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Personal Contract for the Composition of Music
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There's a great article over at pitchfork link that makes some pretty good points about the current state of electronic music, and asks various producers what their personal contract for the composition of music would say. This was inspired by Mathew Herbert's manifesto
link
1. The use of sounds that exist already is not allowed. Subject to article 2. In particular:
* No drum machines.
* All keyboard sounds must be edited in some way: no factory presets or pre-programmed patches are allowed.
2. Only sounds that are generated at the start of the compositional process or taken from the artist's own previously unused archive are available for sampling.
3. The sampling of other people's music is strictly forbidden.
4. No replication of traditional acoustic instruments is allowed where the financial and physical possibility of using the real ones exists.
5. The inclusion, development, propagation, existence, replication, acknowledgement, rights, patterns and beauty of what are commonly known as accidents, is encouraged. Furthermore, they have equal rights within the composition as deliberate, conscious, or premeditated compositional actions or decisions.
6. The mixing desk is not to be reset before the start of a new track in order to apply a random eq and fx setting across the new sounds. Once the ordering and recording of the music has begun, the desk may be used as normal.
7. All fx settings must be edited: no factory preset or pre-programmed patches are allowed.
8. Samples themselves are not to be truncated from the rear. Revealing parts of the recording are invariably stored there.
9. A notation of sounds used to be taken and made public.
10. A list of technical equipment used to be made public.
11. optional: Remixes should be completed using only the sounds provided by the original artist including any packaging the media was provided in.
Some of my favorite from the article:
Make a full EP or LP completely sober and with no one else in the studio with you-- no exceptions. Struggle and search on your own; it makes you grow
Live acts just using a laptop should be called "semi-live." That's already common in Holland.
Whenever, as a producer, you feel yourself flinching a bit from using an idea or a sound or an effect, hesitating on the grounds that it's maybe a wee bit cheesy, then I would say just to push right past that feeling and go for it. Do it twice over, even. There can never be enough monster riffs or cheap tricks in dance music; there can definitely be a surfeit of just-so subtleties.
Challenge yourself. If it seems too easy, it is questionable at best.
Treat every track as you would a loved one; support and encourage its individuality, and never misguide or manipulate it for popularity purposes.
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There are many that I don't agree with, but it's illuminating to read them anyway.
What would yours be? | |
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07/25/08
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monkvolcano
oh my god those are gold.
07/25/08
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nagrom
1. If you can't stop thinking too much, stop making music and start making 'art'.
07/25/08
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MattyBoJangl
I love the cap'n beefheart list....
07/25/08
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Squeal
I tried to find a Frank Zappa list.
No luck.
07/25/08
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DerryGodo
the "look at what's wrong with electronic music" article at pitchfork irritated me, in the way that I'm glad EM411 doesn't. I'm glad this thread called bullshit on the "we need manifestos" for making music theme from the article; I really prefer genuine enthusiasm to complaining.
07/26/08
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drewzle
these two are important:
"All keyboard sounds must be edited in some way: no factory presets or pre-programmed patches are allowed."
and
"All fx settings must be edited: no factory preset or pre-programmed patches are allowed."
not so much as 'rules' but as a pursuit of more creative, individual sounds
07/26/08
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craque
reading this thread has ensured that i won't read the pitchfork article.
the world of creating music is about expansion and the celebration of the unique in each of us!
however we need to do that to express ourselves in music, so be it.
music is an organic beast that will evolve on its own without anybody's help, espeically not the self-righteous feeling they need to fix something.
07/26/08
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astroid
^^ lovely sentiment, craque.
i agree
07/26/08
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tylth
astroid said: "yeah daft punk is a total clusterfuck free-for-all, ANYTHING GOES NO HOLDS BARRED shotgun approach, iconoclastic paragon of HUMAN CREATIVITY BOUNDLESS ABSOLUTE CHAOTIC CORNUCOPIA OF EVERY SINGLE THING you could possibly imagine OCCURRING AT ONCE. they never repeat method, technique, tools, aesthetic. that's a perfect example of musical anarchy. you, dkarma, have proven me wrong. nothing less than an absolute musical KROPOTKIN PROMETHEUS of sonic/social ANARCHY could have made such a contribution. GOOD EXAMPLE OF NOT USING RULES TO MAKE MUSIC!"
haha, i am going to print this one out
07/26/08
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lysdexic
this is kinda dumb.. breaking the rules is how ingenious art is made.
matthew herbert is a wanker anyway.
07/27/08
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thehydrax
what a whiny article. but i shouldn't be so surprised.
it's a whiny 'manifesto'. presets are bad? try telling Jeans Team that...
they might be irritating but they're not boring
07/27/08
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eyesnine
presets give you a lot of versatility, in a way. if you don't have to learn how every vst you d/l works, and how to program them, you can put that time saved into making more sonically variable tracks. you should be able, in most cases, to find the sound you're looking for just by browsing the presets. the onus is really on the developer to provide an expansive set of well described presets that represent the sonic range of the vst. i used to think presets were bad, but i've changed my mind recently. its all about workflow.
07/27/08
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elronhubbard
imo opinion some of the rules (and artistic opinons) are complete shit. fuck that "holland" bullshit about "semi-live". ok, so its popular in holland ... is it like ... the new kids on the block reunion or something? computers are so open-ended that a badass interface and visual feedback from the performer can be just like playing a collection of gear, and just as entertaining. the other side of this is that you can completely phone a performance in and be lazy with todays technology ... BUT IT SHOWS. not everyone is a performer, not everyone is a musician. some people are just going to have to recognize that fact.
others are fucking great.
my personal rule: at high concept EM shows, I always do a 1998 happy hardcore DJ set.
07/28/08
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thrash242
I generally try to avoid using presets and make all my own sounds, but it's not a rule.
Sometimes I make rules for myself, like only using certain instruments/software, making a song only using one sound that is edited to make it sound different, etc. But these change often. I find that sometimes limitations inspire creativity.
But the most important rule is: Rules are meant to be broken.
07/28/08
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ocp
try it all!
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