Is your gear controlling you?

Octagonist · 2023-04-30T10:46:17.862Z

Pianos don’t have vibrato. Guitars can’t play slow attacks. Saxophones can’t make minor 7th chords unless you have four of them. Harpsichord only has one loudness level. Digerido is the only pre-electronics instrument to include filter sweeps in its tonal vocabulary.

Technology has always dictated the modes of expression; it doesn’t have to dictate the feelings expressed.

Fin25 · 2023-04-30T11:32:23.533Z

Monobear:

I think its called hippie

Not in England it ain’t.

generalkustard · 2023-04-30T11:41:11.761Z

Octagonist:

Guitars can’t play slow attacks

Allan Holdsworth

Octagonist · 2023-04-30T11:50:37.901Z

generalkustard:

Allan Holdsworth

I’ll have to check him out…

what_lives · 2023-04-30T12:05:27.564Z

Octagonist:

Guitars can’t play slow attacks.

Unless you use a volume pedal. Or simply rock the volume knob while playing.

I get your point, though.

Jeanne · 2023-04-30T12:24:32.093Z

I impose my will on the gear.

elxsound · 2023-04-30T12:36:46.512Z

I like the timing of this thread… this weekend, and likely through the week I’m trying out generative music techniques with modular.

This is all about deep diving what I have and to get out of my comfort zone. I’m pushing to learn new techniques, and experiment with different styles (I tried ambient about a week ago) with the goal of having more freedom easily to create whatever I hear when ideas spark.

I never felt that gear forced me play a certain way. Different gear has different workflows but working around limitations can be one of the most creative sparks.

Making covers of other songs is absolutely a great way to find the limitations and the workarounds.

Monobear · 2023-04-30T12:51:24.722Z

Yeah but England also still has King Charles so…

cutlery · 2023-04-30T12:55:47.404Z

I think it is impossible to create entirely unconstrained by tools; whatever the medium or tools may be.

Moreover, the more a creator is able to do that, (and, to the extent they can create while utterly unconstrained by convention as well as technique), the closer to the desert of absolute freedom (that Jenkinson mentions) they will be.

You only have so much decision power in a given day, it is sometimes efficient to cede some of that decision power to guardrails that already exist from your tools.

CCMP · 2023-04-30T13:22:42.943Z

The key thing is ‘what is your objective?’.

There are really only 2 options;

To have fun and entertain yourself, less fks need to be given.
To entertain others and/or stimulate them emotionally, as an artist… then fks do need to be given and you need to find a way of expressing yourself(and your own personality) through your music and the gear you choose to use.

…

People get into quandaries (like this thread) when they’re hanging between 1.01 to 1.99.
The quicker you can land at 1 or 2 the better.

If you’re making music with specific gear, let’s say it’s a Digitone… then it’s ‘voice’ is already widely known to others, way more than yours as an individual… so you have work to do to sound unique.

If you use your own speaking/singing voice in recordings, it’s instantly your own and unique to you, so it’ll carry your unique personality/signature from the off.
With using gear it takes more music to establish your own voice… you need a body of work to let that voice/style/signature come through and for you to overpower the gear.

GurtTractor · 2023-04-30T13:35:28.241Z

I have a slightly different philosophy about creating music/art and I think there’s a third possible objective: Sometimes you feel that something just needs to exist, and you have to create it. What you create may or may not give you or others enjoyment, but that’s not the point, entertainment is a side condition. It’s not really about Us, but about adding to something bigger. Really good art takes on a life of its own beyond any individual. Just my 2 pence FWIW.

PeteSasqwax · 2023-04-30T14:04:59.155Z

GurtTractor:

Sometimes you feel that something just needs to exist, and you have to create it.

I do massively feel like this, but I also seek to make it because I want to hear what it sounds like. It’s sort of an experiment, to a degree: I want to hear the outcome of combining X elements with Y approach and Z effects

Hooked · 2023-04-30T15:08:58.342Z

CCMP:

If you’re making music with specific gear, let’s say it’s a Digitone… then it’s ‘voice’ is already widely known to others, way more than yours as an individual… so you have work to do to sound unique

Exactly

sacguy71 · 2023-04-30T15:11:39.800Z

I quit buying gear for three reasons:

To avoid debt
to master my past setups and not hoard gear
to finance other critical items like home repairs, taxes and new home gym equipment

Zero regrets and have had the chance to try other new gear at friends places. Also have realized that I only need a few pieces of gear to do 90% of music creation.

Unifono · 2023-04-30T15:17:39.034Z

CCMP:

If you’re making music with specific gear, let’s say it’s a Digitone… then it’s ‘voice’ is already widely known to others, way more than yours as an individual

Only to us gear nerds.

sacguy71 · 2023-04-30T15:50:28.388Z

so true and I never even knew what synths were made to produce 80s new wave music until lot of research into gear from bands like New Order and Depeche Mode. A lot of Roland Juno type synths that surprised me how basic their setups were just a Roland Juno and drum machine and sampler. These sold millions of hit records.

Raeballz · 2023-04-30T16:19:07.069Z

I tend to avoid personal posts like this, but I let my gear control me occasionally. The elektron devices are ripe with odd and beautiful sound spots which I’d struggle to discover without the machine in question. Anyone who’s sat down with the OT or A4 can probably agree that they’ve ended up twisting a track into something unpredictable and otherworldly via a mistake, or plain old sonic exploration.

The sonic exploration bit is the thing that catches me. It’s nice to ride around an audio landscape, tweaking and morphing for hours, slowly slipping into the realms of the unknown. I don’t often record whilst in this place, but I really should as it tends to resonate with me emotionally… but I’d rarely call it music that I’d like to share with others. I feel they’d be unlikely to appreciate it, as it’s more a memory of me releasing some emotions than music. I just use this time to learn the tools I’ve got, improve sound design skills and most importantly, to unwind.

If I’m trying to build a track I’d like others to hear, I’ll incorporate the more musical aspects of previous sonic exploration sessions in with the track. If I’d never spent the time letting myself be taught by the machine and learning how it works, I wouldn’t be aware of the massive number of tools and options available to me, already at my fingertips.

obscurerobot · 2023-04-30T16:34:59.182Z

jamiemellor:

Most of the music I listen to is simple and stripped down, totally unlike the music I’m making, and it dawned on me that I’m not controlling the boxes, but they are controlling me.

I have observed the following creative meta-process in myself and others:

Obtain a new piece of equipment or adopt a new workflow incorporating existing equipment
Explore the new process/equipment as much as possible, pushing the limits where possible
Back off from the experimentation
Pick the essential elements and make use of them to create art that is interesting on its own

A good example would be using all of the OT’s or MD’s LFOs. You should try that at least once to see what it’s like. After that, you probably won’t do it again. Or maybe you see through the mess into something that is interesting. Then you tame the wild LFOs to make something truly amazing.

I know my TR-8s can do far more than I ask of it, but I don’t feel bad at all using only its front panel controls 90% of the time. I will occasionally make a few tweaks here and there, but the MD offers so many more possibilities. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your gear is key to using it fully.

That said, there are instruments like the Lyra-8 where the player acts more like a medium or interpreter. The Lyra-8 is always in the driver’s seat, and that’s fine. That is what the Lyra is.

DJSpaceP · 2023-04-30T16:35:59.248Z

It’s a bit of both, for me. I tend toward specific dance styles like nu-disco, house, a little robot funk, and even some synthwave.

While the styles I like tend to remain intact while working on my Elektrons (DT/DN/ST), the workflows and sounds of these boxes will often lead me in directions I might not have thought of, or I’ll find happy accidents that enhance the basics of what I’m doing.

I will say, with some of the latest features, such as the arranger and the new machines, I’m finding it easier to work more in-the-pocket of the structured song styles I prefer. But I still love the organized chaos these machines are capable of when needed.

Side note, @Jeanne has recently created some amazing sound packs for the Syntakt that are pulling me in a bit of a heavier industrial direction on a couple of things, so even something like inspirational sound sets for a piece of gear can have an influence on what a person is creating musically.

Hinterlands · 2023-04-30T16:58:57.828Z

I regularly feel pushed towards complexity with gear that can do a lot, but recently I’ve found the joy of using simple sounds. A track I was working on recently needed a little extra body, so I turned on my Waldorf M. Normally I would be tempted to make a super complex pad because the M is great for that sort of thing. So, I fired up an initial patch with the plan of sitting down and programming something, but then I realized the initial patch on the M was perfect for the track; all it needed was a little bit of release on the envelope.

So yeah, sometimes simpler is better, and also complex instruments can still be used for simple sounds.