Re: MUSIC Techno Barriers

From: Digital Cutup Lounge (subbass@netvigator.com)
Date: Wed Jan 12 2000 - 16:44:43 MST


James Rogers wrote:

> There is a lot to be said for the sawtooth wave. The harmonics are so
> undeniably appealing and the waveform is very versatile. I wish I
> had learned to program synths on an old analog beast. My first
> experiences were in the early ages of digital. Not very pretty from a
> programming standpoint :^)

Yeah, but some of the software available now is killing...I make most of my sounds now
with a program called MetaSynth that lets you use a Photoshop-style visual interface
for sound editing, and you can even pop jpgs in there and convert them to sounds as
well.

> This is a very true characterization. Lately one of the biggest problems,
> as I see it, is that when you buy a synth it almost always comes with some
> arbitrarily large number of preset sounds which seem to be the staple of
> the "me too" crowd. Worse, there is an increasingly large market for machines that
> effectively function as "techno construction kits" which take very
> little imagination to use. A lot of the bland "sameness" with a lot of
> the mediocre techno is a result of these trends. There was a time when
> creativity was born out of necessity. Perhaps the barrier to entry has
> become too low.

You have a point there, but then again think of all the mediocre rock bands out there
still using the same old chord changes and song forms as 30 years ago...is it really
any different? The bottom line is that it is difficult to make really creative,
meaningful music, and it will probably remain so. I personally have found it more
difficult to make good electronic music because there are so many new things to learn,
so much technical knowledge to master. Playing the bass is easy by comparison...

John

--
John von Seggern
digital DJ -- producer -- bassist
Digital Cutup Lounge
Hong Kong

http://www.ourfounder.com/digitalcutuplounge http://www.mp3.com/digitalcutuplounge http://www.mp3.com/globevibrate



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