amen to that
lod
----- Original Message -----
From: christian adam hresko <godpup@ix.netcom.com>
To: <idm@hyperreal.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 8:35 AM
Subject: [idm] content vs. process
quoted 103 lines in regards to this whole kyma / max / autechre / r. devine etc etc...> in regards to this whole kyma / max / autechre / r. devine etc etc...
> argument, i think it comes down to the issue of the validity or the
> 'quality' of the content.
>
> a good bunch of my friends are graphic designers (i, however, can't draw
> worth a shit...) and constantly struggle with the 'gee wow' appeal of
> something vs. the actual material being presented. it seems at first,
> when you land your graphic design job, you want to smother everything
> with photoshop filters, have really 'cool' fucked up fonts, and make
> everything look 'artsy.' (and this is AFTER they've been through four or
> five years of college / art school) however, what they soon realize is
> that it's MUCH harder to design a nice layout for a book cover, or a
> preface with the idea that your job is to convey information. have you
> noticed how many magazines have relatively decent articles, but you
> can't read them because the entire page has been filtered, tweaked,
> rotated, and smeared? i hate that! you can't read a damn thing. i
> used to get a kick out of that sort of stuff. my friend josh finally
> convinced me that 'less is more.' and for the most part, it's true.
> he'll spend endless hours (or days) laying out a single page (print, not
> web) so that the reader can 'access' whatever information is being
> presented, in a logical and meaningful way. no distractions. no
> 'noise.' that's design. all the other stuff is just piling on noise.
> and if that's the purpose / point of a book or a webpage, that's
> perfectly acceptable. if you're displaying information about a group /
> band, do you really need all this shit moving around on the page? does
> it 'enhance' your reading pleasure? do you gain more insight about the
> group? i don't.
>
> so what does this have to do with music? well, with electronic music in
> particular, one is tempted to do the exact same thing. sure, programs
> like kyma, max / msp, supercollider, reaktor, or whatever your favorite
> program is... are all programs which allow a great deal of 'freedom.'
> but it's very tempting to pile on filtering algorithms, time stretch
> (for the sake of time stretching), bit reduce, granulate, and mangle
> your sound to death. yeah, it's pretty neat at first. and it actually
> sounds pretty neat. but what are you trying to convey? and maybe this
> is why IDM is quite emotionless. (at least i think it is. and that's
> actually one of the reasons i enjoy it...) you're listening to a
> concept. a process. a method. a lot of time sitting in front of a
> computer and trying to make something sound 'musical' but not in the
> traditional sense. (you can interpret that however you'd like...) the
> end result is a 'gee wow' kinda reaction. and i buy straight into
> this. and i'm trying my best to kick that habit. and to not repeat the
> same thing myself. yes, i love the sound of digital artifacts. but at
> some point, i have to ask myself what i'm listening to. what is the
> content? what am i getting out of this 'music?' certainly not
> emotion. at least in my case. i suppose i like the 'logic' of the
> music. i like figuring things out. i like to program. i like
> methods. maybe that's my attraction to IDM. but it's getting old. the
> logic is the same. the methods are similar. there's no more
> 'challenge.' just layers and layers of shit on top of shit. i've
> programmed lots of shit. and luckily i realize that. my nifty neato
> autechre patch for drum machines. it's neat. it makes a 'gee wow' type
> of sound. you could probably make an entire album with this one patch.
> and that's really pathetic. (i'm NOT saying this is what autechre does.
> they definitely do they're on thing. good or bad, they came up with a
> pretty original concept... or at least found the software to do it with
> first outside of academics.) so i'm gonna go think about all this. i'm
> glad this topic came up. because this is what's been stopping me from
> recording and distributing anything i make. when my friends say 'hey,
> you should send that in. it sounds just as good as the stuff you listen
> to.' that needs to stop. and i need to stop paying 17 bucks for 40
> minutes of skipping samples and background noise. then again, i might
> change my mind about all this come tomorrow.
>
>
> bonus stuff.
>
> the tweaky beat patch for SuperCollider. run a drum machine through
> your soundcard. (the pattern is irrelevant. a simple 4/4 bass snare
> combo will do just fine) start moving the mouse around. and if you
> want that 'gee wow' effect, move the mouse in the lower right hand
> corner of the screen and quickly move it back to the upper left hand
> corner. have a blast. and yeah, it's a very simple patch. (works for
> lame synth melodies as well...)
>
>
> > (
> > {
> > var input, output;
> >
> > w = GUIWindow.new("panel", Rect.newBy(7, 41, 1135, 816))
> > .backColor_(rgb(129,84,209));
> > StringView.new( w, Rect.newBy(433, 348, 235, 58), "M o u s e X - Y S u r f a c e");
> >
> > input = AudioIn.ar([1,2]);
> >
> > output = CombA.ar(
> > in: input,
> > maxdelaytime: 0.05,
> > delaytime: MouseX.kr(0.0, 0.05, 'linear'),
> > decaytime: LFSaw.kr((MouseY.kr(10, 2000, 'linear'))));
> >
> > output
> >
> > }.play;
> > w.close;
> > )
> >
> cheers,
>
> christian
>
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