If you’re bored of using the same sounds as everyone else then considering layering sounds. It’s an extremely useful technique to achieve interesting results with little effort and investment.

Yesterday I created a guitar solo for the intro of the new song I’m working on and recorded two versions of it. The first one using an eBow and the second one using a tremolo effect with the pick. I couldn’t decide which one sounded better so I tried layering them to create a unique texture as the two sounds complement each other. The eBow’ed sound hasn’t got attack but rather sounds like an orchestra while the tremolo version has more dynamics and attack. If I used only one of them the sound would be more easily recognizable and mundane but using both in two separate channels with the same effects blends them and creates a unique sound. I used a similar technique in the song “Come back brighter” where the main bass line was created using a sampled bass sound and a sampled rhodes electric piano to achieve a thicker an more distinctive sound.

Many times when we wonder how some artist achieved a particular sound in a record and start thinking about buying new instruments or that piece of gear which will surely create that special sound consider instead whether the artist used layered sounds.

A good example is Air’s “Sexy Boy”. Throughout the intro and chorus there’s a layered bass (synth+electric) but once in the verse the synth bass dissappears to create space in the mix for other sounds which changes the song’s mood and we can hear the electric bass on its own. Combining the two sounds creates a thickness that otherwise would be difficult to achieve using just one instrument. The layering creates the sound that makes us instantly recognize the song every time we hear the first notes of it.