Switching DAW Is Inspiring?

[vurt]

I am at the whatevs stage now. It's as good as any other stage thus far.

did you actually watch the video?
he did explain how it works, and it seems like a reasonable idea.
its not the rhythym of the traffic, like kraftwerk, its more the noise, stops him thinking, clears his mind, kinda like some people use white noise for meditation.

we shouldnt dismiss what on the surface looks a bit oddball, because often the underlying reasons are less so.

namaste

[whyterabbyt]

My point is switching DAW is a niche way to be inspired compared to other more common ways of being inspired.

Except that it isnt; your point misses the point. Its just a specific instance of one of the most common things one can do for inspiration. Variations on 'try something new' and 'change your methods' have to be amongst the most common suggestions for finding inspiration that there are.

[jancivil]

My mind likes framing anything as music, such as automobile traffic on a thoroughfare (which can be less-than-restful if I want my mind to… disengage); 60 cycles electrical hum, the sound and resonances of a shower; wind is so big for me that it appears as an instrument, straight recordings or manipulated (Geosonics II) or synthesized in the last dozen or so pieces; rain/thunderstorms…

a composition is really/essentially placing a frame around the thing, beyond that shaping the objects or material; but once we consider the wide world as music so much material is readily available.

I get the strategy switch things up, a different outlook in microcosm or what-have-you (cf., Oblique Strategies), but I’m not seeing switch DAWs in itself as accomplishing this _for me_. Cubase is ergonomically correct or I just can’t be arsed, and I already enjoy the capacity for varying my frame.

[pdxindy]

My point is switching DAW is a niche way to be inspired compared to other more common ways of being inspired.

Except that it isnt; your point misses the point. Its just a specific instance of one of the most common things one can do for inspiration. Variations on 'try something new' and 'change your methods' have to be amongst the most common suggestions for finding inspiration that there are.

Trying something new does not include switching the brand of power tools I use to make a table. That is too insignificant a change to be meaningful for me.

[Michael L]

a composition is really/essentially placing a frame around the thing, beyond that shaping the objects or material; but once we consider the wide world as music so much material is readily available.

"To excite our sensibility, music has developed into a search for a more complex polyphony and a greater variety of instrumental tones and coloring. It has tried to obtain the most complex succession of dissonant chords, thus preparing the ground for Musical Noise.

"This evolution toward noise-sound is only possible today. The ear of an eighteenth century man never could have withstood the discordant intensity of some of the chords produced by our orchestras (whose performers are three times as numerous); on the other hand our ears rejoice in it, for they are attuned to modern life, rich in all sorts of noises. But our ears far from being satisfied, keep asking for bigger acoustic sensations.

"However, musical sound is too restricted in the variety and the quality of its tones. The most complicated orchestra can be reduced to four or five categories of instruments with different sound tones: rubbed string instruments, pinched string instruments, metallic wind instruments, wooden wind instruments, and percussion instruments. Music marks time in this small circle and vainly tries to create a new variety of tones. We must break at all cost from this restrictive circle of pure sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds.

"Each musical sound carries with it a nucleus of foreknown and foregone sensations predisposing the auditor to boredom, in spite of all the efforts of innovating composers. All of us have liked and enjoyed the harmonies of the great masters. For years, Beethoven and Wagner have deliciously shaken our hearts. Now we are fed up with them. This is why we get infinitely more pleasure imagining combinations of the sounds of trolleys, autos and other vehicles, and loud crowds, than listening once more, for instance, to the heroic or pastoral symphonies."

Luigi Russolo, The Art of Noise, 1913
One of Cage's 'ten most important books'

[jancivil]

that’s way ahead of the time. t’was a while before anything concrete came about

to get straight to the point, go to cued URL instead of embed:

this must be the revision [done] at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the early 1960s
later, beginning @ ca. 13 1/2 minutes the tape is integrated with the orchestra, beginning with the percussion.

blows me away in 2023

[Michael L]

that’s way ahead of the time. t’was a while before anything concrete came about

This composition was officially the first time since 1913 that anything concrete came about -- Pierre Schaffer recorded the Electronic Interpolations!

Thanks for that link. I did not know it!
I very much like his composerly approach, and how the orchestra "prepares the ears for the noise."

I read that its premiere was also the first stereo broadcast in France, and Varèse was never invited back.

and John Luther Adams (whose work is New Age Varèse) discovered Varèse through a Zappa album liner note - - - degrees of separation

[beltrom]

My point is switching DAW is a niche way to be inspired compared to other more common ways of being inspired.

Except that it isnt; your point misses the point. Its just a specific instance of one of the most common things one can do for inspiration. Variations on 'try something new' and 'change your methods' have to be amongst the most common suggestions for finding inspiration that there are.

Trying something new does not include switching the brand of power tools I use to make a table. That is too insignificant a change to be meaningful for me.

Interesting comparison.

I used to use Sonar and project 5 and it would kind of lead to different kind of music without me really trying. Nowadays Cubase and Reason gives me the same effect more or less.

With the risk of taking the analogy too far I would say for me it's more a question of using a power tool set (Cubase) or a hand router (Reason). Could I use either of these exclusively for the same building project? Yes, to a large extent. But they both have their strengths and purpose to me.

[whyterabbyt]

Trying something new does not include switching the brand of power tools I use to make a table. That is too insignificant a change to be meaningful for me.

Yeah, for you. Are you saying you find that there is the same consistency of functionality of operation between different brands of DAWs that there is of power tools?
Because I dont consider a Makita drill to function substantively and operate differently from a Bosch one (though a hand drill would.) I do consider Live to function and operate substantively differently from ProTools or Bidule, though.

[whyterabbyt]

With the risk of taking the analogy too far I would say for me it's more a question of using a power tool set (Cubase) or a hand router (Reason). Could I use either of these exclusively for the same building project? Yes, to a large extent. But they both have their strengths and purpose to me.

I dont think its taking it too far at all. It hits the nail on the head, even without a powered nailgun.

[pdxindy]

Yeah, for you. Are you saying you find that there is the same consistency of functionality of operation between different brands of DAWs that there is of power tools?

Close enough (for me). I do pretty basic stuff. Record audio (my voice or physical instruments), record midi, bit of editing and cut and paste of parts in the arrangement, add a bit of automation and I'm good to go. Every DAW can do that stuff.

Plus my musical vision is always there. Using a different DAW, I'm still going to get the same basic result because that's my vision of what I want to do. So for me, trying something new is about the music... maybe collaboration with someone... maybe playing realtime with other musicians... maybe doing an acapella vocal performance... these are the type of things that constitute trying something different from what I've been doing - not changing the tools.

[jancivil]

Yeah, for you.

This is all this can be. The discussion here always veers to projection of one’s ways, or worldview as it were, onto everyone as though the statement of such amounts to objective truth.
IE., One may like to say, ‘but you need to know Ableton/Bitwig (& be very concerned with modulation matrices in a MIDI editor)’ - in order to be whole - but I don’t.

I’m not constructing buildings either, I’m doing 3D painting on transparency. Here’s my brushes, palette knives and color shapers, no worries.

[whyterabbyt]

Yeah, for you.

This is all this can be. The discussion here always veers to projection of one’s ways, or worldview as it were, onto everyone as though the statement of such amounts to objective truth.

Indeed. The reading of 'x is inspiring' as 'Im saying x is inspiring all the time for everyone every time' is silly to the point of deliberate misinterpretation. And the attempt to rebut that red herring-esque interpretation with the like of 'well x isnt inspiring to me so it cant be inspiring' is that projection compounded to the Nth degree of missing the point.

A thing is inspiring if it inspires someone, not if it inspires everyone. If it had to be the latter, there'd be no such f**king word in the first place.

Why the hell do so many arseholes around here react as though 'I find X works for me' is such a f**king affront to their existence.

[Synthman2000]

I have heard 1 artist say when they switched DAW it opened up a new way of working. So it is possible. However I could probably write 100 ways to become inspired that does not involve a DAW switch. So as is really obvious it is way down the list for the very vast majority of people, that is just a fact.

Inspiration can be applicable to different things. Inspiration to carry on with an existing track ? Make a new one ? Or a start in a new genre ?

All 100pct possible without dumping $400 on a new DAW, that's all.

And for myself not inspiring at all, in fact only an obstacle as it would be for the very vast majority of people.

Whatever you need to do is valid though DAW seems extreme.

[whyterabbyt]

All 100pct possible without dumping $400 on a new DAW, that's all.

strawman alert.