don’t get me wrong, the modular set is impressive - as in I probably couldn’t do it without messing up big time, but to me musically it still doesn’t actually do anything.
It’s basically two people with a loop twiddling knobs and muting stuff in time to a beat. There’s no stand out moments, no sway to the sound in any direction, just bumf bumf bumf bumf with whatever funny modular sequence they have bleeping away in the background as filler. Each to their own I guess.
Techno to me is stuff like , stuff with structure to the track.
I guess I’m on the wrong forum to be saying this as Elektron gear is pretty much designed to do that type of relentless techno and listening to a lot of peoples tracks here they produce the same sort of stuff.
I guess it’s a bit like the ambient/drone thread a bit ago - there’s some people enjoy music that ‘goes nowhere’ or ‘does nothing’. They like riding that repetition or lack of narrative. And there’s people who listen and it makes them fall asleep
I love the repetitive ‘flat’ stuff it, but I won’t pretend it isn’t very, very silly, especially when you see the grouchy grown adults all dressed in black pumping their fists to the oomph oomph oomph.
And let’s be honest - it’s takes more effort to make stuff with structure, especially on an electron box
I’m way off thread, and am having a hard time thinking of techniques that meh me out. I guess it’s less techniques than style, but the Uber-cold germanic/nordic ambient (and related techno) that resides entirely in a kind of apathetic melancholy. Music for architects who with they had feelings. That mehs me out.
Is there anything related to electronic music that hasn’t yet been critiqued in this thread? I’m genuinely curious if there’s something that has passed through.
Probably unpopular but:
Trying to create a narrative or tell a story or express emotion through electronic music.
It’s possible to just make cool, interesting sounds you know?
Obviously there’s exceptions to everything, this annoyance is mostly referring to self proclaimed EDM artists ‘telling their story’ through 4x4 festival bangers.
There’s a lot of artists I currently listen to (and thoroughly enjoy) that do that, more in the ambient sphere.
The “sleeve notes” accompanying the release often nod towards some sort of personal or societal experience associated with the music, which kind of goes over my head. Not to knock them or deny their validity, I just prefer to take in the patterns and textures as I find them, which is normally from an aesthetic point of view. Music for music’s sake, or something like that.
Though exceptions clearly exist, and sometimes I do enjoy a good concept, well evoked.
I “stumble” across rhythms and melody and have all manner of happy accidents that make me happy.
I also prefer having some… intentionality to drive me to finish a track and be proud of it.
I want a concept to help guide my subconscious, but I don’t have to share that with the world necessarily. It does help with an aesthetic, to drive timbre and where a track goes.
I also took studio art classes in college, dated a rather blustery visual artist, and have seen a lot of uninteresting blather put up in coffee shops and galleries as statements of purpose.
I think having things to say through your work is awesome, but some meaning and emotion has to be present in the track beyond “this is where the risers and the drop go”. But that’s me! People often find emotional resonance with tracks that was not intentional or obvious or conscious either. So stories are fine, I usually prefer writing my own headcanon about others’ tracks and artists statements about the work over the process aren’t as useful to me. The making and the feeling over what the work is “supposed to be” in a press release.
Harmonic progression can, if done effectively, do the following:
Create/hold tension and release tension through the interplay of dissonance and consonance.
Create the expectation of a future event, such as the resolution of a cadence.
Fulfill or thwart listeners’ expectations.
Techno music has a corresponding set of techniques that produce essentially the same outcomes. For example, the speeding up of rhythms / re-trigs as a new phrase approaches…creates anticipation of the coming downbeat. A gradual thickening of the musical texture, followed by a sudden thinning of the texture…is a form of tension and release. An unexpected change in the pattern length thwarts the expectations of the listener.
Trying to define “groove” and “atmosphere” is difficult. I think groove is related to a sense of forward momentum and anticipation in the music. And atmosphere, on the other hand, is a static element of music. The groove is the actors and the atmosphere is the sets. Whether or not a musical technique qualifies as belonging to “groove” or “atmosphere” is, imo, less about immutable qualities of those techniques…and more about using those techniques effectively. Not many people understand harmony very well. So they either use it poorly or don’t use it at all.
Sampling records. I’ve done it on some songs but lately I get zero satisfaction unless I build all the sounds from the ground up (besides drum samples, from which I usually cut off the first several milliseconds). I have sampled YouTube a lot, however.
Using presets, but I recently downloaded the demo of Diva, and many of the presets are so good! But besides a really awesome preset, usually I have to make my own patches to my own tastes.
Yes, I too have found it useful to harness the creative energy via some kind of conceptual driver in the past. The closest I came to sharing that was through the track names.
Naming tracks is a funny one for me, a mystery even.
It always happens post-recording, and I can spend quite a while with an open mind, waiting to see which words pop up and stick.
That’s pretty conceptual I suppose.
Though there’s something in me that tries to avoid naming tracks in a way that I think might suggest I’m trying to offer a particular experience.
Maybe it would be fun to do the opposite sometime.
watched random tutorial on youtube an realized that i have an absolute champion:
«hats» and «cymbals» made of white noise.
and the utter nonsence — saturating them with intention to make them «brighter».
never liked that muffled kind of sound.
Well yeah but there are all sorts of stories. Simple and short. Long and elaborate. Repetitive and boring. Engaging. Depends on the music and the listener I guess.
On One end of the spectrum : Endless and pointless noodling on modular synths. Calling this drone music or whatever. Typically done by deep-pocket hipsters with no musical education whatsoever.
On the other end of the spectrum : anything made with midi chord packs
