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

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…

onthebannedwagon · 2023-04-11T17:02:09.620Z

protrusion:

There used to be these places called “places” that people would go.

Those were the days.

Uhh, face to face communications? Wow. That’s just crazy talk.

the_duckchild · 2023-04-11T18:43:36.056Z

But this is not how garage or dubstep happened.
Garage is not slowed down jungle, it is sped up Masters At Work B-Side dubs and Todd Edwards rip offs.
Certainly some of it’s popularity came because jungle raves had got a bit violent and dark and lacking in any women, but the music didn’t come from people slowing down drum and bass.

Gqom might be “shuffled minimal techno”, but the “shuffled” means it isn’t minimal techno. Also, the culture is from Durban, not Berlin. So it’s not really the same thing is it? I doubt the people making it were trying to make minimal techno.

But taking that aside…very single genre is built on a bit on what went before. House is just disco with drum machines. Disco is just funk on a load of cocaine. Funk is just slowed down Heavy soul, soul is just Gospel lyrics to Rhythm and Blues that’s had a bath, Rhythm and Blues is just sped up jazz played by drunk people. Jazz is just displaced African music. Basically, it’s all just banging two rocks together - there have never been any new genres!

the_duckchild · 2023-04-11T18:54:47.672Z

Those vintage mid 90s Akai samplers everyone likes are going to really show the mid 90s a thing or two!

onthebannedwagon · 2023-04-11T20:29:33.173Z

I would put all my energy into being a hype man and get a pair of maracas before Bez did.

NRain · 2023-04-12T07:49:36.034Z

I would give birth to a new futuristic genre called “Flippin through presets and remixing the same track endlessly”

Cosmic · 2023-04-12T08:11:59.242Z

I am actually the ghost producer for Orbital, so no.

SKull · 2023-04-12T20:34:31.086Z

It wouldn’t help me at all.
The best tech can’t compete with lack of ambition and general lazynes.

Jigs · 2023-04-12T20:42:58.434Z

No!

But if I brought my 30 year ago self, with no internet and no guidance back then, but some good ideas and drive to now, then maybe I could put some of those good ideas towards making the kind of music I was listening to then, and still am.