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Author: tylth on November 24 2007 Viewed 4536 times. 24 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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this is about a little crisis i have recently concerning my ability as a musician.
you may know i solely use a laptop and software to make musik. and audo samples. so far that is nothing special because a lot of "musicians" do that. i've put musicians in quote signs here because that is where i have encountered my problem.
how dare i call myself a musician, let alone an artist? fact is, i can't play keyboard for shit let alone read notes on sheets and random monkeys at the zoo are more educated in classical music theory/knowledge than me.
i think it's bold to call mere preset swapping on vst synths and sample arranging from the latest hip-hop / techno sample cd/dvd an artistry. isn't that like making wack trance "songs" with magix music maker?
that is the problem i have so far. but i want to make original music by choice not by chance. i want to express myself and not by material someone els prepared.
the question is now, where to begin. it it enough to put for instance a lfo'ed lp filter over a library breakbeat and call it my own "work"? would that be a part of expressing myself honestly?
should i instead of using a kickdrum from a sample cd make my own with appropriate applications? is that enough? or should i code that application entirely by myself to have it honestly original? by then, would i be even a musician anymore or rather a programmer? what is enough?
how would i think about that if i am using hardware machines to make music? would i encounter the same questions and get the need to circuit bend everything in order to make original music?
so far i backuped my entire sample collection, erased it from my hd with the plan of sounddesigning my own sample collection. i'll see how that turns out.
i could write on and on but i'll spare you that. boring enough so far.
instead i ask for your thoughts and opinions on a topic like this and maybe one or two useful tips (on sounddesing, original artistry, opinions on sample cds, presets) will materialize.
thanks.
alex
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11/25/07
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djugel
There's no context in which a laptop live hasn't sounded like twaddle.
11/25/07
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djugel
you'd think after 10 years people would just fucking move on already..
11/25/07
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astroid
i'm a mediocre musician, and a provincial, idiosyncratic composer.
however, i am a MASSIVE EARTHSHAKING CUMBLASTING GENIUS
and each and every set of eyes reading this should rightfully explode from merely sharing this thread with my DREAD THUNDERBOLTS of PURE VERBIAGE
11/25/07
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nagrom
With better tools, it's easier to do things that once were difficult and innovative.
When you watch an amazing instrumentalist, part of the enjoyment lies in amazement.
With better tools, you can make music that once would have been amazing. Now the amazement is gone.
You want to make amazing music.
Recipe: be as creative as your forefathers were with their tools, with your tools.
Venetian Snares doesn't have it any harder than you do and he's fucking mind-blowing.
Consider an alternative approach: nobody cares if your music is amazing anymore. What matters is what role your music plays in culture. Good dance music makes people fucking dance, no matter how it was made. Arcade Fire is nothing amazing musically, but they epitomized the Montreal indie aesthetic and inspired a generation of hipsters. Clark took elements of 00's IDM, put some pumping compressors on it and made it sound organic. Boards of Canada made records with a beautiful sound-design to lull the snobs and simple, but slightly edgy composition that you can listen to with your grandma and your girlfriend.
Be part of a scene. Make music with a purpose. Make music for personal enjoyment only. Make music with your friends for fun/bonding.
Take a year off, stop making music. Take three years off.
11/25/07
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nagrom
djugel, I think you'd like my friends Ghettonuns: link
laptop+g2+mic. works.
11/26/07
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deltasleep
The hardest thing for most electronic musicians to admit, and to get over, is that they are not going to escape their insecurities and problems with this issue by: Buying bigger gear, or going minimal.
It's just not about the equipment. If you're dealing with music on that level, you're passing up a chance to tackle this issue on the personal, philosophical level that you should be.
11/26/07
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implexgrace
djugel said: "There's no context in which a laptop live hasn't sounded like twaddle."
you've never seen me play live buddy 
there is no twaddle in my laptop unless i say there is
also, don't worry about genius. it's not completely real. having ideas isn't a new thing and that's essentially what genius is. as well as executing the idea, but that has not much to do with genius. as much as i use it to describe something that blows my mind, genius is a really dumb word that communicates.... nothing.
mastery is much different than brilliance, as well..
this can seriously go on forever.
11/26/07
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cbit
genius is a really dumb word that communicates.... nothing.
I tend to agree. I feel pretty much the same way about 'talent' too, the way it's usually used.
11/26/07
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nagrom
11/26/07
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astroid
stockhausen sez
"I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be
very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic
music, and a young boy's voice singing with himself. Because he would then
immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions, and he would look
for changing tempi and changing rhythms, and he would not allow to repeat
any rhythm if it were varied to some extent and if it did not have a
direction in its sequence of variations."
11/26/07
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implexgrace
too bad my dick is bigger than stockhausen's ego
also, stockhausen repeats himself whether he wants to believe it or not
11/26/07
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implexgrace
cbit said: " genius is a really dumb word that communicates.... nothing."
I tend to agree. I feel pretty much the same way about 'talent' too, the way it's usually used.
lol talent... wtf does that even mean
has a basic understanding of something? has an advanced understanding of something?
said something comes naturally?
it's all bullshit and illusory, and language in this case is smoke and mirrors
11/27/07
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cbit
astroid said: "stockhausen sez
"I heard the piece Aphex Twin of Richard James carefully: I think it would be
very helpful if he listens to my work Song Of The Youth, which is electronic
music, and a young boy's voice singing with himself. Because he would then
immediately stop with all these post-African repetitions, and he would look
for changing tempi and changing rhythms, and he would not allow to repeat
any rhythm if it were varied to some extent and if it did not have a
direction in its sequence of variations.""
and i liked richard james' reply also:
I didn't agree with him. I
thought he should listen to a couple of tracks of mine: "Didgeridoo", then
he'd stop making abstract, random patterns you can't dance to.
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