Does minimalism spur creativity?

[SampleScience]

Interesting article from the Pitchfork website. Albums made with a single synthesizer:

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/5-excell ... nthesizer/

There must be something in the air, because a number of musicians have recently taken the impulse even further, recording entire albums using only a single piece of gear. As creative strategies go, it’s a no-brainer: Constraints are wonderful creative springboards to previously unimagined methods and workarounds. As one of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies cards puts it, “It is quite possible (after all).”

I think it would be interesting to try it out myself. Over the years, I realized that I've learned a lot from computer based music production, but I tend to perform better on gears. I take the knowledge I've learned in my DAW and transfer to my hardware setup. Sometimes, it goes back and fort as I develop techniques on my small hardware setup that I then re-use in my DAW.

Anyways, good article well worth a read.

[JerGoertz]

I've found I can be really productive when limiting my setup. But toys are hard to resist.

[sqigls]

I've been writing all week on the one synth, Thorn.
I think it's good to know your synths well enough to recognise their strengths and weaknesses... but Thorn is proving to be pretty big on the inside. I have no rules when it comes to music, but i definitely realise that limitations (having a minimal gearlist, or minimising what you allow yourself to use perhaps, for the strong or penniless among us) is a good way to force yourself to think outside the box, try weird things, or stretch your creativity... so yeah, sure

[aMUSEd]

This is pretty much how I work

[jacqueslacouth]

When I started with my Vantage Guitar, a Roland SH101,a Boss DR550 with a Tascam 4 track, I used to churn out 3 or 4 songs in a day. Now, surrounded by all the gear I could really want, I struggle to get a single verse worked out in the course of a year...so for me, yes, minimalism was far better for my creativity,

[sqigls]

When I started with my Vantage Guitar, a Roland SH101,a Boss DR550 with a Tascam 4 track, I used to churn out 3 or 4 songs in a day. Now, surrounded by all the gear I could really want, I struggle to get a single verse worked out in the course of a year...so for me, yes, minimalism was far better for my creativity,

I was gonna say the exact same thing.
I had a Bass, drum machine, 4-track, mic and ESQ-1... wrote a shedload of stuff.
Too many options now, and the fact i use MIDI triggering synths, and don't commit to a render - just in case ...yeah, doesn't do much for the output. Out of the 1000 or so songs I've written since then, i've probably rendered less than 100... and released less than 10

[sqigls]

personally, I think working with another person is good for creativity a lot of the time.
or at least it kinda validates the track or idea, and helps moves things along much quicker.
I'm the type who likes to just listen to synths.
so i can sit there literally all day, listening to the ghost in the machine. I'm happy.
but again, doesn't do much for output.
but at least i love what i do, right guys n gals!??

[VariKusBrainZ]

Absolutely, I used to create effects such as delay, phasing, fake reverb and time stretching by 'hand' before VST came along and I had a proper Daw, I learnt alot by using some creative intelligence and experimenting before I even knew the basics of audio production.

Never mind all the minute chopping rearranging and combining of sampled material

[whyterabbyt]

Wow, a 'less is more' thread. We never see them round here, nor the stupid narrow-minded sweeping generalisations that they rely on.

[BertKoor]

I have peeled it off to no payed synths, no freebees, even no DAW anymore.
And now I only play acoustic guitar





So what am I still doing here at KVR then

[Michael L]

I see what you are getting at, Pierre. To me, a good synth patch is a new instrument. I like improvising with a good patch to find a melodic motif that is perfectly suited to that sound. It's opposite to the 'traditional' approach of developing a melody on a piano and programming a patch to fit.

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

I recall this one guy starting a project where he took it upon himself to compose tracks based on a series of limitations: use only a specific synth for one song etc. Sadly, I believe he's given up on it. For what reason, I can only speculate.

I can definitely see how it can help creativity, but it can also hinder it in some cases. I for one find it hard to be inspired at all by setting limitations for myself.

[chk071]

Wow, a 'less is more' thread. We never see them round here, nor the stupid narrow-minded sweeping generalisations that they rely on.

I guess more is more, considering how many threads we have on this subject. But, really, i think it's totally up to the person who decides whether less is more, or more is more. I think we all know the pictures, or videos of artists with a whole studio full of gear, including walls of modular stuff. And then there's the people with only a handfull of synthesizers. But, frankly, i have never seen an artist with only one synthesizer in his studio. FWIW.

[foosnark]

I take the knowledge I've learned in my DAW and transfer to my hardware setup. Sometimes, it goes back and fort as I develop techniques on my small hardware setup that I then re-use in my DAW.

I've found the same. The way I work with hardware was heavily influenced by years of using software only, and the way I do sound design in software has been heavily influenced by how I wound up working with hardware. I'm glad to have both, but occasionally when I use just hardware or just software, it really strikes me how much I carry across anyway.

When I look at a synth now, if it's overly complex I am turned off. Working with the fairly basic Microbrute, and with modular hardware, makes me want to deal with bite-sized pieces and combine them into something more. I don't want 6-op FM when 2 operators can do so much (but then, the operators might be wavetables rather than sines...) In terms of actual sound I still prefer a mix of complex/simple and dirty/clean though, and not too dry.

I've found myself working with fewer voices -- usually about 3 or 4, sometimes as few as one. Mostly monophonic. Probably that's a consequence of committing to finishing songs in 1-2 sessions instead of coming back for multiple rounds of tweaks and additions and extensions. I also generally like a fairly simple song structure.

But I don't think of this as minimalism. I still pretty much fill the space of the music most of the time

There's a difference between setting yourself a framework to create in, and minimalism. I've done a few things where I set out to use only a cowbell sample, processed, or mda ePiano plus effects, or just kick drums, or just cymbals. I don't think the results were particularly minimalist though.

[Apratim]

sometime yes sometime no