Uplifting but not cheesy

Bitsnbobs · 2023-10-08T17:57:54.989Z

I just made a dub jam and shortened a vocal saying ‘happiness’ to ‘piness’ - I hope it’s not cheesy

DavidL · 2023-10-08T18:28:58.831Z

I’m almost always better creating melodies in pianoroll with a midi keyboard or launchpad funnily enough, as i’m better at grooving and such on dawless

Started connecting a midi keyboard to my dawless setup, jam things out, then step by step inputting into sequencer with help from keyboard trying to reproduce my jams in sequences. has helped me a lot

plragde · 2023-10-08T18:37:48.002Z

Bunker:

There is no cheese…

Who moved my cheese?

Bunker · 2023-10-08T18:47:54.547Z

Ala Voodoo Ray

error.eyes · 2023-10-08T19:22:49.202Z

Hot take, but I don’t know if this is possible to learn without fully embracing cheese. Making emotional music involves emotional intelligence, and I think emotional intelligence involves being in tune with all kinds of emotions, knowing how they feel, and being able to express them through music. It’s about empathy and vulnerability.

Enrico_Pallazzo · 2023-10-08T23:26:28.507Z

I love cheesy techno:

johnbitwig · 2023-10-09T00:33:32.813Z

Juan Atkins hits it right on the spot! Uplifting, but not cheesy. Flash Food is a good example

Perhaps experiment with melodic basslines, add groove and do some Juno strings on top. In Flash Food he literally “lifts up” the chord/strings sound with a bend.
It’s a good track.

J3RK · 2023-10-09T03:53:03.335Z

Maybe try some Oliver Klein.

gekkonier · 2023-10-09T04:51:09.936Z

Don‘t delete, instead do it! There is nothing wrong to do what you’re unconsciously do (as long you do no harm to people who don’t like it)

chaocrator · 2023-10-09T05:19:19.096Z

upcheesing

jiffybox · 2023-10-09T05:30:04.936Z

image736×668 114 KB

Matoshi · 2023-10-09T07:45:43.028Z

Embrace the cheese!

Some of my stuff is Full Solid Cheddar!

Bitsnbobs · 2023-10-09T08:40:25.011Z

Yeah something like that

Bunker · 2023-10-09T09:34:32.768Z

To be fair Gerald ran out of sample memory, or that’s how the story goes. Either way it worked!

davestasiuk · 2023-10-09T19:17:12.179Z

If you haven’t already, check out pretty much any of Ehsan Gelsi’s live sets.

I think what makes his music so powerful to me is because I feel it to be optimistic and searching, and very driving.

Bonus points for being inspiring as an Elektronaut, since he sequences pretty everything from his DT, and the performances are very hands on and polished. He’s an underrated talent imo.

soulfood · 2023-10-09T19:23:26.154Z

I’m a firm believer that any melody can sound cheesy or not cheesy as long as it is paired with an appropriate sound.

Like I used to think any electronic music I made had to be 100% minor scales as I felt the major scale just sounded… cheesy.

Now I’m of the thought that it can be pretty powerful if the sound world is suiting.

That aside, my number of one way to avoid cheese is to not use all the notes in a scale. Yeh like most often I just write not thinking about the notes I use, but sometimes I get stuck and write ‘mathematically’ so to speak. When I do this I’ll set a limit like I can’t use a third and a fifth. One or neither. If I use a third in one octave I have to miss the next one but included a 9th but then have to drop the 5th.

Try it. It’s cool.

davestasiuk · 2023-10-09T20:02:48.507Z

soulfood:

Like I used to think any electronic music I made had to be 100% minor scales as I felt the major scale just sounded… cheesy.

Now I’m of the thought that it can be pretty powerful if the sound world is suiting.

Using modes can help blend as well. The mixolydian mode sits nicely…major third but a minor 7. Edited to Add: Also chord suspensions (adding a 9th or a 4th) where you skip the 3rd can imply something cheerful but still have enough ambiguity to not be overly sweet.

Also great tip on skipping a note or two in the scale.

soulfood · 2023-10-09T20:36:45.740Z

Yeh legit.

Even just switching between major and natural minor can crescendo pretty nicely.

Something I use quite a lot is having a major uplifting kind of sustained bass/drone and adding a bit of mystery with the relevant Phrygian or Locrian mode arpeggio. Like take you home but then when your feet are up by the fire I hand you a funky tea!

I need to use 4ths and 2nds etc more in chords. I do a lot of stuff with 7ths but still follows that basic stacking formula. I started using inversions a lot more and that’s pretty sweet.

J3RK · 2023-10-09T20:45:32.961Z

Dominik Eulberg skirts that line pretty well playing techy stuff, on the lighter side, without getting too far into Cheeseland. (though sometimes he does wander that way a bit)

Yes, Dominik Eulberg and Oliver Klein would be my main picks for this. Maybe Deborah De Luca?

My tastes generally lean more toward the dark and minimal, but once in a while, I love something a bit funkier, and maybe even a bit more “uplifting” maybe, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it uplifting perhaps.

I mean, when I’m in a mood, listening to Skinny Puppy cheers me up and makes me feel good and possibly even uplifted, so…

Also, while I am well aware what people think of Solomun’s DJ skills, (or perceived lack thereof) the guy knows how to read a crowd, and select for his audience, and generally keeps people moving for hours, and yes, I’d say his sets are more on the uplifting side (though definitely housey rather than techy) Might be somewhere to look.

That said, nobody puts a smile on my face like Helena Hauff. The dark goddess of Electro. Music definitely doesn’t need to be light to make me happy.

J3RK · 2023-10-10T20:54:22.386Z

Another one that I could classify as uplifting:

Zi Doctor!