03-05-2012, 12:59
Jerome Wrote:Because they decide how many beats per minute the 'song' is going to be. That dictates everything else. It's as a result of portastudios, groove synths & electronic drum machines etc. where someone sets the BPM and then puts other sounds on top of it. There are even groups who will only use one fixed BPM for all their material. Talk about painting yourself into a corner! Most of the other instruments are samples that are repeated over and over ad nauseum which ultimately results in a lifeless sound. If you look at the audio waveforms of these tracks they all flatline at some point, so there are no real dynamics (or any variation in the dyanmics). Usually the sound is compressed beyond repair - a result of the loudness wars. This music will go the same way as disco - just a matter of time. One of the reasons it's so popular is that it costs practically nothing to create this sort of stuff. Which in turn makes it accessible to everyone. Copy and paste music as opposed to organic electronica which still maintains a 'feel' - al la Tangerine Dream. Even though the sounds might even originate from the same synth or device, the organic stuff manages to maintain a human performance element to it, whether via midi or analogue synths, whereas this stuff is emotionally 'dead'. Amen......(as you always say - preach it brother) - End of sermon!
Sermon is an apt description -- reminds me of those crazy preachers on American television in the late 80's and early 90's.
Jerome: Basically, if that's your picture of it, you're either listening to it wrong, or you're not even listening at all. My experience has been that people who would say this sort of thing have chosen option B. Or maybe a more charitable way to put it is that you don't know HOW to listen to it. I'm not going to be like a Radiohead fan and try to convert you, but I will say you've got it wrong. I read this and it strikes me more that you're bitching because bitching's fun, rather than being descriptive.
Pads, it's alright and it does have space and shape to it, but it would make far more of an impression on me if you created the interest out of movement of the filters. You've got a good start but it does just sort of sit there.
The best example I can think of of a track like that is Modifiers "Take Me Higher", the full 12-minute version.
http://youtu.be/hC174_KgJXs
Very very minimal but once you really hit the groove of the track and start listening to how the filters work on the different cells in the song, this one progresses fast .... In fact it was in the middle of a mix the first time I heard it and I didn't realise it were 12 minutes long. I thought it were less than half that.
Another great track that does this is this one:
http://youtu.be/V2D2w6KreFE