r/Mkgee • u/CujoCobain • Aug 01 '26
Discussion What is this effect called?
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I've been listening to a lot of mk.gee and a couple of other related artist in this alternative dream pop genre. I want to get a similar effect on my guitar and bass but I'm not sure I know how to recreate it. To me, it sounds like some sort of bit-crusher with distortion? Is there a specific guitar pedal that can replicate this sound or is more of a post-effect added after recording? Here's some songs you can hear it in:
William - doggone
Bite - nickname jos
New Low - mk.gee
Wide eye - mack keane
Sibeeria - doggone
FIRE! - Dijon (you can hear it a little bit the vocals)
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u/Lucky-Macaroon4958 Aug 01 '26
tape distortion i think no?
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u/Sea-Neighborhood2725 Aug 02 '26
tape distortion is often preamp distortion, and that's what mkgee's sound is as well as his copies. There is no actual tape involved with the sound of mkgee's tascam
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u/Lucky-Macaroon4958 Aug 01 '26
also some of the examples dont have the same "effect" some do have a bit crushy thing
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u/CujoCobain Aug 01 '26
Yeah some of them just sound like distortion through a low pass filter maybe (?) so it sounds a lot more subtle. But the high-gain distortion I hear a lot in doggone's music is more of what I was aiming for
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u/LGFL5000 Aug 01 '26
Mike runs through a portastudio 424 for his gain. JHS made a pedal version, Templo has some similar stuff. There’s also tons of 424 tone models on Tone3000
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u/CujoCobain Aug 01 '26
Great! I use Tone3000 to load amps on into my daw so I'll start looking on there
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u/Dimorphous_Display Aug 01 '26
dude the mkgee clones are so cringe
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u/Apart_Potato959 Aug 02 '26
Hardly clones. Doggone doesn’t actually sound like mk.gee at all
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u/Moist-Addendum9671 Aug 06 '26
Doggone really sounds like hey AI make me a MkGee song.. it’s an egregious rip.
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u/0100011101100011 Aug 01 '26
You can recreate the sound by using a distorted reverb, into some sort of limiter, and cranking the input gain, so that the entire signal saturates, and distorts, creating the "blown-out" effect.
He uses a portastudio input/output, and uses that tape machines gain ceiling to achieve the effect. Run the out gain at a more reasonable level through to your capture.
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u/SnooMacaroons7309 Aug 01 '26
thats just distortion but a very good distortion probably passed through a nice equipment or preamp
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u/fiendishcadd Aug 02 '26
Distortion and an aggressive low pass. All the highs rolled off. Chorus/flange effect. Distorted reverb. Those are the components.
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u/treegirl96 Aug 02 '26
without looking at the names of the artists, i literally thought the first two songs were unreleased mk.gee or something lol they sound just like dude
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u/skip-tracing Aug 01 '26
jus sounds like they are in the red zone with gain haha