August 19, 2012
Some More...
by Chris Randall
I won't deny that my non-commercial instrumental work is incredibly derivative of the mid-to-late 90s "IDM" sound. It has lately gotten to the point where I'm essentially the world's only tribute band for that narrow genre. From last week's ?-Ziq fapathon to today's bastard love child between Squarepusher and YMO, it is really starting to get out of hand.
But whatever. I make what I like. Deal.
For the gear-spotters: first synth is the MeeBlip, and the second one is Animoog running on the iPad (and you'll note how I lovingly jammed my iPad 3 in to the iO Dock so it would work.) Bass is from Massive, and the drums are a drum loop sliced via Maschine's excellent slicing engine. When I'm dinking with that little Akai controller, I'm triggering Replicant 1.6 via MIDI notes, and the knobs are mapped to the two filter freqs and Reverse Random. The only other two effects used are Eventide Space and the RE-201 (pretty obvious what's going where.) The 2-buss is squished with Ozone.
20 comments:
I enjoyed it, from a couple of standpoints -- it isn't nearly as ridiculous as late 90s Squarepusher in the drum programming department. It actually is closer to Photek in terms of being deliberately programmed, not some silverware in the paint-shaker freakout.
The other thing about it I like is the bass on the first 2 bars of the 4 bar loop. This is pure early 90s Moving Shadow sound, and it gives tracks a nice sway.
The other other thing I like is the "quiet even if it's loud" aesthetic.Electronic producers tend to forget there's more than one knob setting for intensity. Part of the problem with the whole David Guetta/Skrillex/Swedish House Mafia arm of big room electronica is it's Poochy The Dog aesthetic. It's IN YOUR FACE! EXTREME TO THE MAXX! all the time.
And the meeblip. For a simple little box running a thousand lines of assembler, it's surprisingly versatile. It just sounds good, and there are a lot of synths that cost a lot more that are harder to get anything useful out of.
The other thing about it I like is the bass on the first 2 bars of the 4 bar loop. This is pure early 90s Moving Shadow sound, and it gives tracks a nice sway.
The other other thing I like is the "quiet even if it's loud" aesthetic.Electronic producers tend to forget there's more than one knob setting for intensity. Part of the problem with the whole David Guetta/Skrillex/Swedish House Mafia arm of big room electronica is it's Poochy The Dog aesthetic. It's IN YOUR FACE! EXTREME TO THE MAXX! all the time.
And the meeblip. For a simple little box running a thousand lines of assembler, it's surprisingly versatile. It just sounds good, and there are a lot of synths that cost a lot more that are harder to get anything useful out of.
Regarding the MeeBlip, I stand by my assertion that it is the best value in hardware synths available today. I have one of each version. In my opinion, they're different-sounding enough to warrant having both. (And both of them together are cheaper than many synth plug-ins.)
I agree with you about the current aesthetic of "EDM" production. It lacks any subtlety at all. While I am, as you know, a fan of most all music, for the most part, and especially electronic music, I just don't like that shit. At all.
-CR
I agree with you about the current aesthetic of "EDM" production. It lacks any subtlety at all. While I am, as you know, a fan of most all music, for the most part, and especially electronic music, I just don't like that shit. At all.
-CR
"While I am, as you know, a fan of most all music, for the most part, and especially electronic music, I just don't like that shit. At all."
My thoughts exactly. I was having a similar conversation with a younger man and realized the one positive thing about it; I'm old, I'm not supposed to like it. For a while my argument has been that new music is dull. Historically the music that is popular with young people has offended, or at least confused, older people. Lately older people just think new music is boring and derivative, "I liked it the first time I heard it, 30 years ago". (This ties into my longer rant about the complete stagnation of popular culture, not to go into that here).
So I say thank you Skrillex, for giving people music to dislike, and giving me hope. And you look funny.
bb
My thoughts exactly. I was having a similar conversation with a younger man and realized the one positive thing about it; I'm old, I'm not supposed to like it. For a while my argument has been that new music is dull. Historically the music that is popular with young people has offended, or at least confused, older people. Lately older people just think new music is boring and derivative, "I liked it the first time I heard it, 30 years ago". (This ties into my longer rant about the complete stagnation of popular culture, not to go into that here).
So I say thank you Skrillex, for giving people music to dislike, and giving me hope. And you look funny.
bb
I never thought about it that way, but I imagine a teenager just getting in to "EDM" would be bemused by my Autechre collection (which is, as far as I know, complete, and also doubled where possible on vinyl.) It's like "son, you don't _know_ annoying music. Let me sit you down and play Untilted for a bit..."
-CR
-CR
@chris haha playing 16-year-olds Untilted...
BTW keep carrying the torch for mid-90s IDM, because it's ripe for a comeback. You might have to hire a skinny 19-year-old to be the face for it to hit it big, but it's a dead cert that it's going to come back around like bellbottom jeans.
I'd say that disliking popular EDM (hate that acronym, more, if possible than IDM) has nothing to do with "get off my lawn" sentiments for two reasons:
1. There's a lot of up to the minute music I really like, and I'm sure most of you can say the same.
2. The stuff to hate is the 'starter music' -- the stuff that magnifies the joy buzzer immediate hooky part of a genre to where any clod can glom onto it. To my mind, Skrillex is filling the same spot that used to be taken up by Bobby Sherman and New Kids On The Block. And after hearing some Skrillex, NKOTB sounds deep.
3. When I was young I completely hated stuff that the bros thought was awesome, going back -- and to many this is sacrilege -- to Led Zeppilin. At that point my hippie uncle had exposed me to real blues, and that screechy voiced, trebly guitar solo limey version just gave me a headache.
BTW keep carrying the torch for mid-90s IDM, because it's ripe for a comeback. You might have to hire a skinny 19-year-old to be the face for it to hit it big, but it's a dead cert that it's going to come back around like bellbottom jeans.
I'd say that disliking popular EDM (hate that acronym, more, if possible than IDM) has nothing to do with "get off my lawn" sentiments for two reasons:
1. There's a lot of up to the minute music I really like, and I'm sure most of you can say the same.
2. The stuff to hate is the 'starter music' -- the stuff that magnifies the joy buzzer immediate hooky part of a genre to where any clod can glom onto it. To my mind, Skrillex is filling the same spot that used to be taken up by Bobby Sherman and New Kids On The Block. And after hearing some Skrillex, NKOTB sounds deep.
3. When I was young I completely hated stuff that the bros thought was awesome, going back -- and to many this is sacrilege -- to Led Zeppilin. At that point my hippie uncle had exposed me to real blues, and that screechy voiced, trebly guitar solo limey version just gave me a headache.
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