Writing and producing fantastic music is hard enough even before you consider what you could do to further process, mangle, and manipulate the music once it’s already created. But in taking, reslicing, and repurposing audio, both that you’ve made yourself or music you’ve found or sampled, completley new sonic aesthetics, vibes, and genres can emerge, and it is on such frontiers of sound that a choice few artists’ careers are made.
So it’s no wonder why so many producers strive to find the uniqueness in their productions that glitch-styled plugins and effects can offer. While many plugins and VSTs are on the market for this purpose, too many create such a garble of noise and static that almost any sort of sound or sample you run through them is useless.
So, let’s dive into the short list of plugins, VSTs, and effects I’ve used over the years and break down what makes them unique, why you should use them, and how they differentiate themselves from the other options on the market. But before we do, let’s take a quick moment to address some of the more commonly asked questions about glitch music, plugins designed for glitch effects, and more.
How Do Glitch Plugins Actually Work?
Glitch plugins are powerful tools designed to inject a dose of unpredictability and creativity into your music. By manipulating audio in ways that mimic digital errors or intentional distortions, these plugins can transform mundane loops into complex, rhythmically interesting songs. For instance, they can slice, dice, warp, and mangle audio, creating everything from subtle movement to wild, chaotic effects.
The process involves segmenting audio into tiny bits or “grains,” then rearranging, modulating, or entirely altering these segments in real-time or through predetermined patterns. This technique enables producers to craft unique textures and rhythms, pushing the boundaries of conventional sound design.
Glitch plugins often work with audio transients and MIDI inputs, offering tremendous flexibility in triggering effects. Whether syncing with the beat of a track, reacting to dynamic changes, or being manually controlled via MIDI, these plugins adapt seamlessly to various production situations, such as creating leads, making never-heard-before drum patterns, or FX. Some even allow for detailed wave editing, enabling users to sculpt the effect.
Whether used sparingly for subtle texture enhancements or employed heavily to create a sonic landscape filled with digital artifacts, glitch plugins serve as indispensable tools for producers looking to explore the limits of electronic music production.
How To Actually Get Usable Sounds Through Glitching
In my production work, I’ve always been fascinated by the ability to create unique ear candy elements that JUMP out of the speakers, so I’ve gravitated towards glitches in my music, albeit used sparingly. The process of glitching isn’t just about creating random noise; it’s about sculpting sound with precision and creativity. Mr. Bill’s “Mudpie” method is probably about as best of an explanation on how to make and use glitches as one could ask for and involves manipulating a set of macros within an instrument rack and resampling the output, resulting in an infinite array of sonic variations.
By slicing these “Mudpie” clips into tiny, distinct sections, I can introduce uniquely textured audio pieces into my tracks, making the sound design process infinitely more enjoyable and expansive.
This approach allows me to take the already intriguing “Mudpie” sounds and warp them even further, adding layers of granular texture that perfectly complement the base sounds. The granular effects serve as an excellent tool for filling spaces within a mix and help craft atmospheric intros, bridges, and outros, enriching the overall sonic landscape of my projects.
Additionally, incorporating glitch plugins such as Glitch 2 across entire tracks introduces a cohesive array of artifacts and blips, tying the whole production together with a signature glitchy aesthetic.
In the words of Kyral X Banko:
“As aggressive and face-melting as glitched-out music can be when you hear it live in the club, the production side of it requires painstaking attention to detail. There simply aren’t any cutting corners when it comes to making amazing glitches in genres like Glitch Hop, Trip Hop, Dubstep, and other genres of bass music.” – KYRAL X BANKO
Fracture
One of the trickiest things I’ve found about making glitch hop, or even just using glitches in my music, is how meticulous the entire process needs to be. Infected Mushroom once said that they spent days handcrafting slices and glitches to get the desired effect they wanted in one of their tracks, which inspired the creation of another plugin that I’ve included on this list. Still, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
And while I know full well that plugins have come a long way in expediting this process, they still can be overwhelming with the options they give you to cut, slice, and manipulate the glitches and audio.
But not Fracture!
GlitchMachines’ small, simple, and punchy plugin is my go-to tool for quick glitches. I love it more when I want the glitch effect to complement the rest of the music instead of being the central focus. If I wish to the glitch effects to be the hook or main element, I’ll use a more robust plugin on this list, but for the small details that accentuate the texture or aesthetic the a track, this is one of the plugins I reach for most consistently. If you want a free and even more simple alternative, consider snagging their Hysteresis plugin from there website as well.
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TimeShaper 3
Having tried out a TON of different glitch plugins and effect sequencers in my tenure as a gear reviewer, I’ve concluded that these specific types of effects are a bit like modular synths; they’re great toys to experiment with, but (trigger warning for all your modular nerds) rarely are good at making music the masses want to listen to.
But TimeShaper 3 is the exact opposite of that, and is one of the powerful plugins on this list for not only shaping a sound into sometime completely different but also effects the rhythm quite heavily so that it can add new levels of swing and groove to an instrument, group, or sample.
Also, the visualizer helps you keep track of how the audio is being manipulated, a creative feature I came to love while messing around with this plugin during the short trial period that I was noodling on.
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I Wish
I’ve always considered Infected Mushroom one of the defining musical acts in all genres of experimental dance music. Each of their songs is different, and they constantly push the boundaries of what technology can do to music. As I mentioned above, it took them countless hours in the studio individually slicing micro edits of vocals to create the lead sounds in the hit track ‘I Wish,’ resulting in a heavily affected and glitchy style lead.
And they didn’t want other producers to have to go through this same tedium, which is why they developed, alongside Polyverse, this vocal-freezing plugin takes micro snipets of a vocal (or any loop really) and repeats them so fast that they take on a pitch of their own. While I tried not to include too many granular plugins in this article, as they deserve a list in their own right, I did want to give this fantastic plugin a shoutout just because it can make some super robotic pitch slides and glitches out of samples and loops.
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SANDMAN PRO
My favorite thing about this humble little plugin is its powerful modularity, which most of the other plugins on this list omit entirely. It opens up a ton of functionality, creativity, and originality for anyone willing to go down the rabbit hole of connecting the correct wires to unconventional modules in this plugin. And while it comes in stock with many great presets, any producer who uses this plugin certainly will develop their bank of unique presets as well, as it rewards you for experimenting.
I create a completley new patch every time I open this plugin.
Another absolute game-changer feature that I’ve been using all the time with this plugin is the reverse and no-echo features, which allowed me to create punchy reverse sounds out of the loops and glitches without having to tame long delay tales (if I wanted that effect, I’d bust out Crystallizer!).
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Instalooper 3
Instalooper 3 is another plugin that rewards those who want to get into its weeds. It’s probably got the most robust automation system and loop length potentiality out of all of the plugins on this list. This is the best plugin if you’re looking to turn a primary loop into a whacked-out, glitchy, texturally dense hook or supporting phrase.
And while this plugin has a ton going on underneath its hood which makes it not for the faint of heart, once you’ve learned it like the back of your hand it has the potential to be the de-facto plugin for making glitches on stage or as part of your live performance. It’s far more musical than other comparable plugin like Stutter Edit and Effectrix (which are included later on in this list, and each have their own set of X-factors of course).
Don’t be fooled by this plugin’s rather sterile GUI, as it’s one of the more powerful glitches plugins in the music production world.
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TANTRA
I love experimenting with glitch effects, but I don’t love adding one wrong parameter or effect and having the volume jump so drastically through volume or ear-ripping distortion that it hurts my ear drums. It happens all the time, and at best it’s annoying and at worst it’s cumbersome having to fine tune the other parameters to accommodate the volume jumps (like reducing the gain by hand).
But the fact that Tantra is a robust multi-effects plugin with a suite of master-chain tools like a brickwall limiter, dry/wet controls and more really allow you to go crazy with the effects and sequencing in the plugin’s core without having to worry about blowing our your ear drums.
The dry/wet feature is excellent in its own right as well, allowing you to gradually automate the effects throughout the song so that there is little modulation of glitchiness during the dense parts of an arrangement but become automated up during the builds and transitions so that during a sparse breakdown section or build the sounds become heavily affected, distorted, and come alive with tasty glitchy movement.
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Sugar Bytes Effectrix 2
Sugar Bytes is back at it with a long-overdue update to one of the most iconic multi-effect sequencers ever made. Effectrix was a powerhouse plugin that set the standard for what these glitch and effect plugins should be capable of, and the second iteration improves upon almost all of what made the original so great.
I appreciate the subtle enhancements and quality-of-life improvements that make the experience even more rewarding. Small but significant changes, such as the ability to resize the plugin window, facilitate the precise adjustment of effects. This feature is equally useful on a larger screen, enhancing usability. Moreover, the ability to chain Effectrix 2 with other plugins and adjust the plugin window size greatly simplifies fine-tuning parameters across different plugins, significantly improving workflow efficiency.
Finally, I love the addition of the Choas parameter.
Instead of doing all the trial and error by hand like in the original version you can get the plugin most of the way there and then start letting the Chaos feature do the rest of the heavy lifting to create wildly different iterations on the plugin’s output.
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Izotope Stutter Edit 2
Here’s another iconic plugin with a new facelift and a second iteration.
Because Stutter Edit 1 was another one of those plugins where you never knew what you would get out of it. Sometimes it would create incredibly complex and intricate glitches that were begging to be used, but more often than not you had to wade through a lot of crazy and useless scratch glitches to find the gems. But Stutter Edit 2 ramped up the usability and musicality of the plugin.
Even better, the new addition seems easier to load on the CPU. I was using Stutter Edit a lot back in the day, and granted I have a much more powerful computer now, but the couple of cut outs and blips I got from the CPU strain using the first one made me way too nervous ever to use it in a live performance setting. But the smooth and CPU-friendly Sutter Edit 2 is ripe for on-stage manipulations and glitches.
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Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
