Electronic Cliches That Are Bad

Rock musicians accuse each other of using clichés all the time, guys.

  On 3/19/2012 at 7:38 AM, Bewarethefriendlyfoil said:

we should make a watmm comp were we abuse all these cliches on all tracks.

I´m down with that lol.

Someone should make a list with all the cliches listed on this thread.

goddamn, so much hate in watmm.

To summarise stuff we don't like:

Stuff that fits into subgenres

Stuff that doesn't fit into subgenres

Instruments

Field recordings

Things that are still ok:

Polyrythms?

people whining about cliches

'bad' electronic cliches in this thread:

cryptowen:

(1) making the main melody a steady 3 note progression on a thick pad that goes all DOOO...DOOOOOO....DAAAAAAAA over & over.

(2) Playing 4ths or 5ths or some such

(3) putting a reverb preset on it doesn't make it heavily atmospheric

(4) sampling dialogue from an old movie without significant alteration

(5) slowing down and/or adding reverb to a field recording & calling it a day

(6) clean 808s in ambient

(7) name-dropping synth gear in your track titles and/or artist name

(8) recording your entire album on a tape recorder

(9) making your album cover: a picture of clouds, a picture of your gear, an old polaroid, random geometric shape,

yek:

(10) put lotss of reverb on yer bass drums

mokz:

(11) 4/4 time signature

(12) western sense of tonality

(13) amen break

(13.5) minute long "wave your hands in the air" breaks

npoess:

(14) tb303

soundwave:

(15) atypical pad chords

(16) long boring intros before beat

(17) stutter glitch fx 90's idm

(18) snare rushes

(19) sidechain bass drum

(20) swingy minimal house machinedrum beats

(21) tr909

(22) tr808 used poorly

(23) ambient music w/ piano

(24) screechy flat dubstep baseline that have no bass

(25) 'found sound' put thru max/msp preset

(26) supersaw trance

(26.1) sine wave microtonal sounds

(26.2) hipster kraut rock modular analogue noodling

alcofribas:

(27) house with piano

(28) atonal idm classical with beats

(29) ambient with guitar, delay+reverbs

(30) field recording

(31) live drums

(31) sexy women voices

(32) robotic male voices

(33) homemade instrument

(34) making music with 'processes' -- process over final product

(35) 80s themes

(36) indie film scores

(37) compilation of old tracks

(38) working with a vocalist

psn:

(39) creating a false artist identity

aaaah:

(40) a fucking gameboy plus brightly colored clothes and bad hair

logakght:

(41) trying to be aphex

kanakori:

(42) ambient track longer than 5 min w/ 'undecifrable' women vocals

(43) slow track shouting random fruit names

(44) acid

(45) claps (tururururu tu tu *clap clap* tururururu tu tu)

(46) snares

(47) hi hats

(48) wobling synthlines

tech diff:

(49) off-grid programming mess

(50) NI massive bass patch

(51) experimental noise performance

(52) evocative orchestral music

(53) music that misses the point, expresses nothing

(54) epic string/pad sections

(55) behind the scenes/making of video

gmanyo:

(56) rave music with 4:3 cross rhythms

mischjok:

(57) synth with 1 OSC sine wave

(58) repeating same idea ad nauseam

(59) have few beat patterns

(60) dirty recordings

(61) uploading everything

(62) nexus presets

(63) Deadmau5 kick

(64) talking bass

(65) FL studio 1st prest fruity delay bank

(66) dry drums

(67) no velocity on piano lines

(68) 3-note chords

(69) i VI iv i progression

kinski:

(70) electronic music

o00o:

(71) poor arrangement

(72) poor melody, harmonics

data:

(73) take an entire 80s tune, slow it down, it's now your material

  On 3/19/2012 at 10:44 AM, apeterlives said:

'bad' electronic cliches in this thread:

 

...

That's gonna be some epic tune to include them all.

(74) everything.

This is going to be a hard song to make. Maybe we should make another thread in EKT for making songs using as many as these as possible.

  On 3/18/2012 at 3:50 PM, data said:

  On 3/18/2012 at 3:31 PM, gmanyo said:

Fuck that I love retro shit, even if it is easy to make. That song data posted is fucking great. Postmodern all the way bitches.

 

*seizes opportunity* check out the rest of my soundcloud (+ albums, eps) if you liked that one.

 

i still don't have one ounce of respect for people who take entire 80s tunes and just slows them down and re-release them as their own material though, fuck those guys.

the funny part is most of A few old tunes by BoC sound exactly like this

In retrospect the title of this thread may have been grandiose

  Quote

Electronic Cliches That Are Bad you should feel bad for using them

lol

If I had life to do over again, I'd call it

Electronic Things That Are Things, and you should feel a thing for using them

But I won't change it now because that would be a lie

haha

  On 3/19/2012 at 12:36 PM, Cryptowen said:

If I had life to do over again, I'd call it

Electronic Things That Are Things, and you should feel a thing for using them

 

But I won't change it now because that would be a lie

Legitimate lol.

I think if someone does manage to make a track which incorporates everything on that list, it may well be the most incredible thing ever!

My brain is struggling to imagine off the grid 4x4 kick drums with a 4:3 rave type syncopation with 808, 909, real drums and snare rushes, and that's just the tip off the iceberg.

whoever manages this will be my hero for life

  On 3/19/2012 at 6:03 PM, TechDiff said:

I think if someone does manage to make a track which incorporates everything on that list, it may well be the most incredible thing ever!

 

My brain is struggling to imagine off the grid 4x4 kick drums with a 4:3 rave type syncopation with 808, 909, real drums and snare rushes, and that's just the tip off the iceberg.

 

whoever manages this will be my hero for life

Im sure Autechre have already done this somewhere.

goofy modular noodlings

If sample packs and SW emulation can be can be regarded as x0xs I quickly counted 43 violations for myself from that list.

I am lacking behind the new ones like side chaining and supersaw. Better get going I guess.