IDM Mailing Archive

1994-03-17 19:34Francois DionI was wondering... Are the sounds (instruments, whatever) used in intelligent dance music

From:: Francois Dion <dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA>
To:: <idm@techno.Stanford.EDU>
Date:: Thu, 17 Mar 1994 14:34:20 -0500 (EST)
Subject:: sound or song

I was wondering... Are the sounds (instruments, whatever) used in intelligent dance music the most important point, or is it the song itself (i.e., a weird eery lead could be replaced by a new age pad and you'd find it as interesting)? Is it sound fetishism, and could we go as far as to say that the difference between all the techno genre is not the construction, but the sounds? (at least perceived by the majority?) If this has been beaten to death already, sorry... i'm back only today on the list after quite a while (very long time to be exact) off. Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' IdMEDIA \ Managing: \ Publishing: \ Specialising: CP 312 \ Equation de Base \ Cybernaute \ Multimedia & Telecom St-Lambert, QC \ Francois Dion \ IDM Software \ design, publishing & Canada, J4P 3P8 \ Fuzzy Logic \ Raving Up North \ testing(hard/software)

1994-03-17 19:43Jon Drukman>I was wondering... Are the sounds (instruments, whatever) used in intelligent >dance musi

From:: Jon Drukman <jdrukman@us.oracle.com>
To:: <idm@techno.Stanford.EDU>
Date:: Thu, 17 Mar 94 11:43:53 PST
Subject:: Re: sound or song
Reply to:: sound or song

quoted 6 lines I was wondering... Are the sounds (instruments, whatever) used in intelligent

>I was wondering... Are the sounds (instruments, whatever) used in intelligent >dance music the most important point, or is it the song itself (i.e., a >weird eery lead could be replaced by a new age pad and you'd find it as >interesting)? Is it sound fetishism, and could we go as far as to say that >the difference between all the techno genre is not the construction, but >the sounds? (at least perceived by the majority?)

for me, when creating IDM, it's the sounds. i just started on a new track last night (finishing up a collaborative single with Freaky Chakra - plug plug plug!) and we spent the vast majority of the session just making noises. we programmed some simplistic drum tracks and tried reassigning the various sounds to different modules, using different effects, etc, in an effort to find something different. suddenly we stumbled onto the elusive groove. and now the rest of the song will basically write itself now that we've got the foundation in place. i tend to remember IDM tracks with interesting sounds more than songs with interesting melodies. that's why i don't like a lot of hard trance - the sounds are stock and dead boring. that's why i *do* like future sound of london - the sounds are original and out of this world. /jon

1994-03-18 12:32Roy Badami> I was wondering... Are the sounds (instruments, whatever) used in intelligent > dance mu

From:: Roy Badami <roy@harlequin.co.uk>
To:: Francois Dion <dionf@ere.umontreal.ca>
Cc:: <idm@techno.Stanford.EDU>
Date:: Fri, 18 Mar 1994 12:32:24 +0000
Subject:: Re: sound or song
Reply to:: sound or song

quoted 9 lines I was wondering... Are the sounds (instruments, whatever) used in intelligent

> I was wondering... Are the sounds (instruments, whatever) used in intelligent > dance music the most important point, or is it the song itself (i.e., a > weird eery lead could be replaced by a new age pad and you'd find it as > interesting)? Is it sound fetishism, and could we go as far as to say that > the difference between all the techno genre is not the construction, but > the sounds? (at least perceived by the majority?) > > If this has been beaten to death already, sorry... i'm back only today > on the list after quite a while (very long time to be exact) off.

Nope, I'd disagree completely. That's rather like saying that the important difference between classical music and rock music is the instruments that it's played on. I agree that techno is perhaps more preoccupied than many musical genres with creating interesting sounds, but there are a large number of different genres out there, and they differ in far more important ways than simply using different patches on the synths.... Cosmic

Re: sound or song