Repetition and variation

[dewgong]

Most of us at least admire Aphex Twin as a musician same with JM Jarre. Ive noticed however that their pieces have very little variety and I become fatigued by the endless looping. Compare with someone like Ryat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3INNM0xfz0
includes an improbable level of variation however. I much prefer the latter.

What do you guys think about structure and variation? How do you bring the two together?

Deru is a great example of an artist who uses looped material but constantly recontextualises that material. A 10min drum loop isnt perceived as such if its put in different contexts. There are celebrated artists like Twin who have compositions which have phenomenal sound design but which dont really go anywhere. These tracks become tiresome to me very quickly because often the structure is really rigid and the only variety comes from a little bit of modulation and maybe an added element here or there.

I love listening to Dilla BOC and the like but there are some tracks like love which just loop endlessly and by the end of 4 mins of essentially the same material with slight alterations im fed up of the motif brilliant though it may be.

[DJMashbot]

A lot of inspiration can be found by taking/making a loop, chopping it, and randomizing the order. Using an effect like sugar bytes effectrix or illformed glitch can also spice up a repetitive loop. By using a common source with a variety of modifiers, you can keep things cohesive but interesting.

[9white5]

There shouldnt be any set method everyone takes. Some people rarely repeat the same section (infected mushroom, tool, etc) Making their tracks feel more like a journey. Other artists just repeat the same loop over and over for the entire song, adding material as they go. (Boards of canada, Burial etc) Just do whatever works for you

[DJ Warmonger]

As a trance producer I loop everything, only making sure that same phrase never plays twice. This can be achieved by modulation and fades, effects (phaser, stutter, tape stop), random LFOs and sounds (granular) and of course swapping instruments in and out.

Also it's good to add or replace simple notes or motiffs here and there - but this is actually the art of composition I have yet to master

[Tarekith]

I think there needs to be a good balance of both. Overly repetitive music definitely can get a little boring over time. But on the other hand I hear a lot of bass music that has so many changes and fills every few seconds that it's hard to stay in the groove.

[chaosWyrM]

as with most things...it depends.

sometimes you want the repetition, if youre going for a hypnotic/trance (not tarnce) kind of a thing...repeating sounds def are the way to go. of course it helps to add in some sounds that may repeat...but slowly change over time.

someone mentioned infected mushroom...my main problem with them was always that they changed things up waaay too often and way too jarringly, especially for the kind of music they were making. their constant and drastic changes made it impossible for me to get into any kind of a groove listening (or trying to dance) to their music, just when you latch on to a theme...they change it, and they dont morph it into a new one...they just switch it over.

on the other hand acts like son kite and atmos change very little and do it slowly...and some people (not me) think thats boring.

philip glass has made a career out of very repetitive music.

its all subjective.