I’m not sure I’d include Cuckoo in that statement. While I’m not a fan of his genre he’s clearly an accomplished instrumentalist, gigs fairly frequently etc. I’m not sure what criteria we’re applying to consider someone ‘really a musician’ but he’s more a musician than I am 
10 Likes
Eh, I doubt Cuckoo would have much of a career in music if he wasn’t so closely related to Elektron. I guess a “true” musician makes their living from playing or making music, as opposed to amateurs or media personalities such as Youtubers who make their living off making music related videos for youtube.
Then again this is all relative and I’m not sure about the exact definitions myself. As I said, it’s a fine line and this distinction didn’t really exist 5-10 years ago. In the end, who cares?
why not?
They create music and play instruments.
what classifies someone as musician? do they have to be successful?
you can be a musician without being professional. it‘s a beautiful hobby
16 Likes
Well no, see my post from above. I would just classify them as media personalities or entertainers solely because that’s their main gig and how they pay the bills.
Still the best ATC vid
4 Likes
Lots of “real” musicians have ‘non sens’ works to pay the bills…they still being musicians even if they don’t get any money with his music…Imho
4 Likes
I think the thread is gonna get derailed…
It’s pretty insulting and it’s incorrect to claim ‘someone’ is not ‘something’ because they don’t do that thing specifically as a paid professional.
If that was the case then ‘I used to be a musician’… though I am a multi instrumentalist and have had a career as a professional musician and still spend a shit load of my time in a studio making music I am not a musician anymore…
Seriously wtf kind of logic is that?
5 Likes
I meant the statement as a response to the critique to Andrew Huangs lack of production skills, not to demean him or anyone else. Anyone who plays an instrument can Call themselves an amateur musician. When you actually Make a living from playing music, you become Professional. Both are just as real as far as I’m concerned.
Mmmmmakes me think about YT exploits… 1 account with plenty Elektronauts posting little jams only Elektron gear (all levels) = xx vids/week.
No ads, for the culture only.
2 Likes
honestly those things exist because there are different kinds of people in the world, and something becomes popular when like minded individuals become aware of its existence. I know it’s not a romantic answer but that really is all there is to it so I don’t fret when I see something that wasn’t made for me I just look at something else, but I am grateful that everything isn’t for everyone because if you think a 4/4 kick is boring it would be far worse if everybody just wanted to create and experience the same thing.
However I could always go for some better tools to help me find the kind of stuff I like on youtube
1 Like
I would not say that he has no production skills, he is doing a lot I think, The style of music is a matter of taste of course. And everyone who makes music is a musician of course, why not. We are not talking about names for professions here. If i drive a car, I´m a car driver 
And I also recommend not to put anyone down here. Even thou all those youtube synth show guys are not making music I would listen to.
second that. it is more about the question: why is the boring stuff so successful which leads to more boring stuff being produced. Of course there is good stuff also to watch, but not that much.
1 Like
I think the trick is in the finding rather than the amount on hand, because I figure the boring stuff is not boring to the people that find it exciting, and then if you add the amount of people who find it boring watching it on top of the people who don’t find it boring watching it that comes out allot of people watching it…probably if everybody spent more time focusing on what they were into instead of what they are not into and let the people who were actually into said whatever it was just have it then more stuff the people who weren’t into some other stuff would have to be into
I know it’s silly but if you shine the light you have on more of what you like then you’ll end up seeing more of what you like. Ironically I just went through this recently, I wanted to listen to psychedelic soul and was dissatisfied with what I was listening to, but the problem was that I was listening to more prog rock, instead of just listening to more psychedelic soul lol
Ive sampled some synths recently that I’ve sold and its only the night before I’m letting them go that I find the time for a few hours to sample them and run them through a pedal or two… it’s surprising what you can come up with under some time pressure.
I’ll still find a way to piss around with some of it for a year or two tho…
Against the Clock should implement a 2:00 penalty if an artist uses 4 on the floor kicks 
3 Likes
I’d agree with you in part. ATC doesn’t work for a lot of peoples way of working but sometimes it’s awesome to watch. I end up skipping through or just not watching a lot of them. There are some really interesting ones: cant mind the guys name but he had a wall of old school oscillators like 60’s transistor computers, that was mental.
People like challenges.
This is my favourite one
1 Like
I disagree. I don’t really care for Andrew Huang’s music or his channel, but I can’t deny that he has skill as a producer/mixer. He is also very knowledgeable about synthesis and makes these concepts easily digestible to the common person. I’ve noticed that he has a subtle presence on the lines forum and sometimes inquires about production techniques and gear recommendations, as any us might do… To sum up, both Huang and Coockoo are like any music enthusiasts/musician on this forum, they just happen to have monetized YouTube channels that are relatively popular. You don’t have to care for their musical sensibilities to acknowledge that they are actual musicians.
but to address the original post. I agree that a lot of the ATCs I’ve watched have been rather disappointing. It seems like the pressure to make something digestible within a short timeframe becomes a creative block for many of the artists on the show, so they end up playing it safe and revert to a standard 4/4 kick (no offense to 4/4 music btw. There is still sonically interesting things to be said within this time-signature).
5 Likes
FJAAK litterally made a track in ten minutes and published it on their album.
You must be at least 3 to do that I guess.
3 Likes
This was 1 of my favorite ATC’s…
But did they seriously “literally make the track in 10 minutes?” I know they performed it for their ATC session, but I didn’t think it was completely improvised & created on the spot… I would be really impressed if that was created right then on the spot without any type of reherseal.
1 Like
Well… The modular has a few cables plugged. The synth was ready for the session obviously… It depends on what you mean by “created on the spot”… starting from a sine wave?
I meant they created a complete 10 minutes tracks with intro-build up- peak-outro in ten minutes, not just a loop, or a loop they quickly transformed into a track.
I love how they seem to hang out in the studio, sometime they’re like “What’s up with the MPC…? oh no let’s see what’s going on by the modular…”