Music Philosophy

Post concise little aphorisms you've learned about making music. I'll start.

1) Chops>Gear

2) You can still learn alot from music you don't like.

3) You can make great music with rubbish gear.

4) Obsessiveness is (most often) a virtue.

5) Imitate, assimilate, innovate.

6) Study bebop. (Seriously.)

7) Limitations are good, not bad.

8) Quantization is optional.

9) Be aware of your habits (so that you have control over them).

10) Try to learn something everyday.

11) Boldness is (most often) a virtue.

12) Perform that synth part.

13) Hi-pass (almost) everything.

14) Keep it raw.

15) Study everything.

16) Be passionate.

its ok to suck for the first few years but think you are the bomb, it will eventually reverse

drop the bass

put a donk on it

dynamics is your enemy

keep it raw yo thats my saying.

Everyone makes good music.

don't believe the hype!

Needs more bass

Compress as much as possible for maximum phatness.

If you're finding inspiration to be elusive try working within a stylistic/aesthetic confine such as using only samples harvested from a single non-musical object or deciding not to have any drum-fills in the arrangement, etc.
Distilled to an aphorism: working within self-imposed confines can spur creativity!

  On 8/30/2013 at 4:24 AM, LimpyLoo said:

13) Hi-pass (almost) everything.

Haha, what? No.

Naw I think he's onto something there. I mean I don't know what frequency he's referring to but when I master my stuff I regularly use quite a narrow 'q' EQ to cut out anything below around 40hz, that sub-sub stuff normally just clutters up a mix without adding anything.

  On 8/30/2013 at 9:54 AM, mcbpete said:

Naw I think he's onto something there. I mean I don't know what frequency he's referring to but when I master my stuff I regularly use quite a narrow 'q' EQ to cut out anything below around 40hz, that sub-sub stuff normally just clutters up a mix without adding anything.

True, there's no need for frequencies that you can't hear or can't be reproduced by normal speakers but there are exceptions, though where you want to keep some of that ridiculously low stuff.

Also, when I read "High pass everything" all I could think about was tinny Afx acid stuff

Excellent list, LimpyLoo! A lot of it applies to more creativity than just music, too.

I think the most important thing I learned was balance. Know when, say, obsession is helping you stay focused or hindering you by making you focus on something unimportant. Similarly, focus on the big strokes first, before getting down into the fine nuances.

Making good music is more important than making well produced music. By all means, do both, but unless the music itself is good, don't bother making the production good. Discard it and move on to the next track.

Learning to think laterally is important. This is what enables people to get a lot of versatility out of very little equipment. Learn to use it in ways its manufacturers never intended.

If you have an idea for how to improve a track you're working on, implement it right now.

Again, balance: if you're not original enough, you won't stand out from the crowd; if you're too original, people won't be able to wrap their head around what you're doing. You need to find that middle ground. Balance the original with the familiar; the complex flourishes with the simple, catchy hooks; the left and right sides of the mix at any given frequency range. Balance is key.

Any complex, seemingly insurmountable task can be broken down into a handy list of lots of simple, straightforward steps.

If you're doing everything by yourself, then once you're pretty good at one thing (such as production), it's useful to move on to another (such as showmanship). If not, learn to delegate tasks to experts. Hire session singers, session musicians, artists, producers and engineers when you need to.

Listen to music you like. Study it. Dissect it. Work out what you like about it. Work out how you could make it even more to your liking.

1. Try not to confine your conception of music making into neat little aphorisms, how-to's, and other obnoxious advice

quit checking for software updates constantly

avoid daily research into new instruments and softwares

spend that time making music and look for that shit on sunday or something

  On 8/30/2013 at 4:24 AM, LimpyLoo said:

6) Study bebop. (Seriously.)

Seriously?

Less talk, more action

1.) Download Fruity Loops 1.0.0 = http://www.oldversion.com/windows/fruity-loops-1-0-0

2.) Get drunk

3.) Compose music

4.) ???

5.) Get signed to Rephlex

1) just do it

  On 8/30/2013 at 2:36 PM, Squee said:

Less talk, more action

  On 8/30/2013 at 10:11 AM, Squee said:

 

  On 8/30/2013 at 9:54 AM, mcbpete said:

Naw I think he's onto something there. I mean I don't know what frequency he's referring to but when I master my stuff I regularly use quite a narrow 'q' EQ to cut out anything below around 40hz, that sub-sub stuff normally just clutters up a mix without adding anything.

 

True, there's no need for frequencies that you can't hear or can't be reproduced by normal speakers but there are exceptions, though where you want to keep some of that ridiculously low stuff.

Also, when I read "High pass everything" all I could think about was tinny Afx acid stuff

 

I meant like hi-pass each track as much as you can before it right up until it starts to affect the sound. Like Mcbpete said, almost all tracks can stand to get cut at around 40hz. But things like lead synths can sometimes stand to lose anything up to like 200hz.

That will tighten up your mix, give it depth and clarity and earn you a quite a bit of headroom.

  On 8/30/2013 at 12:09 PM, chim said:

1. Try not to confine your conception of music making into neat little aphorisms, how-to's, and other obnoxious advice

Wow.

  On 8/30/2013 at 12:21 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

  On 8/30/2013 at 4:24 AM, LimpyLoo said:

6) Study bebop. (Seriously.)

 

Seriously?

 

I'm just giving my two cents, of course, but yeah absolutely. I think literally everyone would benefit from studying chromaticism and harmonic rhythm and all of these things.

  On 8/30/2013 at 4:20 PM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 8/30/2013 at 12:21 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

  On 8/30/2013 at 4:24 AM, LimpyLoo said:

6) Study bebop. (Seriously.)

 

Seriously?

 

 

I'm just giving my two cents, of course, but yeah absolutely. I think literally everyone would benefit from studying chromaticism and harmonic rhythm and all of these things.

hmmm i think thats a bit specific. but i guess its the same as someone saying to me "watch goddard" or "study kubrick"

  On 8/30/2013 at 5:33 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

  On 8/30/2013 at 4:20 PM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 8/30/2013 at 12:21 PM, MadameChaos said:

 

  On 8/30/2013 at 4:24 AM, LimpyLoo said:

6) Study bebop. (Seriously.)

 

Seriously?

 

 

I'm just giving my two cents, of course, but yeah absolutely. I think literally everyone would benefit from studying chromaticism and harmonic rhythm and all of these things.

 

hmmm i think thats a bit specific. but i guess its the same as someone saying to me "watch goddard" or "study kubrick"

 

I think electronic musicians should study bebop for the same reason that I think novelists should study poetry.

And the reason I don't think "study bebop" is arbitrary advice is that jazz education has a level of detail-minded obsession that is unparalled pretty much anywhere. So it's not quite like saying "study folk music" or "study funk" (although I think studying anything and everything will improve one's craft).

And just to be clear, the goal of studying bebop would not be to play bebop (in the same way that the goal of studying poetry is not necessarily to write poetry). The goal would be to have a reportoire of tools at one's disposal. I see jazz education as a bunch of problem-solving tools, like if I'm having trouble with transitioning between sections (functional harmony) or a chord progression sounds to random (voice-leading) or whatever. These are things you wouldn't necessarily learn from studying, say, folk music.

- follow your ear

- repetition ( but not too much)

- modulate everything ( but not too much)

- mistakes make it more human (and people still like hearing humans)

- process - reprocess - re-re-process

- layer ( but not too much ) don't provide to many things for the audience to focus on

- ideas per second : what elements are provided for the audience at each moment of listening ... do they get the idea and need to move on?

- mentorship is valuable

- know some music theory, but don't let it hold you back from playing around

- randomize / edit

- resample / edit

- hum/ whistle out ideas, record, covert to midi

- edit things at random and learn to live with it

- throw some dirt on it