Futuristic music and synths

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

These days a lot of talk is about retro synths, analog synths, emulations and remakes of classic synths. To me electronic music was always about the future and new sounds, sounds that didn’t sound like they could be made before. So I think the point of this thread is to ask and discuss:

What music do you think sounds futuristic and cutting edge these days?

What are the modern day synths (hardware) that are forward thinking and innovative?

I’ll start off by suggesting Arca as a producer/musician who makes some pretty novel sounding tunes. As for synths, I’m not really sure, I have a feeling that vsts are much more a source of innovation than hardware these days.

Edit: maybe modular synths are the real innovative sound making machines these days.

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#2

To me the synths are tools, it’s the user that creates what happens.
A hammer is not far from it’s inception, but the things created with it these days are still forward thinking.
I would even say somethings that are old, still haven’t been used to their complete potential.

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#3

I agree with that.

But I would also answer more directly Autechre (Arca is nice, yeah), some iPad apps, OT (still) and modular (and virtual modular).

But an OB6 still sounds incredible.

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#4

When I saw this thread title, I immediately thought of a couple of “futuristic” gadgets in Korg Gadget - because Korg describes them that way, they look the part, and they have this dubsteppy “future” sound, that’s so unabashedly h-ifi and digital.

#5

I’m pretty sure all of the major methods to synthesize sound have already been developed and are well documented. Moving forward, I believe it’s an issue of sonic sensibility and how culturally, as a society, we will reflect this in music making. What we do with what we have and how we will make it “interesting” is what will make it “futuristic.”
On the other hand – yes, synthesizer form factors will change and likely reflect higher functionality (with a matched usability/complexity).
I mean if we’re talking about hardware, then DAW-like depth is the end goal. DAWs have everything you could/would ever need to synthesize sound and compose music.

#6

I think the ol human vocal chords still have a lot of stuff nobodies cut tracks with yet…
Increase the possibilities with a nice fx chain, sample and play with keyboard, run through more fx…

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#7

Good call

I have a hard time choosing music that sounds “future” without thinking of something cliche.
This one song came to mind that DJ shadow was playing at some Miami club years back when they told him to leave. He get’s on the mic and says something like, “I guess my music is too future for ya’ll”

I’d have to say the OT is pretty innovative. Many different ways to use it as well.
I love the OP-1 too.
The modular realm definitely seems to be an interesting place, I just could’t get into it.

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#9

Many of the sounds I associate with being futuristic, are the same types of sounds that artists in the 70’s and 80’s used in an attempt to be futuristic. Sounds such as synths with big filter sweeps, lasers, heavy use of effects like delays, phasers, etc. I think that this is because the sounds used to portray the future in moves and TV shows are generally pretty similar to the types of sounds that would have been used for Sci-fi movies in the past.

There is definitely a ton of cool and innovative gear out these days and so many different ways to achieve those types of sounds. Modular systems, the digitone, octatrack and other elektron gear, granular synthesizers… anything really if you use your imagination.

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#10

What if in the future people tend to like stuff that sounds older so if we try to make futuristic sounds now they will seem older in the future because older is the future and newer was in the past?:joy:

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#12

Exactly what I was thinking. Technically, music made with the most cutting edge, new technology would be the sound of the future… but it might not actually sound futuristic. Where as something like Jean Michelle Jarre is a futuristic sound to me, and yet it is old news!

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#13

Human perception of time though, it’s tiny.

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#14

The Haken Continuum definitely has some fresh soundig noises coming out of it, even before you start any deep programming of it. The sound engine is very closely connected to its interface and sounds somewhere between electronic and electro-acoustic.

And this is where I hope synths are heading - towards more expressive sounds. Having more processing power to do complex and expressive sounds means being able to do new sounds that have almost acoustic qualities to them. Autechre does it with Max msp.

Also machine learning can help make programming easier for us that don’t have engineering knowledge. Maybe one day we will have an FM synth with tens of ops that analyse an input and recreates it for us… For example.

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#15

Drexciya will always be the future https://youtu.be/V7G6MnqmBOc?t=15m34s

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#16

What kinda future are you going for?

Utopian? Dystopian? Retro-Future(IE: the future they predicted in the 60s-80s(Technicolor Reality))?

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#17

I want to see more synths with inovative interfaces, stuff that taps into expression in the way traditional instruments do. I quite like the idea of a hybrid synth with a string based sound source, something you can pluck or use like a violin but them manipulate with modern digital techniques.

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#19
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#20

Erect!

Vaguely reminds me of a Guitorgan

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#21

I was just listening to Les Chants Magnétique yesterday and thinking along the same lines (and there’s a neat bit of environmental sound sampling in there too).

#22

A lot of old 80’s electro and techno still sounds futuristic to me, some Aphex stuff does too, Legowelt, Arpanet, Drexciya, doppleffekt et al, but I think I am more biased toward retro-futuristic :smile:

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