Lets face it A DAW in a metal box dont get you more than a PC DAW get you,
what you need is feel a instrument with your fingers that is kind to your brain.
itās not just that we gravitate towards limits, we gravitate toward limited features, but limitations that are combined with not so limited workflowsā¦ and simplicityā¦ for example the sp-303/404ās sure itās limited in features but itās not limited in sample time, and ease of use, most importantly the workflow is something that is geared towards having a lot of funā¦
so if Elektron makes something that has a lot of features and decidedly not limited, as long as they gear the workflow towards something easy and fun inducing like the model samples it will be well received .
limitation also drive us to buy 10 different things with other limitations
Just sample this volca drum loop or that skupt
I actually dont think the ideal is the limitation, but a balance of feature + interface.
Limitless potential is the DAW + VSTs- the issue is that the interface isnāt as intimate as hardware.
self-deception and the fragile Self
ā¦limitations of tools hide the truth of our own creative limitations, so we can blame the tools
= itās more acceptable to be a genius artist in mediocre art than mediocre artist in genius art
Creativity is ālimitationā spelled backwards
I really donāt think itās the limitations that attract us. Rather, itās the clarity that a well-crafted instruments with defined limits offer.
Limitations in themselves rarely offer any advantage. But sometimes theyāre the results of someone knowing what the product is and isnāt, so we appreciate that the instrument presents itself well and we already know how weād put it to use.
Creativity, even genius, must be expressed through a medium.
Any medium is, by nature of its existence, limited.
There is definitely a tendency within me to seek out music that is the result of musicians overcoming or working within constraints. Itās also something Iāve found to be inspiring within my own creativity, whether that be using equipment that is very narrowly focused (or limited) or using a limited range of equipment.
The flip side of that is that I tend to shy away from more open-ended, limitless tools (OT is kind of an exception, though I use it in quite limited ways), as I find it hard to create the tension that my creativity thrives off if there are no constraints.
Obviously this is a very personal viewpoint and therefore very much subjective, as all art tends to be.
How have I never realized that?!
Edit: heyā¦wait a minuteā¦no its not!
But if you know what you need to do to get to point B, options shouldnt be in your way. Is that not so?
I never understood why people need limitations to get a better result. With limitations you might find trickeries/workarounds which potentially become a part of your sound. But other than that I really donāt get the argument
Agree!
but therein lies a paradox! (people are mentioning creativity so, id like to say something about itā¦)
ā¦one thing that has been chronically overlooked is that creativity includes originality in some form, and we already have limitations in our influences, in a form of imitating and mimicking other people. thatās the biggest limitation and thatās the limitation that we should strive to overcome IF we want to be creative and imposing any other limitations that would make it harder for us to be original canāt help us to be creative UNLESS we use the known limited tools in new ways (Sophie and Monomachine). in such a situation the new step we made would be even more apparent because we have something to compare our work with (our own and other peopleās work made with that tool), but this is only the best possible scenario. A bigger and more useful step into creativity would be if we just compare products (music) free from genres without mentioning tools and techniques, or just making them less important (Autechre and MaxMsp (and any other tool theyāve used)).
Have you ever sat down with a 100% fixed plan on what you want to do and how and went with it until the end for a finished song or album? I never have, so Iām really curious if people like that do exist. I can only speak for myself, but ālimited gearā (e.g. mono samples, limited polyphony, whatever) forces you to create within certain boundaries which will lead to completely different paths than having all options available. Happy accidents are half the fun IMO, or to put it differently, the process is the fun part, not the result. If itās only the result that counts for you, I have to agree, anything that gets you there the fastest is probably the best.
Limited gear, conceptual limitations, or a very inviting interface also force you to break out of old habits. Again, depending on your goal, you donāt need that if you just want to stick to one genre, say.
If you have an idea, you try to figure out how to get there with the tools you have.
I never sit down an randomly turn knobs and push buttons. That would be silly. The more options I have, the higher the chance of getting the idea down. If an option is missing, you look for workarounds.
Happy accidents always occur. And the chance of them happening is higher when thereās more options, I would think.
That being said, I have way less gear than the majority of people on this board. Assuming all of you folks post pictures in the Post Your Setup thread.
And yes, to me the end result is priority. It doesnt really matter how I get there. Or if it was all fun along the way. Sometimes its frustrating. Sometimes its tedious. Sometimes its fun
Wat?
Yes that came out wrong. What Im trying to say is that I go from one idea to the next one
How did you find the switch? Did you find you got more out of the Digitakt? Cheers
I certainly get more fun out of it. Only got the DT on Monday and was mostly occupied working, but I still managed to churn out half a bank of decent patterns in the evening hours. On the OT, it often happened to me that I get lost in configuring scenes, parts and fx chains, which I tend to forget the next time I turn it on. Finishing stuff on the OT required a lot of time and motivation (which I lack in the evening hours due to a demanding job atm). So right now, the DT suits me much better (I sold my first DT for an OT a few years ago, so Iām already very familiar with it).
Cheers. And its all about Fun,
I absolutely love having a stable base to work on. Limitation is definition, and without definition (i.e. distinction) life canāt exist. Computers seem to be limitless but they really work under a different set of limitations - one of them being that by trying to do everything they do everything slightly not as well as dedicated hardware, and I place a high value on immediate feedback and physical coherence. Best to have both DAWless and DAW around for their individual strengths. And always have alternatives available if something goes wrong with one thing, which computers are wont to do.