squarepusher glitchy drums

step edit

its not the forum that sucks, it's your question.

autechre, sp, and afx all have extremely different styles. and even if you just asked for one of them... its still too vague. ask for specific sounds in specific tracks. because even a single artist switches it up a bit.

if the answer was as easy as posting a message on a forum, everyone would be like those guys. while I do think its good to learn from friends, its more important to learn on your own. think about why they sound like they do... try to recreate them by ear. it is all music... which is auditory. you have ears... now you just need to practice and experiment your way to finding similiar sounds. youll learn much more this way

by knowing their secrets don't you think we can further advance our own styles? is it wrong to want to imitate a bit?

not at all... but sometimes those secrets need to be figured out on their own... something you earn is better then something given to you.

and besides... if you attempt to figure it out yourself, chances are, they wont be exactly the same... they will inherently have a part of you in it, becauase it was through your interpretation that you came to the results. this will lead you in new directions. if we knew exactly how they made thier drums, we could all do exactly that, and it would be less likely that youd evolve them. its not requirng any creativity on your part to be told how to do it... but it takes creativity, intellegence, and hardwork, to figure it out yourself. I know which one sounds better to me...

and yes, I went to a music college. yes I was taught things. but I promise you, my greatest lessons were learned on my own. the things I was taught how to blatently do... either sounded shitty, or was uninspired, and had very little of me in it. not everyone can study music... and for those people, I think the biggest help, is to believe in themselves, and to work at what they want... not to have someone come out and tell them. of course being shown how to do things, can be helpful... but in this case, I dont think any of us telling tarsier how to make glitchy beats, will reallly help him, or make his music better. also, none of us really know how to sound like any of them... we all have our own interpretations, based on experimenting ourselves.

itd be like learning how to shoot a gun, without knowing how to load it, or cock (is it spelled cock, or differently?) it. youll maybe learn to aim well, but when your clip runs out, you're SOL.

Im not trying to be condescending at all... I hope thats clear. If anything, Im trying to encourage tarsier to believe in himself, and what he can do if he puts his mind to it.

his question is SO broad, its useless. if he came back, and said "how do I do drum sounds like in ----- song by ----- artist" then people would be much more responsive. how do I know? because ive seen other people make threads just like that, and people chimed in.

anyways, maybe im completely wrong... maybe ill change my mind tomorrow (I do that alot) but right now, this is what I think...

anyways tarsier... good luck

  Kcinsu said:

not at all... but sometimes those secrets need to be figured out on their own... something you earn is better then something given to you.

 

and besides... if you attempt to figure it out yourself, chances are, they wont be exactly the same... they will inherently have a part of you in it, becauase it was through your interpretation that you came to the results. this will lead you in new directions. if we knew exactly how they made thier drums, we could all do exactly that, and it would be less likely that youd evolve them. its not requirng any creativity on your part to be told how to do it... but it takes creativity, intellegence, and hardwork, to figure it out yourself. I know which one sounds better to me...

*snip*

In general, I see what you're saying and agree with it. One thing I can say though, is that learning how to do something that is completely outside of your realm of experience/comfort zone, can open up new possibilities and creative avenues to you. Alot of Nord Modular programming hacks I use were "given" to me by other ptaches, but once they entered my mind as a possibility they opened up new avenues to explore creatively. If someone never realized that you could used a clipped filter self-oscillation as a drum sound, or perhaps even that filters can self oscillate, then by being given the earlier suggested recipe for this drum sound, they can now creative apply this knowledge elsewhere (what happens when I don't just clip and instead use a longer attack/decay? ohh thats a nice pure sine...).

  Kcinsu said:

not at all... but sometimes those secrets need to be figured out on their own... something you earn is better then something given to you.

 

and besides... if you attempt to figure it out yourself, chances are, they wont be exactly the same... they will inherently have a part of you in it, becauase it was through your interpretation that you came to the results. this will lead you in new directions. if we knew exactly how they made thier drums, we could all do exactly that, and it would be less likely that youd evolve them. its not requirng any creativity on your part to be told how to do it... but it takes creativity, intellegence, and hardwork, to figure it out yourself. I know which one sounds better to me...

 

and yes, I went to a music college. yes I was taught things. but I promise you, my greatest lessons were learned on my own. the things I was taught how to blatently do... either sounded shitty, or was uninspired, and had very little of me in it. not everyone can study music... and for those people, I think the biggest help, is to believe in themselves, and to work at what they want... not to have someone come out and tell them. of course being shown how to do things, can be helpful... but in this case, I dont think any of us telling tarsier how to make glitchy beats, will reallly help him, or make his music better. also, none of us really know how to sound like any of them... we all have our own interpretations, based on experimenting ourselves.

 

itd be like learning how to shoot a gun, without knowing how to load it, or cock (is it spelled cock, or differently?) it. youll maybe learn to aim well, but when your clip runs out, you're SOL.

 

Im not trying to be condescending at all... I hope thats clear. If anything, Im trying to encourage tarsier to believe in himself, and what he can do if he puts his mind to it.

 

his question is SO broad, its useless. if he came back, and said "how do I do drum sounds like in ----- song by ----- artist" then people would be much more responsive. how do I know? because ive seen other people make threads just like that, and people chimed in.

 

anyways, maybe im completely wrong... maybe ill change my mind tomorrow (I do that alot) but right now, this is what I think...

 

anyways tarsier... good luck

thanks dewd, at least there are a few good people on here still who know what they're talking about and aren't just here to post poop and pee threads

yeah i agree with the whole figure it out yourself thing, but i've tried and failed many times

the thing i am talking about specifically; 3:29 in Pete Standing Alone

you know what i'm talking about?

listen to the flashbulb

  Tarsier said:

the thing i am talking about specifically; 3:29 in Pete Standing Alone

 

you know what i'm talking about?

just sounds like a break thats been sliced up and resequenced in an interesting and inventive way, with a bit of compression and distortion.

Copy the wave form of a drum hit at a random spot. Paste 6 times. Automate volume. Repeat.

  Tarsier said:

  Kcinsu said:

not at all... but sometimes those secrets need to be figured out on their own... something you earn is better then something given to you.

 

and besides... if you attempt to figure it out yourself, chances are, they wont be exactly the same... they will inherently have a part of you in it, becauase it was through your interpretation that you came to the results. this will lead you in new directions. if we knew exactly how they made thier drums, we could all do exactly that, and it would be less likely that youd evolve them. its not requirng any creativity on your part to be told how to do it... but it takes creativity, intellegence, and hardwork, to figure it out yourself. I know which one sounds better to me...

 

and yes, I went to a music college. yes I was taught things. but I promise you, my greatest lessons were learned on my own. the things I was taught how to blatently do... either sounded shitty, or was uninspired, and had very little of me in it. not everyone can study music... and for those people, I think the biggest help, is to believe in themselves, and to work at what they want... not to have someone come out and tell them. of course being shown how to do things, can be helpful... but in this case, I dont think any of us telling tarsier how to make glitchy beats, will reallly help him, or make his music better. also, none of us really know how to sound like any of them... we all have our own interpretations, based on experimenting ourselves.

 

itd be like learning how to shoot a gun, without knowing how to load it, or cock (is it spelled cock, or differently?) it. youll maybe learn to aim well, but when your clip runs out, you're SOL.

 

Im not trying to be condescending at all... I hope thats clear. If anything, Im trying to encourage tarsier to believe in himself, and what he can do if he puts his mind to it.

 

his question is SO broad, its useless. if he came back, and said "how do I do drum sounds like in ----- song by ----- artist" then people would be much more responsive. how do I know? because ive seen other people make threads just like that, and people chimed in.

 

anyways, maybe im completely wrong... maybe ill change my mind tomorrow (I do that alot) but right now, this is what I think...

 

anyways tarsier... good luck

 

thanks dewd, at least there are a few good people on here still who know what they're talking about and aren't just here to post poop and pee threads

 

yeah i agree with the whole figure it out yourself thing, but i've tried and failed many times

 

the thing i am talking about specifically; 3:29 in Pete Standing Alone

 

you know what i'm talking about?

Secondly, the main element that gives Pete Standing Alone its unique quality is the variance and detail of the percussive samples. Most, if not all, of the sounds that create the beats were hand recorded by BoC themselves, experimenting with different sources (at one point you can hear something that seems to be a large paper cutter, for example). These samples are then used as minimally as possible to acheive a very intuitive and clear sense of rhythm and texture.

The message behind this, then, is not to know exactly what type of equipment and techniques are used to acheive this, but rather to focus upon the sounds that are around you and your ability to combine them creatively. I guarantee that most of the samples in that track were recorded during an afternoon of sticking a microphone next to various objects and capturing the sounds they made, followed by refining the resulting recordings down to the most interesting sounds. All in all, they were just having a bit of fun. Having a bit of fun is ultimately the purpose of making music in the first place, IMO.

Simply carbon-copying others' styles will just tend to be laborious and academic, at which point you've nearly sidestepped the reason for sitting down and working on a tune.

edit: nm