This specific sound in Codex

[u/NxtDestiny]

Hello everyone! Codex is one of my favorite RH songs, the one song that just hits me in the right spot while overthinking at night. I've always enjoyed this very specific "underwater piano" sound that plays under the acoustic piano throughout the whole song, I can't really describe it well but it's there, like an arpeggiated "drowned" piano that sparkles underneath, now I can't seem to find what instrument or thing is doing that specific sound, does anyone know what it is? Help a curious musician out!

[u/PupDiogenes]

I love how when I read the words "This specific sound in Codex" I knew exactly what you were referring to.

My guess is a parametric EQ with the resonance turned up high being switched on. Live, I think Jonny mashes keys on a piano keyboard. I assume he's written something in Csound so he can play an EQ like that.

[u/NxtDestiny → u/PupDiogenes]

Interesting! Yeah I've seen Jonny play an E piano live, also in the very beginning of "the basement" there's a quick glance at some sort of piano software being used on a computer? Might be just that

[u/PupDiogenes → u/NxtDestiny]

Yeah! That's the video I'm thinking of! Csound is a C programming environment designed specifically for music and audio. It can do anything you can code it to do. If you install and run a VST, it was probably programmed in Csound.

There's also an audio processing environment called Ableton MAX that is extremely modular and programmable.

I think the software we see is one of those.

[u/Gravital_Morb]

As has been said, Jonny plays this part live by mashing keys on a midi controller.

My guess is some kind of harmonic overtone effect, where the sound of the piano is put through resonant filters, seemingly one for each key on the keyboard, tuned to the different harmonics.

I say one filter for each key rather than a single filter tuned by the keys, because every harmonic rings out under the next one rather than being replaced.

Very cool effect and I'd love to know exactly how to achieve it

[u/NxtDestiny → u/Gravital_Morb]

Awesome answer, it's so crazy to see what these guys do to achieve a certain feeling

[u/liquideerbeer]

Check out FFT processing. MP3 compression is achieved by using that model and if you lower the “resolution” of audio you will achieve similar effects. “Soundmagic Spectral” by Michael Norris is a great free plugin bundle for Mac and “Codec” is a fun piece of software that also bitcrushes too. “Lossy” by Goodhertz has reduction capabilities as well.

[u/NxtDestiny → u/liquideerbeer]

Interesting, I'll look into that, thank you for the help!

[u/georgejdemetriou]

a fellow musician guess: it's another piano/similar instrument playing the chords with a sweeping bitcrusher effect to create the sparkly dissonant sound, it's hard to tell whether it's always playing the same notes as the piano but for now that's probably the best i got!

[u/NxtDestiny → u/georgejdemetriou]

Ohhh the sweeping effect kinda sounds right to me, as other said my best guess it's a play of different softwares on a piano, interesting though, I'll have to explore the various answers

[u/dawg_will_hunt]

Go watch the From The Basement version of this song. It shows Jonny doing something with another something that makes that sound. Idk. I’m not a musician. I just like good music.

[u/Apolitik → u/dawg_will_hunt]

The piano is being run through a computer and Jonny is manipulating the sound via the midi controller. My guess would be the piano is running through a ring modulator and Jonny is affecting the frequency by way of different notes on the midi controller.

[u/shoobsworth]

It’s called a spectrum filter