Techniques that everyone loves but meh you out?

[DJSpaceP]

Okay, pet peeve time…

YT videos of some modular jam where $20K worth of gear is used to produce 30 minutes of the same pattern and sounds for the entire session, and the YouTuber is occasionally twisting a knob or changing a filter cutoff or changing a patch cable while staring at you through the camera like they are somehow revealing to you the secrets of the universe.

If I can skip to any part of the video with no significant differences in groove or sounds, I feel like someone is trying to troll me.

Either that or I’m going to need some serious mood alteration to get on that wavelength.

I’m not talking about anyone here (that I know of), this is just a trend I’m seeing.

I’m glad they’re having fun and exploring their creative muse with all of this, I just don’t necessarily want to watch and listen to the same noisy generative percussion sequence for the length of 6 or 7 songs.

[DJSpaceP]

Those people suck and must be stopped!

[J_C_SelectorV2]

@Udi9

Live looping - looping is one of my favorite techniques (I always have a looper in my setup) and it’s obviously a very broad subject, but it seems that a lot of creators’ narrowed it down to “pharse looping” or a “one-man-band” type of thing, which is so fuc*ing boring.

I have a few pieces of gear that got a Looper in a firmware update but I hate them.
I’d like to hear other ways you might use them (maybe start a new thread)?

[Scot_Solida]

Wow, that could have been my list, item for item.

@darenager

Compression: rarely use it as effect, rarely on main mix, I tend to use for mainly bass and drums individually.

Sidechaining from kick/pumping: just annoys me, I think it is a cliche that should have died in the 90’s.

Huge reverb/shimmer: messy slush that I rarely like the sound of unless on the very few occasions that it is applied well on ambient stuff.

Random/chance: I mostly find it annoying unless used in a subtle way and mostly on percussive elements rather than melodic stuff.

Arpeggios: when they are obvious sound tedious, I rarely use them as most are a bit crap, they have their use but not a staple for me.

Over warble: nothing against a bit of vibrato or the occasional bit of tape warble to add a bit of character, but overdone sounds too cliche, same for too much noise being added to tracks to add faux vintage vibes.

[JamesM]

Macs
PC’s
Shimmer

[RobertSyrett]

Also mixing! I want all of my sounds to be on separate recordings like different dishes in a bento box!

[GirTheRobot]

Well you’re in luck! We got:

• Dark Ambient
• Melodic Ambient
• Ambient Techno
• Ambient House
• Eno Ambient
• Ambient Metal
• Ambientcore
• Ambientgaze
• Shoeambient
• …Ambien!

and many more…

[GirTheRobot]

@Udi9

Live looping - looping is one of my favorite techniques (I always have a looper in my setup) and it’s obviously a very broad subject, but it seems that a lot of creators’ narrowed it down to “pharse looping” or a “one-man-band” type of thing, which is so fuc*ing boring. especially the ones who jump between multiple instruments or do those cheesey vocal harmonies.
I think that live looping in general is something that has not been explored enough and there’s a lot more to find in there.

totally agree

like when i go into a coffee shop and the acoustic songwriter dude has a looping pedal it’s like…oh look he’s going to start with a kick, then a chord progression, then he’ll sing some lyrics…

X25 SONGS

[hyperstationjr]

I can’t stand those tiny blippy percussion the sounds like you sampled the smallest matchbox in the world. I’m looking at you early Múm. Have a sandwich and put some meat on those drums.

[djadonis206]

Analog. Anything analog.

Like it. But, really…

It’s a lot of work to make that stuff sound modern. At least for me.

[Skintechnician]

My biggest annoyance is the running of a finger/hand across trigs 1-16 to turn on/off hihats. It’s so played…

[captain8]

I’m learning that for me personally a lot of joy is lost in listening to music that is composed with patch innovation being the priority rather than the song writing, it’s a little hard to quantify/articulate but suffice to say that I don’t care whether anyone in the world has heard the patch before or if the song utilizes the oldest patches known to mankind, don’t care if a song is comprised of nothing but presets or rocket science-try etc… I just care about how the song sounds.
when I hear someone describing a song in patches I feel like they didn’t even listen to the song.

[DJSpaceP]

Yes, the inherent limitations of all the songs following pretty much the same build-up, plus the inability to do any kind of varying song structure is often why I dread seeing someone start in with a looper like that.

I’d much rather the performer just play and sing minus the gimmickry, because there’s inherently more freedom to do some serious song craft, with a varied set of more interesting songs that won’t get repetitive.

[GirTheRobot]

I 100% agree and it’s why i’ve never played with a looper pedal in those settings.

[digiwut]

People who take the plastic off their Elektron screens.

[digiwut]

People who leave the plastic on their Elektron screens.

[Microtribe]

@brodykauff

the amen break.

Not into jungle then?

[graverubber]

b sections

[Cepheid]

@digiwut

People who take the plastic off their Elektron screens.

3+ years on my Machinedrum.
2+ years on my Digitone.

I can’t bring myself to remove the plastic, I’ve tried talking myself into it before.

[Eaves]

What’s wrong with b-sections?