KVR Audio

kuniklo · Post by **kuniklo** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 4:38 pm

From the perspective of a photographer, but with obvious implications for music:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

funkychickendance · Post by **funkychickendance** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:20 pm

kuniklo wrote:From the perspective of a photographer, but with obvious implications for music:

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/notcamera.htm

Holy Cow! It's quite true if you think about it...I've been down this road with painting, photography, cars, typewriters, PCs, electric guitars, effects, pedals, acoustic guitars, etc.

...women, too

Still the search for 'perfection' is a self-justifying mission all of its own. An addiction, really. Or maybe snobbery. I know I suffer from it, though.

Well, I hope I don't confuse the quest for mooosic with the quest for the ideal synth, etc. Now, back to figuring out Zebra 2...

/fcd
"shiny things, shiny things! Got to have them!"

GreyLion · Post by **GreyLion** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 5:53 pm

Thanks for the link! I really like these paragraphs from the article:

***********
When it comes to the arts, be it music, photography, surfing or anything, there is a mountain to be overcome. What happens is that for the first 20 years or so that you study any art you just know that if you had a better instrument, camera or surfboard that you would be just as good as the pros. You waste a lot of time worrying about your equipment and trying to afford better. After that first 20 years you finally get as good as all the other world-renowned artists, and one day when someone comes up to you asking for advice you have an epiphany where you realize that it's never been the equipment at all.

You finally realize that the right gear you've spent so much time accumulating just makes it easier to get your sound or your look or your moves, but that you could get them, albeit with a little more effort, on the same garbage with which you started. You realize the most important thing for the gear to do is just get out of your way. You then also realize that if you had spent all the time you wasted worrying about acquiring better gear woodshedding, making photos or catching more rides that you would have gotten where you wanted to be much sooner.
*****************

He really nailed me to the wall here.

Take care,

GreyLion

MrM · Post by **MrM** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:22 pm

I'll be deleting plugins in a moment!

beej · Post by **beej** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:41 pm

Nice article.

kuniklo · Post by **kuniklo** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:52 pm

I just recently read that most of Autechre's Amber album was done with just an MS10. Really underscores how much can be done with minimal gear.

funkychickendance · Post by **funkychickendance** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 6:56 pm

GreyLion wrote:Thanks for the link! I really like these paragraphs from the article:

"...What happens is that for the first 20 years or so that you study any art you just know that if you had a better instrument, camera or surfboard that you would be just as good as the pros. You waste a lot of time worrying about your equipment and trying to afford better. After that first 20 years you finally get as good as all the other world-renowned artists, and one day when someone comes up to you asking for advice you have an epiphany where you realize that it's never been the equipment at all..."

Of course, part of the problem is that of advertising and sponsorship... if Reg Armpit uses this particular model of guitar, then all you aspiring armpits need one, too. Soon, there'll be a 'Reg Armpit Ltd Edition' with handwound humbuckers and single coils, a fretboard of baloney wood and a unique flambe sunburst blancmange finish, for only $2500...(but $45 at the Chinese factory gate).

And of course, here, we all know the secrets of those commercial geezers, because Brain Tarnseau told us: "more plug-ins than God!"...

or it's some vintage gear that costs $25,000 and doesn't work, and maybe never did...or some one-trick ($200) VST that produces that farting frog sound heard on the new single by the Ashtrays, or vast suites of interrelated Germanically named, not-so-impressive emulations, effects and host that cost the same as a decent secondhand car...or those vast umpty-ump gigabyte orchestral libraries that'll make you able to produce the perfect five seconds of syrupy strings for a jam commercial, voiced over by some anedoidal bimbo...

I'm laughing at myself here, BTW

/fcd
"no one ever got laid by owning the most expensive Volvo, fer chrissake!"

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:39 pm

funkychickendance wrote:all you aspiring armpits

<DaveBarry> We think that "All You Aspiring Armpits" would make a great name for a rock group. </DaveBarry>

experimental.crow · Post by **experimental.crow** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:42 pm

i'd hate to have to drive a nail in , with a saw ...

funkychickendance · Post by **funkychickendance** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 7:47 pm

Meffy wrote:
funkychickendance wrote:all you aspiring armpits
<DaveBarry> We think that "All You Aspiring Armpits" would make a great name for a rock group. </DaveBarry>

It makes as much sense as Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and a good deal more than 'Frankie Goes To Hollywood'

/fcd

"I'd hate to drive a nail in with a saw,
I'm a whore, and a bloody bore" -- P.Simon

GreyLion · Post by **GreyLion** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:05 pm

Hey! I've been saving up for Reg's signature guitar! Are you implying that I should put my money and effort somewhere else?

This article absolutely addresses my personal failing, for most of my life -- I want to do that amazing creative thing, I can hear it and see it inside my head, but the tools aren't easy to use, and I feel incompetent anyhow, and I want to make it simple and good, but.....

There are sooooo many toys, and it's sooo much less anxiety-provoking to just play with them endlessly, rather than actually doing the work.

Yeah, I wouldn't enjoy driving a nail with a saw, but I've got a fine hammer already. I need to quit auditoning hammers endlessly, looking for the perfect one for that particular nail.

Take care,

GreyLion

Amberience · Post by **Amberience** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:11 pm

er... just get the tool for the job.

you can get a hammer, or you can get The Hammer-master 2000 Deluxe

a guitar for example.. so much crud flying around .. signature this, signature that... zak wylde this, brian may that... the muscle machine, the tone master, the clit grinder.. gah... Hendrix used the most f**king basic tools you'd ever need to make his music.

Green Red Brownell · Post by **Green Red Brownell** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:24 pm

Well, I mostly agree. Hendrix *did* have a few little bits of "magic" unavailable to most guitar players of the day in his pedals (Octavia, etc). But I agree utterly with the sentiment that what matters most in music is the ability to play and that can be acquired with the most minimal tools, and a lot of dedication.

Another way of saying this is "Stevie Wonder could make great music with a washboard and a saw".

funkychickendance · Post by **funkychickendance** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:28 pm

Chibs' Bath Toy wrote:er... just get the tool for the job.

you can get a hammer, or you can get The Hammer-master 2000 Deluxe

a guitar for example.. so much crud flying around .. signature this, signature that... zak wylde this, brian may that... the muscle machine, the tone master, the clit grinder.. gah... Hendrix used the most f**king basic tools you'd ever need to make his music.

I kid you not, the latest issue of the Musician's Friend catalog had a full-page spread on a pair of effect pedals that enable you to 'emulate' the precise guitar tones of a few specific Hendrix and Clapton oldies...for $200 apiece.

My shout of "bollocks!" must have been audible in Tokyo...

There's the Dimebag Darrell signature models, too. Dunno if you get a Kevlar vest with them, or not...

/fcd
"everything in moderation, including moderation": Lou Reed

Ojuzu · Post by **Ojuzu** » Sat Dec 31, 2005 8:59 pm

Thanks for the link! It's very timely for me because I've been going through a re-focusing process after realizing that I had too many plug-ins and wasn't using any of them to their full potential. Now I'm only using three synth plug-ins and putting my energy into the music and I'm getting much better results.

The thing that triggered my personal epiphany was the Kraftwerk song, "Home Computer." Recently, I was listening to it and the main synth melody, which is about as basic of a synth sound as possible, just jumped out at me. It's the kind of sound that if you were just going through presets you'd totally ignore because it's so plain and seemingly boring. But, with the right melody and the right accompaniment it just creates an amazing mood that a more "interesting" sound could never create.

This article does a great job of driving home the importance of an idea over an amazing tool.

tools don't matter