If you went back in time 30 years with your current gear, do you think you’d be a success?

reeloy · 2023-04-10T10:36:56.006Z

…exactly that question crossed my mind this winter…

sitting in front of my actual m1 mbp with bitwig 4, klakking around on my ot and st next to it, humming into my sm7 and catched me out of the sudden thinking this…

hmmmmm, what if…me, that little set up and whoooosh back to early 90ies…

oooooo my gooodness…it’s really been never that easy to sound simply good and that complexly huuuge…if my 90ies mindset would have had that gear support at all time disposal, all sonic outcome would be totally unpredictable but history changing for sure…and i had to stop picturing such a scenario right away…

PofM · 2023-04-10T11:10:35.409Z

Yeah, they invented it just after I went back in time, but carelessly bent a pin on my OT and had to sell the CF technology to SanDisk so they could build me a replacement.

Unfortunately it took them years to make one with more than 2MB, so I used my Akai rack sampler for all the hits I produced under pseudonyms. You might remember Blue by Eiffel 65, crazy frog, and Saturday night by Whigfield. You’re welcome.

circuitghost · 2023-04-10T11:19:43.417Z

It’s my life’s quest to make it work. In a rowing boat.

g3o2 · 2023-04-10T11:58:08.977Z

JohntheSavage:

In that respect, I would argue that it’s the quality of what we write that counts, not the quantity.

Quality does require quantity or, as you’ve put it, “a lot of woodshedding”. To become successful, you also need to finish what you’ve started, oftentimes, otherwise your brain develops a habit of not finishing. Eventually, we are our own biggest obstacle during the whole process.

2d · 2023-04-10T14:16:30.069Z

Unfortunately i don’t think i’d have any success because my mpc one would try to check in plugins by connecting to a server which doesn’t exist yet

sacguy71 · 2023-04-10T14:18:27.200Z

maybe a 50-50 chance as much has to do with luck and connections versus talent or gear.

Kegeratorz · 2023-04-10T14:41:25.820Z

Forget success, If I had this gear back then with all that time, energy and creativity I’d be in my glory!

ddiamond84 · 2023-04-10T16:03:05.309Z

Cool

palm · 2023-04-10T19:27:26.707Z

ddiamond84:

You have access to all the gear you currently own (minus your current laptop/phone). It all works too. Could you be a star? Could you blow people’s minds?! Would you razzle dazzle em?!

no

chiasticon · 2023-04-10T19:34:36.483Z

“guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet…”

rex_mundii · 2023-04-11T08:47:34.723Z

Kultschar · 2023-04-11T09:47:08.573Z

If only the Beatles had an Octatrack

joeyfivecents · 2023-04-11T10:10:24.734Z

yes

Phurniture · 2023-04-11T10:32:56.336Z

If only I could just go back 20-25 years to my late 90s/early 2000s studio and apply the knowledge/work ethic I now have I think I could do well. I had an embarrassing amount of great gear that I bought for cheap, but too quickly and I was overwhelmed trying to learn it all and get it working together.

TransGirlHappyHardcore · 2023-04-11T10:40:30.822Z

If I went back in time 30 years ago I’d move to England (or Detroit?) and rave till I drop.

Or maybe the fact that once you could go to raves and actually listen to good music is just a myth.

No fucking smartphones, just good techno/jungle/hardcore, rolling, dancing and lovemaking.

It probably wasn’t all that good, I have no way of knowing. But nowadays, as far as my experience goes, it’s pretty disappointing. EDM looks like a fucking fashion show.

the_duckchild · 2023-04-11T11:17:33.826Z

Surely you could simply invent UK Garage, so you’d probably be OK.

the_duckchild · 2023-04-11T11:21:49.484Z

Dubstep is emphatically not slowed down jungle. It’s dubby garage with a snare missing.
Grime is basically just stripped down garage with people rapping on it too. Definitely at least as much to do with dancehall and garage as US hip hop anyway.

I mean, everything’s just 50s R&B if you want to ignore massively shifts in rhythm, production style and culture

also, I feel like you’re ignoring at least Reggaeton (in it’s curent form) and Gqom here.

g3o2 · 2023-04-11T12:18:17.288Z

Berlin was the place to be, or so they said ‘cause of the love parade. There were no smartphones, alright, just pure natural state of mind with the uncontested ability to en-joy, completed by a sophisticated two-step dance, which had to be performed with your eyes closed, probably because it was during the night. Italian arranger keyboards with floppy disks all filled with MIDI files would progressively dominate the “live” stage.

On the other sane end of the spectrum: grunge and hardcore Doomers and Quakers pogo “dancing” around at 3 o’clock in the morning. Its foundation: rage-fuzz distorted guitars melodically accompanied by expressive yelling, later evolving into melodic grunting, and, most particularly, no synths. It appears that JD-800 and K2500 were too late to the 80’s game, or ahead of their time. Sound designers back then rediscovered the steel rod, which could be musically hit against any rusty metal structure for sonic texture. Its success has lasted until today, with physical modelling being required to capture this sonic wealth.

Luckily, Brit-pop as well as boys and girls bands saved the decade and brought it all to a bittersweet symphonic conclusion.

So going back in time for music (or fashion), with or without instruments, no way I’d set that counter to any date during the 90’s

android · 2023-04-11T14:05:32.031Z

UK/Speed Garage came directly from Drum n Bass, clubbers in the late 90s wanted a slower tempo 130bpm disco shuffle with a bass wobble to drink champagne too, because the DnB venues were going full meth head, cyberpunk with 180bpm TechStep. So yes Dubstep coming from SpeedGarage is slow DnB, take any early 00s clownstep DnB track cut at 45rpm, play it at 33rpm… instant wub wub Brostep early 90s Jungle did dubby reggae samples, pitched up RnB vocals, and bass drops a good 10-15 years before Burial inspired Srillex to hire a ghost producer.

Reggaeton is fast Jamaican dancehall in Spanish. GQom is shuffled Minimal Techno.
I have no explanation to why Gabber/Happy Hardcore is back in style as “Techno”

Fin25 · 2023-04-11T16:37:52.447Z

So you want to go back 30 years with a bunch of modern gear that is largely based around sounding like gear that was 50 quid at car boot sales 30 years ago?

Sounds like a great idea…