very cool in it's own right.

RemyRAD wrote:
What you need to do is highlight and reverse the entire track that you want this "pre-sound" to occur. Once that track is reversed, add a nice plate emulated reverb with a nice tight short reverb, in stereo or mono and no pre-delay. Now render that track out to a new wave file, in stereo or mono. Once you do that, take that wave file and insert it in place of the original track. Reverse it again and voilà!!

Exactly! Saved me trouble of typing.