Telefon Tel Aviv

What do you guys think des guys use to make teh electronic music?

its just some kind of glitchy drum beat - you can even have their drums they are on the synthetic drum kit 2 by NI

Computers and guitars?

they use reaktor a lot.

in addition to the synthetic drum kit, they designed one or two of the ensembles in reaktor 5. some of the presets even say "telefon" and sound quite like them.

personally, I dont like their glitchy sounds at all. well produced, but soulless (imo)

They also use Ableton Live. This video on youtube shows the douche-ier member messing around with it:

I heard their first album for the first time yesterday and was pretty impressed with thier drum work.

I was not sure however if it was all contrived chopped up samples or if there was some sort of algorithm at play. The fact that they say they use Reaktor seem ambiguous to me as you could approach it from either method.

This picture is a screen shot of the first track on their first album. It's a bunch of audio files in Pro Tools. From this it looks like just carefully arranged and edited samples, but of course some of those samples could have been made algorithmically in Reaktor.

  Endoplasmic Reticulum said:

 

This picture is a screen shot of the first track on their first album. It's a bunch of audio files in Pro Tools. From this it looks like just carefully arranged and edited samples, but of course some of those samples could have been made algorithmically in Reaktor.

Jesus, ain't these mofos ever heard of MIDI? Piano roll, bitches!

audio lends its self to more precision/glitchy edits.

I love Telefon Tel Aviv. Someone mentioned they sound souless to them --for me they're probably the most emotive sounding "electronic music" artist. They make me all warm inside.

That screen shot looks more or less what my songs end up looking like. I convert all MIDI into wavs so that I have more control over it, ditto for any beats I make. I imagine a lot of those "samples" are actually parts that the dudes from Telefon Tel Aviv played themselves on other instruments, as well as samples they've collected.

Just my own opinion... yeah, they have "emotive" and "lush" and "melodic" stuff going on... but it sounds cliche/uninspired to me.

I also convert all my stuff to audio, but its the very last process, usually.

  Kcinsu said:

audio lends its self to more precision/glitchy edits.

It's all a question of workflow, and how creative you get with the CCs and the what-have-yous. In terms of precision, MIDI is pretty much sample-accurate inside an app like Cubase, and I find it much more intuitive to control minute details like stutters and glitches with MIDI commands. I find it much easier to make sweeping changes (like tempo changes) when working with MIDI, as well.

I've created a small suite of Reaktor instruments that take care of all of my stutter, reversal, pitch-shifting needs on the fly, all MIDI-controlled, and it brings me endless satisfaction. It's very nice to be able to change things like individual sounds and effects before certain glitches are applied, in real-time. It's very easy to set up effects cascades where different elements are merged at various points down the chain with pretty lush results.

Although, keeping things too abstract does kind of prevent any sort of "finalizing" from taking place. There's endless tweaking to be done. Doing all of the edits at the audio level can lend a certain sense of concreteness and finality that might be lacking with MIDI. But like I said, it's all about workflow and what you are comfortable with. My previous comment was obviously slightly tongue-in-cheek...

  children r r future said:

I find it much easier to make sweeping changes (like tempo changes) when working with MIDI, as well.

holy shit, i just realised how hard it would be to gradually change tempo within a standard wavefile-based multitracker.

  Endoplasmic Reticulum said:

They also use Ableton Live. This video on youtube shows the douche-ier member messing around with it:

 

nice video it confirms some presumptions i had about how its done

I love Telefon Tel Aviv, even their second album, which many people dismiss for its somewhat light-rock vocals. They have a good sense of harmony and composition, which makes them a bit different from many IDMers, sort of like how Squarepusher stands out for the same reason.

I think their best work is probably Sound In A Dark Room off the Immediate Action ep. Fucking killer track.

  children r r future said:

  Kcinsu said:

audio lends its self to more precision/glitchy edits.

It's all a question of workflow, and how creative you get with the CCs and the what-have-yous. In terms of precision, MIDI is pretty much sample-accurate inside an app like Cubase, and I find it much more intuitive to control minute details like stutters and glitches with MIDI commands. I find it much easier to make sweeping changes (like tempo changes) when working with MIDI, as well.

 

I've created a small suite of Reaktor instruments that take care of all of my stutter, reversal, pitch-shifting needs on the fly, all MIDI-controlled, and it brings me endless satisfaction. It's very nice to be able to change things like individual sounds and effects before certain glitches are applied, in real-time. It's very easy to set up effects cascades where different elements are merged at various points down the chain with pretty lush results.

 

Although, keeping things too abstract does kind of prevent any sort of "finalizing" from taking place. There's endless tweaking to be done. Doing all of the edits at the audio level can lend a certain sense of concreteness and finality that might be lacking with MIDI. But like I said, it's all about workflow and what you are comfortable with. My previous comment was obviously slightly tongue-in-cheek...

yeah, it all comes down to work flow and personal preference.

I had known about them for a long time, then an indie girl I dated knew them, so I immediately didn't listen to them. I've never bothered to listen to them because of this. What's a good starter album?

^^^^Fahrenheit Fair Enough

  Endoplasmic Reticulum said:

I love Telefon Tel Aviv, even their second album, which many people dismiss for its somewhat light-rock vocals. They have a good sense of harmony and composition, which makes them a bit different from many IDMers, sort of like how Squarepusher stands out for the same reason.

Agreed, about that setting them apart. I think they did a really good job of incorporating the vocals into their sound. I'd be happy to hear them continue with that, or go back to creating instrumental tracks. They do it all exceptionally well.

Telefon Tel Aviv is cool, but the vocal heavy 2nd full length SUCKS.

  sneaksta303 said:

Telefon Tel Aviv is cool, but the vocal heavy 2nd full length SUCKS.

NO! :arrr:

  Zephyr_Nova said:

  sneaksta303 said:

Telefon Tel Aviv is cool, but the vocal heavy 2nd full length SUCKS.

 

NO! :arrr:

YESSSSS! Especially since it sounds like wannabe R&B sung by a homo (no offence homos of course). The beats are the only saving grace on that album. FFE FTW!