 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Forums - Music techology
Subject: anyone else ever wonder?
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 11
Original Message Date: 19-Mar-04 @ 08:13 PM - anyone else ever wonder?
this is a post I threw up somewhere else. Didnt know what forum...go ahead and razz me if you think I chose the wrong one:
"I just spent the last few weeks doing some major changes in my studio setup. soundproofing, new desk, new audio interface.
and now I cant write jack shit. Ive had less and less hardware over the last few years, and my output has dropped significantly. The sound quality is much _cleaner_ now, and I have far more power at my disposal than ever before, but...
everything feels so cold and clinical now! That feeling of grabbing my old akai AX-60, juno106, waldorf pulse...gone. Now its just a mouse and a screen. I still have my virus of course, but somehow even that isnt as exciting anymore because I just make some sounds and then record them into cubase.
some of you are gonna shit their pants, but I actually kinda miss sequencing in midi. I dont miss HW sequencers, but...my old Atari Falcon! Yes, Im serious.
midi sequencing, realtime mixdowns (sending to effects, channel fades, playing with mutes)
I know Im definitely going against the grain here, as everyone is so in love with all that computers offer (heh, the thought of not having a UAD-1 anymore gives me the shakes I tell ya!)
but...anyone else think that maybe, truly, honestly, technology is slowly but surely removing the humanity from the music making equation?
Im not only talking about the "anyone can do it" aspect even though that is clearly true, but...just..the spontaneity, the hands on feel? the..."realness" of it?
oh and btw...nectarios..PLEASE...we know where you stand so...if youre gonna pull the "digital sucks" thing..just save it, ok? "
(the last part is for this guy there that CONSTANTLY throws his "yeah well, my ____ analog sounds WAY better than ____"
gets fckin old, so I dropped a preemptive strike on 'im
"I just spent the last few weeks doing some major changes in my studio setup. soundproofing, new desk, new audio interface.
and now I cant write jack shit. Ive had less and less hardware over the last few years, and my output has dropped significantly. The sound quality is much _cleaner_ now, and I have far more power at my disposal than ever before, but...
everything feels so cold and clinical now! That feeling of grabbing my old akai AX-60, juno106, waldorf pulse...gone. Now its just a mouse and a screen. I still have my virus of course, but somehow even that isnt as exciting anymore because I just make some sounds and then record them into cubase.
some of you are gonna shit their pants, but I actually kinda miss sequencing in midi. I dont miss HW sequencers, but...my old Atari Falcon! Yes, Im serious.
midi sequencing, realtime mixdowns (sending to effects, channel fades, playing with mutes)
I know Im definitely going against the grain here, as everyone is so in love with all that computers offer (heh, the thought of not having a UAD-1 anymore gives me the shakes I tell ya!)
but...anyone else think that maybe, truly, honestly, technology is slowly but surely removing the humanity from the music making equation?
Im not only talking about the "anyone can do it" aspect even though that is clearly true, but...just..the spontaneity, the hands on feel? the..."realness" of it?
oh and btw...nectarios..PLEASE...we know where you stand so...if youre gonna pull the "digital sucks" thing..just save it, ok? "
(the last part is for this guy there that CONSTANTLY throws his "yeah well, my ____ analog sounds WAY better than ____"
gets fckin old, so I dropped a preemptive strike on 'im
Message 11/107 20-Mar-04 @ 01:37 AM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
the thing is that computers just are not that much fun to jam on. great composing tools, but there's just something about getting totally stinky on hardware, jammin knobs, buttons, sliders, and the visual thing as all these little lights and screens talk to you while the circuits sing. You know it's true.
Ape
Ape
Message 12/107 20-Mar-04 @ 01:57 AM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
yeah, Id have to say I agree.
its all about the middle ground, I know...just gotta figger it out.
thinking about it doesnt help, thats for sure
btw...trippy track you posted with the evolver. a bit too...heh...techno...sounding for my tastes, but interesting for sure
its all about the middle ground, I know...just gotta figger it out.
thinking about it doesnt help, thats for sure
btw...trippy track you posted with the evolver. a bit too...heh...techno...sounding for my tastes, but interesting for sure
Message 13/107 20-Mar-04 @ 02:17 AM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
for me its the leds. And the rack mounting. I mounted my computer in a rack so I would like it more. Helped a bit. I like the compartmentalized nature of hardware. a dead hd isnt going to kill everything. And the OS of hardware doesnt decide to fart for like half a second randomly every now and then. And I'm not tempted to email or play games or surf the internet on my hardware. and installing a new piece of real hardware doesnt affect everything else in a bad way if the drivers arent completely friendly. I mainly like the pretty lights though. The pulsating LFOs of the virus are great. Reminds me of the space shuttle console I always wanted when I was a kid.
Message 14/107 20-Mar-04 @ 02:21 AM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
yeah, snowboarding, or a trip somewhere. clear the old head out. gotta have shit that inspires you to play. I like bangin' on shit. bang on yer bass!
Message 15/107 20-Mar-04 @ 02:59 AM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
i think with hardware it's this sense that you're almost surrounded /
outnumbered sort of and it's like okay> you little fokks....you're gonna listen to me> and they're blinking back at you going huh?!
you got this mess of wires and they all gotta go somehwere and end up making sound.
whereas with the software stuff.....all these things are already in their box pre-cabled for you...they're not gonna jump out at you or surprise you tooo much.
it really is psychological but sterility of environment may be conducive towards creativity for some but a doctor's office is not where i prefer to rock.
thinking back on the crazy energies of the animals, hendrix, stones....imagine richards out of his mind with a cig dangling as he mumbled through his wailing riffs and...mick pouting and rambling.....all in a doctor's office?
i don't think so.
maybe you oughtta think in terms of trying to wreck the place.
outnumbered sort of and it's like okay> you little fokks....you're gonna listen to me> and they're blinking back at you going huh?!
you got this mess of wires and they all gotta go somehwere and end up making sound.
whereas with the software stuff.....all these things are already in their box pre-cabled for you...they're not gonna jump out at you or surprise you tooo much.
it really is psychological but sterility of environment may be conducive towards creativity for some but a doctor's office is not where i prefer to rock.
thinking back on the crazy energies of the animals, hendrix, stones....imagine richards out of his mind with a cig dangling as he mumbled through his wailing riffs and...mick pouting and rambling.....all in a doctor's office?
i don't think so.
maybe you oughtta think in terms of trying to wreck the place.
Message 16/107 20-Mar-04 @ 04:17 AM Edit: 20-Mar-04 | 04:26 AM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
you're right Influx. Wrong forum. This belongs in the PC Music forum.
Hope that helps :P
Seriously maybe things would've been different for me had I had space for things like a Juno and a space where I could really play out without worrying about neighbors. Maybe things would've been different if I had someone to seriously collaborate with and learn from to fill in my weaknesses and visa versa. But apart from those 'might haves' I don't think music is going to die because it's become computer do-able. In the last few years those of us who've been working on music via puter have kind of been the guinea pigs for a totally new era which is just beginning to arrive. I think with P4s and directX 9 things are starting to get there. Certainly in 50 years nobody would think of doing music another way except for the odd collector here and there. Personally, although my tracks have sucked, I still love doing music on a computer.
But still none of the last paragraph changes the fact that this belongs in the PC Forum.
Hope that helps :P
Seriously maybe things would've been different for me had I had space for things like a Juno and a space where I could really play out without worrying about neighbors. Maybe things would've been different if I had someone to seriously collaborate with and learn from to fill in my weaknesses and visa versa. But apart from those 'might haves' I don't think music is going to die because it's become computer do-able. In the last few years those of us who've been working on music via puter have kind of been the guinea pigs for a totally new era which is just beginning to arrive. I think with P4s and directX 9 things are starting to get there. Certainly in 50 years nobody would think of doing music another way except for the odd collector here and there. Personally, although my tracks have sucked, I still love doing music on a computer.
But still none of the last paragraph changes the fact that this belongs in the PC Forum.
Message 17/107 20-Mar-04 @ 09:41 AM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
Purple Haze
Posts:
Link?: No link
File?: No file
I don't know if this belongs in the pc forum.
Last time I moved (year and a half ago) I didn't hook everything back up. Not even half of the channels on my desk (24 mono 4 stereo) are in use right now. My equipment takes about 7-8 square metres of floor space and it will have to be cut down to about 2 because in a few months I'm going to be a dad and my working space will be moved to the living room because I want to give the kid it's own proper space right from the time it's born.
This means having to really cut down on my equipment, leaving 1 or 2 keyboards, getting a smaller rack with wheels I can slide under the desk and probably getting a smaller mixer too. But then, I haven't been using much of it lately so although it emotionally sucks that I'll have to make music not surrounded by my gear, practically it's what I've been doing for the last one and a half year.
And although I've missed for example the crunchyness of my roland W30, I can't be bothered anymore to convert every sample to 14bit/30Khz W30 format, put it on floppy, load it in the W30, make a program for it before being able to use it. Or when I want to work on another track taking 30 or so minutes to write down mixer channels/patches used/fx box settings and adjusting everything for the new track. It feels like having to do a total check up of your car each time you want to drive it.
Now, am I less productive ? I guess not. I've never been very productive though. I also never confined my ideas to 1 genre but have made triphop, trance, techno, dnb, idm, breakbeat, ambient...
Ohwell... I'm babbling here. Basically what I think I want to say is that 'real' gear gets the creative juices flowing more easily and works faster in the heat of the creative process, but the software aproach works easier and faster in general.
Unfortunately the best ideas and most exquisite moments in a track are being created in the heat of the creative process.
I think also that part of the problem of the soft-studio is that there's so much softsynths and fx around, and if you translate the average soft-studio to a 'real' equivalent you're probably in a room full of gear where most of it only gets used for one track or even never at all, and everytime something new gets released that looks halfway decent it's added to the room and you can't help playing with it and a lot of time is wasted just keeping the room tidy and playing with the new equipment. I sometimes think for example my zoom 1201 fx box, althought it's noisy, is the equivalent of at least 20 fx plugins, while the zoom only has 6 knobs and 1 switch, 20 plugins are a lot messier (and even slower) to work with. But you can use a lot of them at the some time while there's only 1 zoom 1201 (well, actually I've got 2 but you get the point).
I *think* that the future in software studio's lies in softsynths/samplers/fx having a dedicated hardware control surface. Not just some general knob/slider box but more dedicated control gear. Or maybe modular systems with sliders/knobs/buttons/leds/lcds so you can design your own control surface.
Summary::
I'm full of shit... it's too early to think clearly... need some coffee first... I don't have the answers Influx, but I know what you're saying.
Last time I moved (year and a half ago) I didn't hook everything back up. Not even half of the channels on my desk (24 mono 4 stereo) are in use right now. My equipment takes about 7-8 square metres of floor space and it will have to be cut down to about 2 because in a few months I'm going to be a dad and my working space will be moved to the living room because I want to give the kid it's own proper space right from the time it's born.
This means having to really cut down on my equipment, leaving 1 or 2 keyboards, getting a smaller rack with wheels I can slide under the desk and probably getting a smaller mixer too. But then, I haven't been using much of it lately so although it emotionally sucks that I'll have to make music not surrounded by my gear, practically it's what I've been doing for the last one and a half year.
And although I've missed for example the crunchyness of my roland W30, I can't be bothered anymore to convert every sample to 14bit/30Khz W30 format, put it on floppy, load it in the W30, make a program for it before being able to use it. Or when I want to work on another track taking 30 or so minutes to write down mixer channels/patches used/fx box settings and adjusting everything for the new track. It feels like having to do a total check up of your car each time you want to drive it.
Now, am I less productive ? I guess not. I've never been very productive though. I also never confined my ideas to 1 genre but have made triphop, trance, techno, dnb, idm, breakbeat, ambient...
Ohwell... I'm babbling here. Basically what I think I want to say is that 'real' gear gets the creative juices flowing more easily and works faster in the heat of the creative process, but the software aproach works easier and faster in general.
Unfortunately the best ideas and most exquisite moments in a track are being created in the heat of the creative process.
I think also that part of the problem of the soft-studio is that there's so much softsynths and fx around, and if you translate the average soft-studio to a 'real' equivalent you're probably in a room full of gear where most of it only gets used for one track or even never at all, and everytime something new gets released that looks halfway decent it's added to the room and you can't help playing with it and a lot of time is wasted just keeping the room tidy and playing with the new equipment. I sometimes think for example my zoom 1201 fx box, althought it's noisy, is the equivalent of at least 20 fx plugins, while the zoom only has 6 knobs and 1 switch, 20 plugins are a lot messier (and even slower) to work with. But you can use a lot of them at the some time while there's only 1 zoom 1201 (well, actually I've got 2 but you get the point).
I *think* that the future in software studio's lies in softsynths/samplers/fx having a dedicated hardware control surface. Not just some general knob/slider box but more dedicated control gear. Or maybe modular systems with sliders/knobs/buttons/leds/lcds so you can design your own control surface.
Summary::
I'm full of shit... it's too early to think clearly... need some coffee first... I don't have the answers Influx, but I know what you're saying.
Message 18/107 20-Mar-04 @ 10:51 AM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
you know...part of it?
musicality.
somehow...direct interaction seems more conducive
Im really diggin clay's analogy about the doctors office. Like back in the 50s when they were testing psychedelics, and they were doing it in these white, clinical rooms...
errr...ok.
"think about breaking stuff"
"bang on your bass"
yup...back to square one, sorta?
d...Ive talked to you about this shit..and its not a new mindframe for me. I think too much, I know
musicality.
somehow...direct interaction seems more conducive
Im really diggin clay's analogy about the doctors office. Like back in the 50s when they were testing psychedelics, and they were doing it in these white, clinical rooms...
errr...ok.
"think about breaking stuff"
"bang on your bass"
yup...back to square one, sorta?
d...Ive talked to you about this shit..and its not a new mindframe for me. I think too much, I know
Message 19/107 20-Mar-04 @ 03:40 PM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
another thing i recommend for inspiration is to break out-of-the-box for musical inspiration by listening to stuff from foreign sources. styles of music which you haven't paid close attention to.
right off the bat, i'd recommend a fair dose of african music....and i'm not talking reggae. the way rhythms and melodies interweave in surprising manner....often around very basic motifs.
this might inspire some experimentation on your own.
another thing i recommend is simply playing the keys with no beat or nothing but the simplest of beats.
stop writing tracks for a minute and simply make music. explore. enjoy the process of making sound happen on the black&whites as if it's ALL ABOUT learning new things.
when you get fired up by some small discovery (and sometimes it comes down to two notes)....then go for it....build on that.
then wreck the joint.
to put it simply...always try new things.
right off the bat, i'd recommend a fair dose of african music....and i'm not talking reggae. the way rhythms and melodies interweave in surprising manner....often around very basic motifs.
this might inspire some experimentation on your own.
another thing i recommend is simply playing the keys with no beat or nothing but the simplest of beats.
stop writing tracks for a minute and simply make music. explore. enjoy the process of making sound happen on the black&whites as if it's ALL ABOUT learning new things.
when you get fired up by some small discovery (and sometimes it comes down to two notes)....then go for it....build on that.
then wreck the joint.
to put it simply...always try new things.
Message 20/107 20-Mar-04 @ 04:15 PM - RE: anyone else ever wonder?
and if african music is too inaccessible for you....there's always a lot to be gained from a good dose of the celtic.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... 11
There are 107 total messages for this topic
Reply to Thread
You need to register/login to use the forum.
Click here to Signup or Login !
[you'll be brought right back to this point after signing up]
Back to Forum
