The Instrument That's the Key to Electronic Music's Future

i thought there was going to be a CS80 reissue, which would have been an awesome story for my brain

why is it all these fancy performance controllers always seem to be demonstrated very regular acoustic sounding patches from prog rock types

keyboards are not the future

Good read, thanks for posting this up

  On 3/28/2015 at 6:26 PM, soundwave said:

why is it all these fancy performance controllers always seem to be demonstrated very regular acoustic sounding patches from classically trained rock musicians who inexplicably and creepily have the finger vibrato movement almost identical sounding to a digital mod wheel constant LFO speed on a keyboard

fixt

  On 3/28/2015 at 6:26 PM, soundwave said:

why is it all these fancy performance controllers always seem to be demonstrated very regular acoustic sounding patches from prog rock types

 

keyboards are not the future

i'd imagine they're trying to show off how it's a "real" instrument with proper expression and all. but a turn-off to hear, i don't want to have this amazingly expressive controller and be tied to some lame fake acoustic instrument plugin. i wonder how well this would work with a regular midi synth.

  On 3/28/2015 at 6:26 PM, soundwave said:

why is it all these fancy performance controllers always seem to be demonstrated very regular acoustic sounding patches from prog rock types

 

keyboards are not the future

It is pretty funny that he exclaims that his controller is the future of music and backs it up with some tired ass non-future shit.

Talented, curious, hard-working musicians using whatever gear they happen to be comfortable with is the key to electronic music's future

I think it's weird to assume the expressive capability of a single note is where a lot new found 'ground' for composed or bedroom produced music resides.

It's just not at all where the new 'story' is told from.

I even think instruments stand in the way of sounds most of the time. Like we have this computer now that is a crazy form of a sampler.

Just saying.

I think "the future" is something like a sequencer that can be "played" as expressively as a traditional instrument. Which kind of exists in primordial form as things like modular sequencers, Max patches, etc. that you can improvise and gesticulate with. The problem is that people generally don't have the ears or musical vocabulary to use something like that, and there isn't a standard interface yet that everyone can refer to and practice on, so it hasn't really caught on. Much more obvious comparison with wobbling on a touch sensitive pad with a violin sound.

Yeah thats the sensible version (for a lack of a better term) and it stays in line with how music and production has progressed. I think that's the common opinion and I can respect it. Especially in an idm context.

I'm saying that most producers that use daws on computers will kind of neglect the fact that the computer itself, has become more and more 'expressive'.

Probably because a computer is still finnicky to deal with. And that there's the retro obsession with synths and hardware that sometimes stands in the way of progression.

There's just such a big part of dance music that has evolved because of software specific effects. Things that are more program like than synth or instrument like.

Like Autotune, Granular synthesis or most important for me, resampling. Like we can get robots to 'sing' and stuff now, basses to sound like planes going down. At the extreme it's almost like a weather machine or some Bond villain gadget, in how expressive pcs have become.

What's the name of this interface:

I see it everywhere recently. Why is it so popular?

OP-1 looks like

  On 4/12/2015 at 7:38 PM, qloo said:

I'm saying that most producers that use daws on computers will kind of neglect the fact that the computer itself, has become more and more 'expressive'.

Probably because a computer is still finnicky to deal with. And that there's the retro obsession with synths and hardware that sometimes stands in the way of progression.

 

There's just such a big part of dance music that has evolved because of software specific effects. Things that are more program like than synth or instrument like.

 

Like Autotune, Granular synthesis or most important for me, resampling. Like we can get robots to 'sing' and stuff now, basses to sound like planes going down. At the extreme it's almost like a weather machine or some Bond villain gadget, in how expressive pcs have become.

I agree that DAWs have been taking for granted how expressive a computer can be. Ableton completely engulfed the idea of what making music with a computer should be like. That paradigm and what's available in it and how you access those functions, etc. has domainated how we make, listen to, and think about electronic music. Now there's M4L and stuff, and that's opened it up a bit, but it seems to primarily be a bolt-on to Ableton itself. It doesn't appear to fundamentally change its workflow and therefore what people make with it.

Yeah, the possibilities are vast and the tools could are so powerful now but aesthetic and intellectual progress in electronic music doesn't seem to have kept pace, especially compared to 15-20 years ago. I would bet that examining the leaps made in those areas would reveal that starting off with the most powerful tools isn't the best recipe for rich conceptual exploration. Hip hop beats came from cutting records and house came from cassette deck pause buttons, both very simple consumer-grade technologies used in novel ways. Acid house from misuse of what was supposed to emulate a bass player. Maybe the simplicity or lack of conceptual baggage with these technologies are key to what made people use them so innovatively.

I think the popularity of Eurorack is encouraging and suggests a possible alternate future to DAW dominance. But it's such a different paradigm that it doesn't really encroach on that territory at all, doesn't shift that paradigm. And it's just as infected by the retro bug as the soft synth world. Plus, frankly, I haven't heard anything coming out of that scene that really blows my mind, it's 99% fart noises. Also, it's not cheap by any stretch, and that makes a big difference in who's able to use it and express themselves with it, so most of what you hear is the perspective of upper-middle-class white males with IT jobs. If it weren't for cheap second hand Rolands & Yamahas in the 80s & 90s, would Detroit techno have ever happened?

  On 4/12/2015 at 11:09 PM, o00o said:

What's the name of this interface:

 

 

I see it everywhere recently. Why is it so popular?

Yeah, Teenage Engineering OP-1. It's popular because it's cute and very powerful for its size. It's got a sampler, 4-track recorder, some synth models, sequencer, etc.

Awesome response. And I agree with what I know about out of it.

Had to look up m4l but I guess it's like max msp in some live variation. Cool.

  Quote

 

 

Yeah, the possibilities are vast and the tools could are so powerful now but aesthetic and intellectual progress in electronic music doesn't seem to have kept pace, especially compared to 15-20 years ago.

I dont think idm has, but i think non label amateur soundcloud stuff has. dance music includes hiphop now in that sense. The sort of explorative intellectual dance music is taking a nap for a bit, sure. But the sort of 'quickly disposable' dance music that essentially are more like beats, have imo become very imaginative compared with before. weird sampling, bigger basses and that.. beat culture maybe?

I could see reasons for not 'opening up' to stuff like that, but tbh even warp releasing fly lo or planet mu curating some trap or juke bits, is sort of the same deal in some ways.

The best recentish idm (living up to that troll credo :)I can think of is imo the shangaan electro stuff..

(ironically probably made on retro gear)

So pretty much you want one of these since the cs-80 is hard to find/expensive?

Or U-he's Diva