Should we ditch VST/AAX instruments altogether?

[stoopicus]

Seriously always looking for great imaginative artists and not just "lifestyle" influencers.

What kind of music do you like?

For post-rock/post-metal (stuff like Russian Circles, or pg.lost as I posted above) I would recommend starting with WherePostRockDwells:



For post-punk, darkwave, coldwave, etc I would recommend Yami Spechie's channel:



For hardcore metal, post-hardcore, and post-metal I would recommend Deathwish:



For synthwave - it's all over the place but I like Astral Throb's channel:



Audiotree is a good channel for private studio live performances, often by unusual new acts:

https://www.youtube.com/@audiotree

These are obviously just random links I happen to like - there's a lot out there. And other genres mixed in to them as well, not just what I listed. And it's not all new but there's a lot of new there on all of them.

[stoopicus]

Even excellent old standards like 4AD are packed with bands releasing good stuff.

https://4ad.com/artists

[El°HYM]

Man, we are having so many tools in these days (maybe too many). If you dont like Digital, go Analog... if you like both go Hybrid? There is Outboard, there are Pedals... there is an Abundance of VST available. You can still record to Tape if you like, you can record Digital Audio Files directly into your Computer if you dont like Midi. Having endless possibilities might also be a Bit overwhelming at some point, but there are surely no Excuses to not make great Music anyhow.

[whyterabbyt]

So yeah, most of the music that I like came way before I was born.
All those Dark Side Of The Moon, Thriller, The Joshua Tree, Revolver etc...there's nothing in modern music that come even close to those albums.
Nothing.

I just noticed this bit.

I was born before all of these, and couldnt disagree more. They're not even necessarily the best albums of their own year. 'frank's wild years' and 'children of god' trounce the vapid wailing posturings of 'joshua tree' with one hand tied behind their backs.
Its misty-eyed retro-fetishism, from someone who wasnt even there.
I'll take when we all fall asleep where do we go, visions of bodies being burned or radical romantics over any U2 album any day of the week.

[_leras]

Mileage vary. Feel absolutely free to stop using them. But it would be quite good if you didnt try to speak for other people.

For a second I worried this reply of yours might not reach the usual level of acerbicness!

[stoopicus]

I was born before all of these, and couldnt disagree more. They're not even necessarily the best albums of their own year.

Agree completely. In fact I actively disliked two of those at the time (and still do), and in general even for U2 I don't even think Joshua Tree is all that good. War was way better IMO (but less of AOR pop).

And yeah, at the time (and still today for that matter), I would have been way way more in to Swans too.

[vurt]

So yeah, most of the music that I like came way before I was born.
All those Dark Side Of The Moon, Thriller, The Joshua Tree, Revolver etc...there's nothing in modern music that come even close to those albums.
Nothing.

Look, I'm going to be really blunt here. And this is not meant in an insulting way at all.

What you are doing here is simply exposing an ignorance of modern music. This is not an insult, it's a description of a (hopefully) temporary state. Ignorance can be fixed, if you just have the curiosity to look and learn.

I'm not going to give any more specific examples than I already did (I easily could but I won't), simply because they may or may not match your specific tastes. But if you really go and look for it, which is really just about Google searching, there's a world of amazing music being made out there right now.

It's just not being spoon-fed to you by AOR Radio any more.

No offense, but the band you posted earlier (pg-something..) is not something that I consider enjoyable music.
"Experimental post rock" is an umbrella term for people who just fail at popular songwriting.
"Experimental post X" is mostly BS term, just an excuse for being a bad songwriter.
I did try to listen to the youtube links you posted, but this type of music sucks hard.
I could write dozens of songs like that over a weekend.
This is an easy job.
The more "experimental/post/avant-garde" tags an artist uses to define his music, the more ready the listener should be to waste his time on some meaningless, utterly random and unimaginative collection of notes that has no substance.
It's a lot easier to write 20 minutes song without any lyrics and vocal melodies that have nothing catchy, than a 3 minutes hit pop song that millions of people all over the world will connect to.

Besides that, you should read more carefully the first post, I talked specifically about popular music, so posting random "experimental" bands that are 180 degrees different as an argument, is at best a bad attempt at trolling.
The whole topic is about mainstream music and you gave a "contradicting" case from the deepest caves of anonymous and esoteric musical landscapes.
That's a blunder.

pink floyd were an experimental rock band

[revvy]

Similar to R K***y

[Bippo]

So yeah, most of the music that I like came way before I was born.
All those Dark Side Of The Moon, Thriller, The Joshua Tree, Revolver etc...there's nothing in modern music that come even close to those albums.
Nothing.

Look, I'm going to be really blunt here. And this is not meant in an insulting way at all.

What you are doing here is simply exposing an ignorance of modern music. This is not an insult, it's a description of a (hopefully) temporary state. Ignorance can be fixed, if you just have the curiosity to look and learn.

I'm not going to give any more specific examples than I already did (I easily could but I won't), simply because they may or may not match your specific tastes. But if you really go and look for it, which is really just about Google searching, there's a world of amazing music being made out there right now.

It's just not being spoon-fed to you by AOR Radio any more.

No offense, but the band you posted earlier (pg-something..) is not something that I consider enjoyable music.
"Experimental post rock" is an umbrella term for people who just fail at popular songwriting.
"Experimental post X" is mostly BS term, just an excuse for being a bad songwriter.
I did try to listen to the youtube links you posted, but this type of music sucks hard.
I could write dozens of songs like that over a weekend.
This is an easy job.
The more "experimental/post/avant-garde" tags an artist uses to define his music, the more ready the listener should be to waste his time on some meaningless, utterly random and unimaginative collection of notes that has no substance.
It's a lot easier to write 20 minutes song without any lyrics and vocal melodies that have nothing catchy, than a 3 minutes hit pop song that millions of people all over the world will connect to.

Besides that, you should read more carefully the first post, I talked specifically about popular music, so posting random "experimental" bands that are 180 degrees different as an argument, is at best a bad attempt at trolling.
The whole topic is about mainstream music and you gave a "contradicting" case from the deepest caves of anonymous and esoteric musical landscapes.
That's a blunder.

pink floyd were an experimental rock band

Yes, but that was before Dark Side Of The Moon.
IMO everything they did before 1973 was trash

[vurt]

So yeah, most of the music that I like came way before I was born.
All those Dark Side Of The Moon, Thriller, The Joshua Tree, Revolver etc...there's nothing in modern music that come even close to those albums.
Nothing.

Look, I'm going to be really blunt here. And this is not meant in an insulting way at all.

What you are doing here is simply exposing an ignorance of modern music. This is not an insult, it's a description of a (hopefully) temporary state. Ignorance can be fixed, if you just have the curiosity to look and learn.

I'm not going to give any more specific examples than I already did (I easily could but I won't), simply because they may or may not match your specific tastes. But if you really go and look for it, which is really just about Google searching, there's a world of amazing music being made out there right now.

It's just not being spoon-fed to you by AOR Radio any more.

No offense, but the band you posted earlier (pg-something..) is not something that I consider enjoyable music.
"Experimental post rock" is an umbrella term for people who just fail at popular songwriting.
"Experimental post X" is mostly BS term, just an excuse for being a bad songwriter.
I did try to listen to the youtube links you posted, but this type of music sucks hard.
I could write dozens of songs like that over a weekend.
This is an easy job.
The more "experimental/post/avant-garde" tags an artist uses to define his music, the more ready the listener should be to waste his time on some meaningless, utterly random and unimaginative collection of notes that has no substance.
It's a lot easier to write 20 minutes song without any lyrics and vocal melodies that have nothing catchy, than a 3 minutes hit pop song that millions of people all over the world will connect to.

Besides that, you should read more carefully the first post, I talked specifically about popular music, so posting random "experimental" bands that are 180 degrees different as an argument, is at best a bad attempt at trolling.
The whole topic is about mainstream music and you gave a "contradicting" case from the deepest caves of anonymous and esoteric musical landscapes.
That's a blunder.

pink floyd were an experimental rock band

Yes, but that was before Dark Side Of The Moon.
IMO everything they did before 1973 was trash

opinions aren't facts
you may want to read up on how dsotm was created, lots of experimentation.

also, have you heard "the final cut"? this was after dsotm, so in your opinion, wouldn't be trash?
or are you now going to suggest dsotm was there only good album?

[Bippo]

Look, I'm going to be really blunt here. And this is not meant in an insulting way at all.

What you are doing here is simply exposing an ignorance of modern music. This is not an insult, it's a description of a (hopefully) temporary state. Ignorance can be fixed, if you just have the curiosity to look and learn.

I'm not going to give any more specific examples than I already did (I easily could but I won't), simply because they may or may not match your specific tastes. But if you really go and look for it, which is really just about Google searching, there's a world of amazing music being made out there right now.

It's just not being spoon-fed to you by AOR Radio any more.

No offense, but the band you posted earlier (pg-something..) is not something that I consider enjoyable music.
"Experimental post rock" is an umbrella term for people who just fail at popular songwriting.
"Experimental post X" is mostly BS term, just an excuse for being a bad songwriter.
I did try to listen to the youtube links you posted, but this type of music sucks hard.
I could write dozens of songs like that over a weekend.
This is an easy job.
The more "experimental/post/avant-garde" tags an artist uses to define his music, the more ready the listener should be to waste his time on some meaningless, utterly random and unimaginative collection of notes that has no substance.
It's a lot easier to write 20 minutes song without any lyrics and vocal melodies that have nothing catchy, than a 3 minutes hit pop song that millions of people all over the world will connect to.

Besides that, you should read more carefully the first post, I talked specifically about popular music, so posting random "experimental" bands that are 180 degrees different as an argument, is at best a bad attempt at trolling.
The whole topic is about mainstream music and you gave a "contradicting" case from the deepest caves of anonymous and esoteric musical landscapes.
That's a blunder.

pink floyd were an experimental rock band

Yes, but that was before Dark Side Of The Moon.
IMO everything they did before 1973 was trash

opinions aren't facts
And your point is...?
you may want to read up on how dsotm was created, lots of experimentation.
Even britney spears deubt album was created with experimentation.
It's not the same as tagging yourself as "experimental post modern nu-rock avant grade" as an excuse for lacking the ability to write a song.

also, have you heard "the final cut"? this was after dsotm, so in your opinion, wouldn't be trash?
or are you now going to suggest dsotm was there only good album?

Pink floyd for me is 1973-1979. The 4 albums they released at that era were masterpieces, everything before and after is meaningless for me.
Please, try harder next time.

[vurt]

pf are the ones who tagged themselves experimental rock.

as i said earlier, pop isn't my thjjg, never really has been aside from one or two artists.
i have never attempted to write pop, so the failure at modern pop isn't on me, it's on people who wish to be part of that scene.
therefore, if modern popular music is rubbish, then it's you that is failing.
it has nothing to do with the equipment, it is because you lack ideas and/or the skills to do so.
prove me wrong


did i try hard enough this time?

[FrogsInPants]

Well then you missed the whole point of this topic.
Let me quote myself from the very beginning of this topic:

The vast majority of the greatest hits in popular music were created way before the invention of digital instruments.

This is nonsense. You did say that, but it was far from "the whole point of this topic". It was a single sentence in support of a broader claim about modern music in general being mostly rubbish. And that wasn't even the main point of your original post. You opened with the premise that "we" want to make music that is as human as possible, then went on to ramble at length about how latency, quantization, and an overabundance of choices are obstacles to making human music, and about how companies are trying to make people think they need large sound libraries that they really don't need. Most of that has little or nothing to do with popular music. And most of it is nonsense, but you're quite right about one thing: it does come off as a case of "man yells at cloud."

If getting rid of your virtual instruments makes you more satisfied and productive, great. I'm sure you're not alone, but it's not for everyone. Personally, I find virtual instruments incredibly empowering.

[Bippo]

Well then you missed the whole point of this topic.
Let me quote myself from the very beginning of this topic:

The vast majority of the greatest hits in popular music were created way before the invention of digital instruments.

This is nonsense. You did say that, but it was far from "the whole point of this topic". It was a single sentence in support of a broader claim about modern music in general being mostly rubbish. And that wasn't even the main point of your original post. You opened with the premise that "we" want to make music that is as human as possible, then went on to ramble at length about how latency, quantization, and an overabundance of choices are obstacles to making human music, and about how companies are trying to make people think they need large sound libraries that they really don't need. Most of that has little or nothing to do with popular music. And most of it is nonsense, but you're quite right about one thing: it does come off as a case of "man yells at cloud."

If getting rid of your virtual instruments makes you more satisfied and productive, great. I'm sure you're not alone, but it's not for everyone. Personally, I find virtual instruments incredibly empowering.

Do you prefer to record a real drummer in the studio or use a vst?

[BBFG#]

Seriously always looking for great imaginative artists and not just "lifestyle" influencers.

What kind of music do you like?

For post-rock/post-metal (stuff like Russian Circles, or pg.lost as I posted above) I would recommend starting with WherePostRockDwells:



For post-punk, darkwave, coldwave, etc I would recommend Yami Spechie's channel:



For hardcore metal, post-hardcore, and post-metal I would recommend Deathwish:



For synthwave - it's all over the place but I like Astral Throb's channel:



Audiotree is a good channel for private studio live performances, often by unusual new acts:

https://www.youtube.com/@audiotree

These are obviously just random links I happen to like - there's a lot out there. And other genres mixed in to them as well, not just what I listed. And it's not all new but there's a lot of new there on all of them.

Thanks. Kind of interesting, kind of not, but a lot to explore nevertheless.
I think I've been looking for the next wave of a genre that has yet to be expressed?

I'll edit this comment in a bit with some links to the variations and weirdness I've found while turning over rocks, pops, and post-post status quos.

Edit:
Not sure I would call this "modern" per se, but they at least explore something different in roots, technology and the musical envelope?








Uncle E posted a guitar band out of Texas (Polyphia?) awhile back as well that interested me quite a bit. Since some of my children have moved there, I'm wondering if I should too just for the musical journey.

And not sure why all my YouTube links are Belgium extensions now...