Drowning in a sea of possibilities

pretty much done :smiley: thatā€™s clever. quite vague :wink:

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Another article on keeping it simple

http://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-fatboy-slim-praise-you

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Thanks for this article, really cool read. Incredible to think that three smash hits like Rockefeller Skank, Praise You and Right Here Right now were produced in the same week on an Atari and S950. He really had hit on a winning formula.

Relevant bit is at the end. A little sad. But interesting that he suffers from the same pitfalls and paralysis that many of us do.

Cook now has a MacBook/Ableton setup, but admits that for him, using it means that some of the thrill of creating music has gone. ā€œIn Ableton you can just have the samples all running,ā€ he says, ā€œand you can have them all running at the same speed, you can change the pitch of them. But to be honest, to me thatā€™s lost a lot of the appeal and the excitement of the record-making process. Which is one of the reasons why as a producer Iā€™ve become increasingly less prolific because I just donā€™t get excited about pushing a mouse about and looking at Ableton and thinking, ā€˜You can do anything, youā€™ve got everything right there in front of you.ā€™

ā€œWhen I was limited to the record collection and samples that I had, and the three synthesizers that I had that I knew inside out, that directed a certain course of where I could go with it. And it would be exciting to be bending the rules. But now everythingā€™s laid on a plate for you and thereā€™s too much choice. Before it was like, ā€˜What can I get out of a 909? What can I get out of a 303?ā€™ Now itā€™s like youā€™ve got every single synth under the sun you can call up. I kind of donā€™t know where to start.ā€

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Haha
I just know what I want.
But thereā€™s always a chance of a unexpected GAS :smiley:

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Would love to have a play around on a 1200! The filters and converters on that thing probably go a long way towards making things sound amazing. And the size of it must feel like sitting at a cockpit.

Iā€™ve been craving a looser feel these days so had my eye on an SP-404, but then realised that the drum sampler on the OP1 can be used in much the same way (resampling and banging out entire sections of tracks). Probably the Octatrack is great for hiphop as well if you twist its arm a little.

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909 kit on the 2000xl and live sampling in this video. You can do it ! This thread reminds me of picking one machine and just getting stuck in it. With ableton push 2 the trick is to limit your tracks so you are forced to build around those limitations

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I feel like often itā€™s a self imposed limitation when trying to achieve some form of creativity. Itā€™s like you hinder the process from the start by unconsciously trying to ā€œmakeā€ something, as opposed to letting it happen naturally.

If you view the process as something that you need to make happen, with certain expectations and therefore projecting yourself into this future state, youā€™ll be blocked. Fear, uncertainty and constantly double checking yourself. Then, when you do get blocked, other nagging voices will chime in that youā€™re not making use of this expensive gear, which makes you feel ever more negative.

Of course you can only do one thing at a time, which is why itā€™s possibly easier to limit the toolset to a few items, rather than endless possibilities.

But possibilities are endless, which is the beauty of it. You just have to go with whatever flow comes at this very moment, no judgement or second guessing.

ā€˜Get out of your own way,ā€™ as Alan Watts would say.

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^ Nailed it. Too much/too little gear is rarely/never really the problem. Humans just amass a bunch of weird psychological baggage that sometimes adds an unnecessary weight to the act of creativity. No hangups = no problem :slight_smile:

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Yeah. And the irony here is that those words came just as I was experiencing a wave of OP-1 GAS ā€¦

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Wowā€¦what a great thread.

The concept of ā€œdrowning in a sea possibilitiesā€ is not something new and can be applied and extended to outside the music & production world. Iā€™m only mentioning this because I think we take for granted how fortunate we are to be living in a time where we have an abundance of excellent gear to play with at significantly more affordable prices than back in the 60s/70s/80s where the first analog synths would set you back thousands of $$$ rendering them inaccessible to the average citizen.

Too much indulgence can obviously steer away the focus but the benefits of having this choice far outweigh the negatives. I am not a musician in the sense I donā€™t earn money from it. But its a ridiculous hobby and like @123alastairj I love to have the option of moving from one piece of kit to the next. "I need a fat basslineā€¦ hmm shall I use the A4 or maybe the Perfourmerā€¦ nah, today I will use the AJH Minimod and route it through an Eventide patch - glorious.

As a gear junkie, synth geek, hobbyist composer/producer/musician/sound engineer and former DJ that loves ALL music and all music related things - I am personally grateful to be living at a time that allows me access to so much gear.

Regarding drowning in a sea of possibilities, I am far more concerned with the social implications outside the music world where apps like Tinder (which admittedly work for a lot of people) can sometimes lead to the ā€œgrass is always greener somewhere elseā€ mentality - a far more dangerous form of endless possibilities.

Anyway, for me buying, selling, trading gear is a lot of fun and an experience that has allowed me to better understand myself and my sound. I had a friend I met on one of these forums say ā€œWow, Iā€™ve started to hear your 1-2 signature soundsā€ - this was music to my earsā€¦

Am I guilty of owning too much? Yes. Does it matter? No. Why? All that guilt evaporates when I switch on my machines and start jammingā€¦ Iā€™ve recently gone up to 10U on eurorackā€¦ oooh the endless sea of possibilitiesā€¦

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Haha, nothing wrong with that :wink: Op1 rules, super fun/creative/fast box that almost anyone would find useful and inspiring. Recommended :wink:

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+1 love this guyā€¦

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Dammit!

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me too :slight_smile: For years

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Early Cortini, before he went completely down the modular rabbit hole :wink:

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great article!

Of course, thereā€™s always the option of limiting yourself - even if you have a pile of kit.

A little project, where you just use a subset, is a possibility. As-is using samples from other kit where really necessary.

Look at the pianoā€¦
88 keys, and for over three centuries people come up with new, sometimes amazing sounding tunes.
Thereā€™s a reason some call it the black and white sea of infinite possibilities.
Itā€™s all in your head. Let it out.

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i think marketing has become (it was alreadt, so even moreā€¦) a great tool to make people believe they need something newā€¦every year? and so are most people willing to spend/invest money in something newā€¦something that should ultimately make new music, make a phone call sound better, open new frontiers and and andā€¦rrightā€¦
in the end music is music, regardless of how many/which machine(s) you useā€¦but sure is, at least from my view, necessities can be created even when people donā€™t need anything else/new and sure thereā€™ll be someone in need for something newā€¦and maybe sell it after a couple of months? (and the circle starts again) - as already mentioned in previous posts, take a piano player, or a bass/guitar playerā€¦
to me, whatā€™s important is ultimately the end resultā€¦things can be done in many different ways and you donā€™t always need the latest technology to achieve thatā€¦sometimes youā€™re not getting anything new from it, other than a different looking box which in the end, does the same things you could do years before? but of courseā€¦this one looks better, nicer, fasterā€¦ :scream::grin:

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