I think eric 'szalemandre' <szale@doubtful.com> has a point. Speaking as a
musician and someone who knows how to use gear, I've had the privallege to
own/use a slew of electronic instruments since I was 11, and own my own
studio (see my sig).
For your thought you might consider reading a book (or at least part of it)
called 'Mythologies', by a guy called Roland Barthes - he suggests
basically that everything we create has been done before, in whole or in
part... this applies to music, visual art, literature - any form of
expression... We might copy re-create it explicitly by sampling someone
elses work, or implicitly, perhaps by using the same instruments or style.
An outfit like Autechre, in my mind fuses a kind of planned Jazz (without
the improvisaion because its programmed) with electronica. Saying this I
don't mean that the play trumpets, saxaphones, piano and double bass - what
I'm talking about is musical structure and form. In real jazz the
instruments/elements do battle against each other and there can be a kind
of organised chaos - I think Autechre 'simply' recreate this kind of chaos
with electronic instruments.
It's a sad fact that some (technodroids) worry about what gear groups like
Autechre use when really it doesn't matter. Because at the end of the day
you can have the most powerful synth on the planet, or all the synths of
your favourite electronic group - If you haven't got any creativity or
skills of musical expression, you're going to produce music which is shite
or just a copy of someone elses ideas.
Some of the arguments on stealing/the use of sounds are pathetic. Synths
samplers and 'real' instruments, i'd rather term them elctronic and
acoustic instruments all have their limitions. Synths & samplers can
offer:- more way out/ambient noises, a more varied palette sounds, the
ability to make acoustic sounds do strange things - The limitations are
poor/incomplete immitations of acoustic instruments, inflexibility of
parameters beyond digital extremes and the MIDI/Manufacturers
specification. But on the other hand acoustic instruments offer you more
natural expression - and then nothing sounds more real than the real thing,
nothing will instantly capture the naunces of playing like a real acoustic
instrument - try to create a break on a drum machine perhaps overlaying the
drum machine sounds with sampled drums it might take you hours and like a
complete nerd afterwards you'll be suffering from button pushers finger,
alpha dial wrist, or LCD eye! When a real drummer can come up with
something in minutes if not seconds. Thats why people simply rather sample
beats & sounds than create their own, but if they knew how to play or
create... It's the same with styles of music, get your own, defy
catogorisation!
lwtcdi <graham@lwtcdi.prestel.co.uk> Writes:-
Autechre are less guilty of stealing a particular sound than someone who
physically 'plays' an instrument because they select sounds for their
records based on lots of different sounds they make. In other words they
sculpt the sound. Playing a 'real' instrument involves sound
manipulation, but essentially the sound has already been defined.
Bollocks, it seems you trying to suggest that synths somehow have a more
expressive capability than 'real' acoustic instruments, why is it then that
synths struggle to recreate the sound of acoustic instruments. What are
synth sounds, if anything they are the ultimate in defined sounds. Bought
to life by pages and pages of fucking parameters all revolving around the
numbers between 0 and 128 as defined by the MIDI specification... Standard
velocity key responses, offsets, tunings, MIDI channels, Pan, FX Routing,
Filters, envelopes... Even on the most simple level you try hitting a key
on a keyboard playing a bass guitar patch, sure the sound gets louder and
the timbre of it changes the harder you hit it, if you did this on a real
bass you'll get to the point where the string will break, playing a
keyboard monotonises even your playing style (would you really play an
ambient pad sound in exactly the same way as a slap bass). Synths create a
world which define extremes and shift between them in a programmed fashion.
The only instrument on the planet which can break such a monotony is *your*
mind.
PS: I'm well up for a slanging match with any of you IDM is my world types
out there, so it there's life enough in ya, bring it on!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Anthony Ewers
Recording Artist
Styles:- Drum & Bass / Trip Hop / House / Soul / Hip Hop.
GEAR:- GENRALMUSIC S3 TURBO, AKAI S1000, YAMAHA MU90R, ALESIS DM5,
ALESIS MIDIVERB 4, TASCAM DA-20, MACKIE 1402VLZ, APPLE QUADRA 610.
Personal e-mail: anthony@phatmac.demon.co.uk
Future By Design: future@phatmac.demon.co.uk
Orders: orders@phatmac.demon.co.uk