KVR Audio

very angry mobster · Post by **very angry mobster** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 6:24 am

"electronic music is just an exploration of electronic instrument technology".

I read something along those lines here a while ago and it’s been in the back of my mind ever since. I haven’t made much electronic music lately but when I do start writing again, I think my approach is going to be a little different. Rather then just using an instrument for it’s sounds, I’m thinking about the capabilities of each instrument and how that will influence the music.

What do you think about it?

shannon

carlos · Post by **carlos** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 7:56 am

I've been going through a phase where my tracks sounded like one long evolving pad, no structure or planned direction, happy (or unhappy) accidents occuring, I still enjoy pressing one note with layered synths when I'm relaxing (with some keys played over the top) but that's relaxing (I suppose similar to being stoned!) but I feel I'm cheating to say these are tracks as such!

very angry mobster · Post by **very angry mobster** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 8:50 am

yeah, synths are a great way to relax, they just sound so big when stacked together. I often relax with a simple sine wave like sound and a delay.

isdjan · Post by **isdjan** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:42 am

veryangrymobster wrote:yeah, synths are a great way to relax, they just sound so big when stacked together. I often relax with a simple sine wave like sound and a delay.

you should like "waiting for the night to fall" by depeche mode then

carlos · Post by **carlos** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:51 am

is it possible to get away with pressing one sustained note live (stacked synths)and tweaking parameters and still be classed as a (ambient)keyboardist?

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 10:58 am

suppose it depends on whether you want to be known for something or you just want o do it?

by this i mean i doubt anyone who sees me at play would ever call me a keyboard player to be honest im not but saying that doesnt stop me wanting to hear the sounds i make.
so dod what you do and ignore the labels,altho if you really wat a lable your an "ambient soundscaper"?fits better than keyboard player in my eyes.
the main thing is enjoy what you are doing

thats where soul comes into it its not about tools used

carlos · Post by **carlos** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 11:22 am

I guess I've seen too many mid 70's keyboard players wearing flowing gowns (you know the one!) and seen hawkwind too many times!!

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:22 pm

hehe as long as you avoid a gold cape i think youll be ok

carlos · Post by **carlos** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:04 pm

I'll get me cape!

shamann · Post by **shamann** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 2:45 pm

veryangrymobster wrote:Rather then just using an instrument for it’s sounds, I’m thinking about the capabilities of each instrument and how that will influence the music.

That actually sounds like my idea of electronic music. I don't think the exploration of technology and soul are mutually exclusive.

I'll give you an example:

I was listening to John Oswald's Plunderphonics album this morning. One of the things that struck me, if you listen to Pretender (the Dolly Parton track) it's amazing how much simple tape manipulations changes your perception of the music. There's lots of social ideas to be sussed from plunderphonics, but there simple musical ones too.

For instance, it's amazing how quickly he goes from high pitch to reaching Dolly's actual voice, and you realize just how high-pitched her voice really is. When it slows down to a snail's pace, Dolly's voice still sounds natural/human, especially when you contrast it to the background music which is very distorted when that slow.

It's all what you make of it. No doubt the statement which got you thinking was in one of the battle threads recently.

Amazing that after living with the technology for over a hundred years, we still have these battles over its interest. You'd think we'd get tired of it and just get on with things. Every instrument available to us offers something a little different, the best music we have really gets to the heart of the unique qualities of instrumentation available for plunder.

Cheers,
Steve

androidlove · Post by **androidlove** » Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:55 pm

I've been piling together rhythms, and synths. It's melody, harmony, and atmosphere. Ppl call it scary. I use it as inspiration for my guitar stuff.

I used to like scaring ppl. Now I just try to get them to come out of their shells.

very angry mobster · Post by **very angry mobster** » Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:10 am

I must have missed one of the great moments in synth history because i've never heard of anyone wearing gold capes... oh well...

Shamann - there are a couple of little bits on one of sigur ros's albums that change my perspective of the music in a similar way. At then end of one track there is some effect (i can't remember what, maybe a distortion effect) which effects the audio as a whole rather than an individual instrument. It has the effect of suddenly changing my perspective of the music from a 4 piece band playing in a room, to that of 2 channels of digitised audio playing from a cd.

no, I missed the battle thread.. the statement was from a couple of months ago, I've also been reading a fair bit of electronic music history lately. (i'm writing an essay on electronic listening music for uni.) Different genres seem to have developed on the back of electronic instrument developments, dnb & the sampler, and other genres have developed by subverting the functionality of the same instruments, glitch.

I found the history lesson has made the similarities between electronic listening music and dance music much more evident.

shannon

expression/soul vs technological inevitably