I've been having an interesting discussion offline about the "confusing" nature of my recent music. A listener suggested that if it's German trance or house I'm going for, it should be more sophisticated and varied, with more filtering, pitch-shifting, layering of sound, use of quantizing to give more swing to the rhythm, and less use of factory presets. If it's conceptual art (as in Yoko Ono or Philip Glass minimalism--my examples), it should be a lot clearer that's the frame of reference. As it is, the listener says, the music is somewhere in the middle and needs to lean one way or another.
Maybe what set him off was a piece I just posted, called "Permanent Chase," which took a one bar "found" melody and pretty much beat it to death. Composing for me isn't about spending hours in the lab creating new synth sounds--it's more about taking what's there and using it to just to the point where you're about to scream and then tossing in one little change that brings some closure. Maybe with that piece I failed (too many bars before the goofy key change? maybe if snipped out about 8-16 bars?). I've pulled it pending further study 'cause I'm not sure myself.
Generally speaking, though, I like that middle ground he's talking about. My visual work has always occupied a realm somewhere between "failed commercial art" and "conceptualism that's too stupid to look at." I certainly started out doing music with that mindset. I've been grinding out so much of it lately that maybe it's starting to get "good," as in, one wants to hear it be "better." That may be the time to walk away from it. My hearing would probably thank me.
well, I hope you don't walk away from it. You sure seem to be having fun with it, and you've made some really cool stuff.
I understand better what you're going for now. And I like the concept of showcasing the 'synth sound' for what it is. Although I guess I disagree slightly about what the core 'synth sound' includes. Even the most basic presets include controllers for pitch, mod, and sometimes filters and other stuff, so I'd say that's all fair game for your composition (and doesn't require any tedious patch programming).
I guess I'm cryin because I've been using controllers (knobs and curves)--maybe not as much as you'd like. Mostly cutoff filter/resonance, some LFO vibrato and sweeps. In "Permanent Chase" I used a controller to detune one oscillator, that's how I did my "key change." The drums in "Clip City" were filtered out the wazoo using LFO to change the envelopes, and "Permanent Chase" had an intro, an outro and three 45 second "movements" each using its own distinct filter settings (the Mutator effects filter in two of them plus spektral delay in the third). Each of the five parts was mixed down separately, run through noise reduction then cross faded so it appeared to morph out of the one that preceded it. This was all in the drums. The Sid had chorus plus the detuning. I don't really like the classic pitchbend sound (makes me think of Jan Hammer in the 70s). Maybe I should be proud that everything still sounds "out of the box."
I like your music as it is, and I have also really been enjoying using your works as skeletons to remix / tweak out.
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I've been having an interesting discussion offline about the "confusing" nature of my recent music. A listener suggested that if it's German trance or house I'm going for, it should be more sophisticated and varied, with more filtering, pitch-shifting, layering of sound, use of quantizing to give more swing to the rhythm, and less use of factory presets. If it's conceptual art (as in Yoko Ono or Philip Glass minimalism--my examples), it should be a lot clearer that's the frame of reference. As it is, the listener says, the music is somewhere in the middle and needs to lean one way or another.
Maybe what set him off was a piece I just posted, called "Permanent Chase," which took a one bar "found" melody and pretty much beat it to death. Composing for me isn't about spending hours in the lab creating new synth sounds--it's more about taking what's there and using it to just to the point where you're about to scream and then tossing in one little change that brings some closure. Maybe with that piece I failed (too many bars before the goofy key change? maybe if snipped out about 8-16 bars?). I've pulled it pending further study 'cause I'm not sure myself.
Generally speaking, though, I like that middle ground he's talking about. My visual work has always occupied a realm somewhere between "failed commercial art" and "conceptualism that's too stupid to look at." I certainly started out doing music with that mindset. I've been grinding out so much of it lately that maybe it's starting to get "good," as in, one wants to hear it be "better." That may be the time to walk away from it. My hearing would probably thank me.
- tom moody 10-31-2005 1:14 am
well, I hope you don't walk away from it. You sure seem to be having fun with it, and you've made some really cool stuff.
I understand better what you're going for now. And I like the concept of showcasing the 'synth sound' for what it is. Although I guess I disagree slightly about what the core 'synth sound' includes. Even the most basic presets include controllers for pitch, mod, and sometimes filters and other stuff, so I'd say that's all fair game for your composition (and doesn't require any tedious patch programming).
- paul (guest) 10-31-2005 2:26 am
I guess I'm cryin because I've been using controllers (knobs and curves)--maybe not as much as you'd like. Mostly cutoff filter/resonance, some LFO vibrato and sweeps. In "Permanent Chase" I used a controller to detune one oscillator, that's how I did my "key change." The drums in "Clip City" were filtered out the wazoo using LFO to change the envelopes, and "Permanent Chase" had an intro, an outro and three 45 second "movements" each using its own distinct filter settings (the Mutator effects filter in two of them plus spektral delay in the third). Each of the five parts was mixed down separately, run through noise reduction then cross faded so it appeared to morph out of the one that preceded it. This was all in the drums. The Sid had chorus plus the detuning. I don't really like the classic pitchbend sound (makes me think of Jan Hammer in the 70s). Maybe I should be proud that everything still sounds "out of the box."
- tom moody 10-31-2005 3:11 am
I like your music as it is, and I have also really been enjoying using your works as skeletons to remix / tweak out.
- Thor Johnson (guest) 10-31-2005 3:45 am