Aphex Twin Desire As Procrastination

[ZoeB]

I don't think it's the program you use that counts, it's what you've got in your head. -- Liam Howlett¹

 

I often get it into my head that if I had a certain tool to do the job, I'd be able to do my job much better. For instance, if I just had a modular synthesiser, think of all the wonderful music I could make.

 

No. Wrong.

 

Well, to some extent that's true, but it's a very dangerous path. If you're always fantasising about what you don't yet have, you'll never learn to use what you do already have. In today's modern era, pretty much anyone rich enough to have Internet access and therefore read this article probably already has much better technology than most musicians could afford as recently as even the 1990s.

 

I recently bought software emulations of five different Proteus rackmounts, originally priced at about $1000 each when they were first released between 1989 and 1997, for $60 in total. Reason + Record, FL Studio, Cubase and Logic are all now much better than what most musicians used even recently, given that we now have plug-ins which faithfully recreate pretty much any historic synthesiser.

 

If you don't think music can sound genuinely professional using the kind of equipment you already have, check out Lily Allen's song The Fear, which knocked Lady Gaga's Just Dance off the number one spot for UK singles. The Fear was mixed entirely in Logic 8, using just the plug-ins it came with out of the box.²

 

In far too many interviews to mention, the artist will say that there's no use in having a studio full of exotic equipment you don't have the time to understand. You should just concentrate on one or two versatile tools -- pretty much anything already in your studio should suffice -- and learn them inside out, so that when inspiration strikes, you already have the skills to do what you need to without having to give it much conscious thought.

 

You should never spend your valuable time pining after equipment you don't have. Instead, spend it learning what you do have inside out. What will make your music sound better isn't some new synthesiser, but the knowledge to fully understand the one you already have.

 

If you want to make better music, don't constantly try to get the very best tools for the job. Simply get tools that are good enough, then spend your time learning to use them properly, practicing your craft, analysing others' techniques and applying them to your own styles.

 

Listen to the very best music in your collection, but not for fun this time. Analyse it. Pick it apart and understand how it works, why it invokes the emotions it does.

 

What makes Aphex Twin's music so good isn't the thirty year old synthesisers he uses, it's the amount of time he spends painstakingly creating something intricate and then destroying bits of it in novel and creative ways.

 

What makes Moby's music so good isn't his extensive collection of vintage drum machines but his willingness to blend together whichever styles and sounds best get the emotion across, with a complete disregard for whether a modern house piano is supposed to sit well under an old blues vocal.

 

Coveting tools you don't have is just a means of procrastination. When you find yourself doing it, instead take a second to think about all the advantages of the tools you do have, then get to it and practice using them.

 

References

 

1. 
    
   
2. Sound On Sound: Blazing a Trail
    
   
3. Sound On Sound: Secrets of the Mix Engineers: Greg Kurstin
    
   

[ZoeB]

don't want to be an audiophile or anything but often i find stuff made on the computer lacks character. a lot of it just sounds too "clean". software definitely has its advantages though.

 

Double blind trials or it didn't happen!

[Cryptowen]

don't want to be an audiophile or anything but often i find stuff made on the computer lacks character. a lot of it just sounds too "clean". software definitely has its advantages though.

 

I don't know. To me, the only computer-made songs that sound lifeless are the ones that sound like someone trying to emulate their favourite old school analog musicians. Songs that actually have creative ideas and/or make use of the strengths of their production medium sound good whether they were made with Fruity Loops or with a room-sized analog synth from the 1950s hand-made by a bearded eccentric living out in the hills somewhere.

[ZoeB]

recently i've been dirtying up my sound a little bit with some noise - bith digital and analog. it adds character and also contributes to the "space" of the sound. things can sound more distant when there's noise in the mix

 

Ah, now adding imperfections on purpose is generally a good thing, yeah. I need to keep reminding myself to do that.

[Guest wake]

Double blind trials or it didn't happen!

 

I suggest you all take part in this survey.

http://www.futureproof.co.nz/survey/

[ZoeB]

I suggest you all take part in this survey.

http://www.futureproof.co.nz/survey/

 

Fantastic! I've been hoping someone would do this for a while now. It's great to see that someone finally has. I've taken the survey and look forward to reading the results. My theory is that the more unstable something sounds, the more likely people are to think it's analogue, regardless of whether the instability was naturally occurring due to imperfect physical parts or painstakingly programmed in. Thank you very much for the link!

[Guest mohamed]

distortion makes it that you hear more stuffff

[Guest Lube Saibot]

ZoeB, you really need to stop trying so hard.

 

Seriously? References?

[ZoeB]

ZoeB, you really need to stop trying so hard.

 

Seriously? References?

 

I just write these little articles for fun (or rather, to clarify ideas in my head), and crossposted a few of them here as I figured some of the other musicians here might have similar hangups to my own (as in I wish someone else had given me this kind of advice earlier). This is a hypertext medium and I think it's great that you can see how people formed their ideas, or where they're coming from.

 

I can stop if you'd really like. I don't mind.

[kcinsu]

I agree!

 

While I don't want to downplay the significance of new technologies and the evolution of music that is allowed because of new technologies, the majority of most new software and hardware I see, are just slight modifications of old ideas. We're getting to a point where technology is so powerful, that we can make full tracks on our smartphones. Alot of people decry this ease of results...the annoying tedious things we had to do manually and read up on to figure out how to do, is more and more becoming so under the hood and idiot proof, that it can be frustrating to see new comers waltz right in and bust out a decent track. But I personally am hopeful... It's about electronic MUSIC, not ElECTRONIC music. At the end of the day it's about the human element, and the tehnology is just a means to an end.

 

Anywho that was a little OT...

 

But yeah having been working on music for about 13 years now, studying production in college, and gone through the gear lust phase for Good portion of that time...'i really don't care much anymore. I have 3 powerful synths and some nice controllers.I no longer use software, not because its bad, but because I needed to limit myself... And hell simce I have some nice synths, that's what I've decided to limit myself to. I try to write as much of it in real time, as opposed to lots of audio editing. Not becuase it's the right way, but because I'm comfortable with that approach. I know my gear and my setup, and I no longer have to muck about as much because my setup and system is already in place.

 

Anyways... Yeah go write music and stop worrying about new gear... Very little of it really brings anything new to the table... And what you cant accomplish with your current setup, you can make up for with some creativity (which will shine through your music brighter than any unique sound from some esoteric program/hardware.

[ZoeB]

That sounds like a great attitude, Kcinsu! Yeah, I fully agree with you. I'm sure technology will continue to get better, and I'll continue to use it to make better music. The only thing I shouldn't do is wait for it when I could be making music right now!

[Guest Sprigg]

I agree.

 

Every once in a while, I wonder what kind of sounds I could get out of [insert your choice of hardware here] just because I don't have any, but ultimately being limited only to software and MIDI editing is making me aware of how to make a decent song structure and such, and I'm quite comfortable with the tedium that comes with it.

[chim]

it's easy to mistake lack of imagination for lack of tools.

[mcbpete]

I've been procrastinating so much musically over the last few months, and it's been even more ridiculous than hoping for the right tool or VST to come round the corner:

 

Those that use Buzz will know that of late the programme is now almost entirely customisable looks wise because of its modular XAML files. I've been spending about 3 months tweaking and retweaking my theme for Buzz and refuse to make music on it until I've got it set up perfectly. I'm now nearly finished, but it's taken almost a week to decide what image to have as the background to the Machine View - It's got that stupid ...

[acid1]

What makes Moby's music so good ...

 

I stopped taking the article seriously around here.

[Guest Benedict Cumberbatch]

What makes Moby's music so good ...

 

I stopped taking the article seriously around here.

 

yup stopped reading here also

 

 

i think the sentiment is good though. stop "wanting". the root to happiness is to stop the "want" in ourselves.

[soundwave]

this is what ix known as G.A.S. -gear aquisition syndrome and a slippery slope it can be especially for tech heads

 

I think you should have a small core of equiptment or software that you know inside out but on the other hand its nice to explore different methods as dragging a mouse about all day isn't very inspiring at the best of times and any twat can press a grid controller but saying that arranging on hardware alone can also be a ball ache so its the happy medium between one must find

[wahrk]

this is what ix known as G.A.S. -gear aquisition syndrome and a slippery slope it can be especially for tech heads

 

I think you should have a small core of equiptment or software that you know inside out but on the other hand its nice to explore different methods as dragging a mouse about all day isn't very inspiring at the best of times and any twat can press a grid controller but saying that arranging on hardware alone can also be a ball ache so its the happy medium between one must find

 

Renooooooooiiiiiiiiiise

 

Also, I was so excited about getting my Electribe. I was switching to hardware! I was getting to play with real knobs that were permanently tied to certain functions! Deep down I had some profound feeling that I would reach some kind of epiphany when I got this piece of hardware and it would make me a better musician. To be fair, I got some useful stuff out of it idea-wise, and it's crazy for making crazy ass noises in real time, BUT I'm back in Renoise happily making tracks again and leaving my ESX as a toy downstairs for my bandmates and me to fuck with now and then.

 

It's just so loop-oriented, and I hate loops. That's not how real music works to me.

[Guest Blanket Fort Collapse]

I find all this debate about tools and methods is getting ridiculous at this point in the future. I mean there is so many right and wrong ways to use any method or tool to create, improvise and record music. Its all so subjective to what someone is trying to do.

 

To me there is no right or wrong way to do something there is only a scale of 1-113 on how ambitiously, creatively and confidently the variables are being exploited.

 

You could say dragging a mouse isn't inspiring? tell that to the guy who spent 4 months, designing, sequencing and manipulating a masterpiece from the ground up with nothing but software and a mouse.

 

You could say oh strictly hardware is so much more ambitious? tell that to the guy who buys an MPC, a minikorg, sequencer and a samplepack from guitar center and never manipulates or creates is own sounds for years. he never inventively samples, or spends hours tweaking parameters, he just makes super generic sounding cheesy shit and continues the same formula for years. while the kid who just has a computer makes incredibly interesting, personal, mind blowing art.

 

 

Techniques, methods and tools are not important anymore is how they are being used that matters, its the human(s) with their own brain fuel mindset behind them that matter.

 

 

ANYTHING CAN BE INSPIRING TO THE RIGHT MIND

 

and sadly anything can be uninspiring to the wrong minds

[Guest Lube Saibot]

ANYTHING CAN BE INSPIRING TO THE RIGHT MIND

 

and sadly anything can be uninspiring to the wrong minds

 

+googolplex

[wahrk]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that ZoeB's point, BFC?

[Guest Blanket Fort Collapse]

Haven't read the entire thread or the OP but I quickly glimpsed some statements that I wanted to put my input on

[wahrk]

Ah, well I believe the consensus then is that you can make your music with a tape recorder and some chopsticks as long as you know how to use them to make some badass shit.

[Guest Blanket Fort Collapse]

Still definitely appears like in my own music community and to much less degree on watmm that there are a lot of preconceptions of how respectable/impressive/artistic certain methods and tools are. My statements weren't particularly in reference to this point of this thread just a few of the statements I saw made me want to vent that general frustration.

[ZoeB]

What makes Moby's music so good ...

 

I stopped taking the article seriously around here.

 

While I appreciate that everyone has different taste in music, I can't help suspecting that some people want to rigidly adhere to a particular genre, whereas others just want to make what sounds best, and the former get upset when the latter become more popular because they're "selling out"... Yeah, it does nothing for my credibility to say that I like Moby, but listen to Everloving and tell me it doesn't move you, in spite of knowing exactly why it works.

 

...There is so many right and wrong ways to use any method or tool to create, improvise and record music... There is no right or wrong way to do something... Techniques, methods and tools are not important anymore is how they are being used that matters, its the human(s) with their own brain fuel mindset behind them that matter.

 

ANYTHING CAN BE INSPIRING TO THE RIGHT MIND

 

and sadly anything can be uninspiring to the wrong minds

 

Yes, exactly.