Fatboy Slim thoughts about software synths

[brok landers]

Apparently he hasn't used Diva yet.

and saurus.


here we go again, this thread neeeeeeds some typical kvr spice.

[jcrisman]

All you all who use hardware or software are little more than Johnny-come-latelys.

This is how the real old-schoolers roll..

[awol9000]

Better Living Through Chemistry is still one of my favorite albums. Fatboy Slim made me fall in love with music. I can't believe he made such amazing big beat with that old setup. That's crazy. I relate to him about Ableton, maybe he should try another program (specifically Maschine).

[Tricky-Loops]

I was a bit shocked as I listened to the new song from Norman Cook & David Byrne - this isn't the Fatboy Slim anymore. It sounds like normal pop-rock-music, not bad, but rather boring. >snip<

norman cook did thousands of releases under various different pseudonyms, till today... also, he produced a great variety of music, of which a lot of folks didn't know it was him actually...

producer of beautiful south (british handmade pop)
member [bass] of the housemartins (british handmade pop)
beats international (ragga, hiphop, rap)
phatboy slim, [he ditched this project in 2008/9] (breakbeat, bigbeat and techno/house)

some of his other pseudonyms are/were:

Brighton Port Authority
Cheeky Boy
Chemistry
DJ Delite - used in DJ Tools (e.g. acapellas) for Fatboy Slim singles
Freak Power
Fried Funk Food
Mighty Dub Katz ("Magic Carpet Ride" most famous dance/house hit, 1996)
Pizzaman
Rockaway 3
Sensataria
Son of a Cheeky Boy
Son of Wilmot
Sunny Side Up
The Feelgood Factor
Yum Yum Head Food

...just to name a few...

there's club/pophits all over the place in various different music genres, where noone really got to know that it's norman cook who did them/was involved...
since the early nineties up to now he influenced contemporary music constantly and a lot.

just saying...

Yeah I know and I appreciate him much for all - he was (and is) one of my idols in electronic music scene! But the new songs aren't that spectacular...

BTW, it is remarkable what modern songs he produced with an relatively old-styled equipment. There are many "producers" with the newest, best equipment, but they can't make such great songs like Norman Cook, if they can make real songs at all or just have a big studio for demonstration purposes...

[Tricky-Loops]

All you all who use hardware or software are little more than Johnny-come-latelys.

This is how the real old-schoolers roll..

Rammstein must have been invented in a similar audio cave...

[SAW75]

they mostly sound samey to him,

oh wow, i see his point.

[penguinfromdeep]

I kind of agree with da boy. Especially the point about the digital effects / glitchiness etc ... These modern dance styles like complextro or other styles with those annoying effects, lazer, fireworks, etc, gets boring really fast. f**k those effects

[dalor]

DIVA raised the bar in the VST world this year (2012!) when the same could have been achieved with hardware since 1966. Calling him old fashioned will make you sound like a newbie who needs some serious Synth history education. He is a creative producer who will use anything as seen fit.

[Mutant]

He is a creative producer who will use anything as seen fit.

But only if that "anything" is not digital...

[musikmachine]

DIVA raised the bar in the VST world this year (2012!) when the same could have been achieved with hardware since 1966. Calling him old fashioned will make you sound like a newbie who needs some serious Synth history education. He is a creative producer who will use anything as seen fit.

Isn't that the bottom line?

[dalor]

He is a creative producer who will use anything as seen fit.

But only if that "anything" is not digital...

if you are referring to glitchy electronica, I have no doubt he could (and did) produce stuff like it in the past (no doubt). I don't know a lot of his work, just enough to know he is able to do any style, any time, you name location and time

[Sendy]

I had the same reaction as him back in 2000, when people were turning me onto PC production. I saw those "audio grungelizers" and "auto beat cutters" as cheating. I had my fully expanded Akai3000XL, my 10mb zip disks and a DAT machine for storage, and every sample cut and note was placed by hand.

In retrospect I suppose I feared being left behind by newjacks who created songs with "auto beat randomizers" and an "auto glitchy breakdown big red button". And it's certainly true there are a lot of instant randomization solutions nowadays for electronic music.

Do we really want to be reduced to random sequences of computer-generated edits? I'm very careful not to let their convenience too far into my composition process. The notion that Aphex/Squarepusher-style beats are a random sequence of triggers at different points of the Amen (or whatever) break over a random 303 line is kinda abhorrent to me. To this day I still cut most beats and effects by hand, not because I think it's 'better', but because I trust my judgement more than a beat detection routine, which probably has no idea that it might be better to leave some air in front of the hi-hat for the sake of feel.

I got heavily into the glitching tracks up in wave editor way of working in 2000 to 2008 but have moved away from that somewhat, now. I still love glitchy effects but I try to work them into the arrangment more, and have less "one-off"s.

As far as softsynths go, I stopped worrying about them around 2006 and decided to collect as many as possible of them, because I freaking love them, their sounds, their ease of use and their sheer power. The world is descending into hell in a hand-basket these days, but as long as I'm in front of my noisemakers, I don't worry about it

[Teksonik]

Yes, I am a bit of a moaning old Luddite, but I'm not against 'change' per se. I don't think that the Atari and the Akai are the only legitimate tools to make music. Ableton is a fantastic piece of kit. I just haven't found a way to link my creative urges to working with a laptop. It'll come. I'm almost there."

I gave up my Atari a long time ago.........

[zerocrossing]

Young people are always going to look at the current tools available to them and exploit them for what they're good for. The older duffs are going to stick with what they know. This is the way it's always been and always will be. Now, of course, you'll get the odd duck like me who's always interested in the new and the traditional, but we're an exception to the rule.

It doesn't matter though. Led Zeppelin doesn't trump Robert Johnson. They both took the tools of their time and used it to make music that inspired them and in both cases they created classic music. Some music being made now will be that to future generations, most won't. That's the way it's always been though. Nothing new to see here.

[abstractcats]

It's funny... reading this has made me realize that it's never musical instruments that inspire me. I get inspired by people, occurrences, little things in daily life, nature. The instrument is just a tool to get the music that's in my head out there.

Perfectly said! Many people, cant tell software from hardware, I believe, unless they know about the two in more depth than just the casual listening. For me, a C is a C no matter if it is delivered on a violin or a MIDI controller playing a Violin sample. Creative sound is what I'm after, if its Vivaldi or Tangerine Dream or DeadMau5.