Ed O'Brien’s Ethereal/Atmospheric/Ambient Sounds

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how Ed does what he does. Initially spurred on by the following question, I’ve written something with a wider scope and decided to make it a standalone blog post. In this post, I pay particular attention to Ed’s techniques on Lucky, Videotape, All I Need and Nude. I hope this clears up most of the questions about Ed’s ambient sounds.

Ed with his “Sustainer” Strat: a Fender Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster fitted with a Fernandes Sustainer System and a black pickguard. This was Ed’s most heavily used guitar from 1996 to 2012 (the sustainer was fitted circa-2002), and the Fender “Ed O’Brien Sustainer” Signature Strat draws heavily from it.

“You mentioned the EHX Holy Grail reverb pedal, but I see no other mentions of reverb. What does Ed use to obtain the large atmospheric reverb sounds?” - Anonymous asker.

Firstly, he has also used a Boss RV3, which can be found on both one of his 2000-2001 and his 2011-2012 pedalboards (though it may have been a Boss RV5 in 2011-2012).

But in truth, Ed’s large atmospheric sounds are not reliant reverb at all, although sometimes augments them with the effect. Such sounds simply cannot be achieved with reverb alone. Effects wise, the foundation of his ambient sounds is almost always a combination of multiple delay units. He then adds to the character of those sounds with distortion, compression, and other means, but multiple delays (at least two) are the most important factor by far.

So Ed stacks a couple of delays, turns on some other effects connected before the delays, and violà: huge, complex walls of sound emerge! But Ed does not simple create washes of sound: he has been doing this for decades and is familiar with the particulars of each effects pedal that he uses and of the subtleties involved in combining those effects and creating something that fits a song. For example, each delay is set to a very specific time so as to interact with the others in specific ways. On Lucky, Ed strums above the bridge of his guitar on every eighth note. Without any effects, this would result in a fairly simple and discordant sound, but with a couple of Boss delay units set precisely to create a particular rhythm, he creates a very interesting sound. Another important part of his delay sound is his EHX Deluxe Memory Man, which is nearly last in his signal chain. Its placement allows him to use it to add modulation (chorus/vibrato) to his swells as well as extra delay (I believe that this is used on Staircase, set to Vibrato).

A photo of a section of Ed’s pedalboard in 2012.

But Ed’s parts often don’t just sound like guitar with a lot of (finely tuned) delay. One way in which he does this is by combining other effects with the delay. This can be heard vividly on live performances of Videotape. The foundation of his sound on that track is a couple of delays, one short (probably a DD5) and one long (probably his DMM), both with a bit of feedback. But to make things more interesting, Ed uses his Cry Baby Wah pedal to alternately emphasize the upper and lower frequencies. The wah is positioned earlier in his signal chain than the delays, so when he adjusts the wah’s treadle to make the pedal emphasize lower frequencies, one can hear the higher frequencies slowly fade out in the delays, while the newly emphasized lower frequencies persist. This can heard from ~4:17 to 4:23 in the From The Basement performance of Videotape (also, watch this video). Ed exercises fine control of the volume of the swells on Videotape through his playing technique, which I will discuss later in this article. Ed also uses his Digitech Whammy IV pitch shifter, set for an octave up, but the key to that sound is the combination of emphasizing different frequencies with the wah pedal and adjusting playing volume with his fingers.

At other points, Ed utilizes the guitar’s volume knob or a volume pedal to control the attack and decay of his guitar – making it sound more like strings or a synthesizer. This can be seen most clearly on All I Need (From The Basement). On that song, Ed probably does not have a delay set to 100% wet, since the main guitar sounds too much like itself (rather than only sounding like the delay), but the foundation his sound is his guitar. The Fernandes Native Pro has a special magnetic “Sustainer System” (similar to an Ebow) which allows notes to sustain indefinitely. Ed never needs to pluck the strings; he can hammer-on a chord and it will sound for as long as the chord is held, and he can even slide between notes and chords for glissando effects.* On All I Need, Ed uses the volume knob of the guitar to swell sustained chords in and out, giving them a smooth attack and decay. In conjunction with effects, the sustainer system is what makes his guitar sound sort of like reverb – instead of a sharp, distinct attack, the instrument fades in and out. The use of the volume knob allows Ed to control exactly how quickly the instrument swells and decays. The main effects used on All I Need are distortion and delay, and one can achieve a similar sound with just these and the volume knob or volume pedal to mask the sharp attack of the guitar. However, the guitar’s natural decay will make it impossible to exactly duplicate Ed’s playing without a Sustainer System or Ebow.

*Ed has an almost identical system from Fernandez fitted into two of his Fender Stratocasters, and those are used more often for this sort of sound.

Ed with his Fernandes Native Pro in 2012. Note that he has strung only the bottom three strings of the guitar with extra heavy gauge strings.

Ed exercises extra control over his swells and atmospheric sounds through his picking/plucking technique. Much in the same way that Jonny creates filter swells on Lucky, Ed uses playing dynamics to change the volume of his walls of sound. A particularly good example of this is Nude (From The Basement). From 2:10-2:36, Ed strums quickly in a simple up-down motion with his thumb. In conjunction with his delays, the result is somewhat reminiscent of a violin section playing tremolo. Nude also has an example of Ed making his swells more interesting with other effects. At 2:25, Ed activates his Digitech Whammy IV to shift the chord that he’s strumming up an octave – recalling the high violins that enter at that point on the album recording (although I think Ed’s playing is layered with the strings on the album).

Ed has used these methods, with various subtle differences, on a huge portion of Radiohead’s output – it might be easier to list the songs on which they were not used to some degree. Ed has used a lot of different effects pedals for the same types of effects over the years. To see how he achieved a very specific sound during a specific year, the best option would be to look at the corresponding pedal board (all of them are listed on his page in chronological order) and to see which pedals (or rack units in the earliest days) are the likeliest candidates. Of course, as Ed himself has shown by his frequent changes, the specific delays themselves are not nearly so important as being able to use the pedals effectively.

[Last edited Oct 11, 2017.]