IDM Mailing Archive

Dear all, I guess I'm quite enjoying watching the debate unfold (again?). I have my own opinions on the topic, but these are also shared by some of the contributors to the debate so far, so I'm keeping my mouth shut for the moment. Maybe I'll contribute later, when blood pressures are lower! Related to this, didn't Terre Thaemlitz rail against (the ubiquity and uniformity of) glitch-hop a while back? I can't find this piece on his own website (see http://www.comatonse.com/writings/index.html#tt for other artcles written by or on him) but does anyone else have a reference to it? Could it have been in The Wire, perhaps? I remember thinking that he had a point (despite the fact that I *do* tend to like "glitch-hoppiness"). I also ought to remind the debaters that this started as a critique of *DSP* noise in particular, not just all noise (although I acknowledge that - obviously - DSP glitchiness is necessarily a subset of "all noise"). Regards, Clive

Totally agree - that balance is very hard to get right. I think edIT are one of the few people, to my ears, who get it perfectly. -----Original Message----- From: David William Newman [mailto:dwnewman@clara.co.uk] Sent: 25 January 2005 16:49 Cc: idm hyperreal Subject: [idm] Re: The great DSP noise debate Context and balance is a big issue here... dsp noise and trickery can sound both complex and beautiful if framed in the right audio environment.... where there are elements of softness, soothing, quietness - just like you need a range of colours to appreciate white and black in images and visa versa.... DSP is a tool - a timbre that can add variety and richness to a piece in my opinion - it can also be over-done. david @ audiobulb clive-harris writes:

quoted 3 lines Dear all,

> Dear all, > > I guess I'm quite enjoying watching the debate unfold (again?). I have my

own opinions on the topic, but these are also shared by some of the contributors to the debate so far, so I'm keeping my mouth shut for the moment. Maybe I'll contribute later, when blood pressures are lower!

quoted 2 lines Related to this, didn't Terre Thaemlitz rail against (the ubiquity and

> > Related to this, didn't Terre Thaemlitz rail against (the ubiquity and

uniformity of) glitch-hop a while back? I can't find this piece on his own website (see http://www.comatonse.com/writings/index.html#tt for other artcles written by or on him) but does anyone else have a reference to it? Could it have been in The Wire, perhaps? I remember thinking that he had a point (despite the fact that I *do* tend to like "glitch-hoppiness").

quoted 2 lines I also ought to remind the debaters that this started as a critique of

> > I also ought to remind the debaters that this started as a critique of

*DSP* noise in particular, not just all noise (although I acknowledge that - obviously - DSP glitchiness is necessarily a subset of "all noise").

quoted 3 lines Regards,

> > Regards, > Clive

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David William Newman wrote:

quoted 7 lines Context and balance is a big issue here... dsp noise and trickery can

> Context and balance is a big issue here... dsp noise and trickery can > sound both complex and beautiful if framed in the right audio > environment.... where there are elements of softness, soothing, > quietness - just like you need a range of colours to appreciate white > and black in images and visa versa.... DSP is a tool - a timbre that > can add variety and richness to a piece in my opinion - it can also be > over-done.

I'm curious what is meant by "DSP" in this context... to me, DSP is an acronym for "Digital Signal Processing", which these days encompasses any recording tracked or mixed on anything more technologically advanced than a 4-track tape recorder. I am sure you're not just talking about compression and EQ -- there must be something more specific that you have in mind, similar to when people speak about "electronic music", they are not referring to all music played using electronics. So do you just mean artists utilizing any digital effects to augment existing sound (i.e. reverb, amp-modeling, compression, equalization) or more "boutique" effects such as granular time/pitch effects or FFT noise gates and stuff like that? Anyway in my opinion, if it sounds good, use it. But I think a lot of people have a tendency to just reach for the plug-ins folder as a force of habit just to sound "contemporary", regardless of appropriateness. Forever drenched in reverb, -Josh --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org