okay, you're just asking for it.
quoted 6 lines I am a hipocrite because I use sequencing all the time, but I try like> I am a hipocrite because I use sequencing all the time, but I try like
> the rest (unsuccessfully) to make it more natural by introducing errors
> (humainization) but it just isn't the same as natural rythym
> ideosyncracies because nature isn't random, but chaotic in an
> emotionally relevant way... computers can only be semi-random and have
> no emotion at all.....
that you prefer a "natural" rhythm (such as that which can be attained
by banging on an actual "drum") is your opinion entirely & i won't
discuss that since there's no point. in fact, there are times when i
certainly prefer a live drummer & others when i absolutely love the
machine sound. the question "which is better?" has no answer, or even
relevance. it entirely depends on your preference & no empirical fact
can ever be used to support either side.
so something like "nature isn't random, but chaotic in an emotionally
relevant way" might mean something poetic on its own, but as an argument
against machine beats, it holds no water whatsoever.
in fact, & this is why i bother tackling the point... i really think it
one of the shoddiest excuse for argument when people start throwing the
word "emotion" around gratuitously. "emotion" is a vague term which can
be used to justify pretty much any position. computers have no
emotions? then does the snare drum have emotion? no, you'll say, but
it's "chaotic in an emotionally relevant way". yet i can make a beat
with fruity loops that is emotionally relevant to me, so emotions
actually play no part in the problem or the solution. the problem is
simply that machine beats sound too dry for some (& extremely enjoyable
to others), which is a constatation relevant only to psychologists &
semiologists who desire to study the phenomenon of sound preference.
now, as for ways to make machine sounds more "chaotic", there are a
number of approaches which one can take. one thing i've learned is that
it's useful to think metaphorically in these cases. for instance,
within fruity loops, there's an option where you can humanize your beats
slightly by randomly assigning a given channel to another one, which is
not chaos proper, but it gives the impression of chaos & actually
doesn't sound random.
also, for slightly off-beat rhythms (mimicking human sloppiness),
there's nothing preventing you from touching up your samples & adding a
few hundredths of seconds of silence before the actual drum sound (sure,
this takes time, but what do you think richard devine does when he makes
music? that he just pushes the "RICHIE DEVINE AUTOMATIC SOUND BUTTON" &
then "record"?)
there are also a number of dsp techniques which, while they don't
strictly imitate human sloppiness, do help diversifying the beat which
makes it more exciting to listen to. run audiomulch & use your
granulator (ever so slightly, so it doesn't end up sounding like a mego
record, though that can be interesting too) & you get an effect that is
not plain randomness, & brings in what i would call "machine
sloppiness", itself different from the aforementioned human sloppiness
which makes live recordings so good (& sometimes so self-indulgent) but
similar if you think of it metaphorically. a recent example of this can
be found on track 5 of frank bretschneider's recent CD _curve_ (mille
plateaux): the drum loop contains subtle variations in volume, giving it
a surprisingly "mellowed down" feel where one would expect crispated
bits. as a sidenote, this is a rather nice CD for those into minimal
beats veering away from the good old house tricks.
obviously, there's also the good old technique of just sampling a live
drum beat & using it verbatim, but i'm sort of sick of that personally.
apart from say amon tobin, whose CD _bricolage_ (ninja tune) remains an
absolute classic in that respect, there are not many who do that sort of
thing properly. i just think that the trick gets old quick when that's
all there is to a song.
the bottom line is that machine music requires more than special
techniques; it also requires a different mode of listening. & thank god
for it; if a computer were just the same as a live drum, what good would
it be?
~ david
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