guy from BBC says RDJ can't play keyboard (re: piano stuff on Druqks). WTF?

[Guest xclark]

relax, this is all de rigueur for a watmm featured artist subforum. visit the BoC subforum and you'll feel better about this thread.

 

Ah, good to know. I'll stay away from there.

 

I can play piano alright, but I've always sequenced melodies for my electronic music. I figured he probably did the same, as most of his melodies don't sound like performed melodies. Also, this was probably already covered, but I think most people don't consider the sequencer an instrument because it isn't performed live, same way Cubase or Pro-tools isn't considered a musical instrument.

 

Yeah, I'd have to agree that sequencers/samplers/etc. are instruments.

[jchgf]

It's interesting comparing Alarm Will Sound's Avril 14th cover to the original. It shows what the human element adds to performances with more slight variations in tempo and velocity, adding expressiveness. The original sounds more robotic in comparison, though it has obviously some expressiveness programmed in.

 

That said, I still prefer the original version, mainly because it is miked up close and sounds better.

[zlemflolia]

i think the interviewer was talking about the other twin because avril 14th is really good

[sinesurfin]

I don't think rich is that good of a piano player, but I couldn't know. He has admitted in a couple interviews he's pretty ignorant of music theory so this would make sense.

 

uh no he did not say that, can you show the interviews for proof?

 

he said it maybe once that he can't read sheet music.

[beerwolf]

Richard should learn to play asap, then he might make tunes like these which is the way forward imo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOiuDAPHxCE&feature=related

[Guest genocyber]

i heard aphex also cant sing

[chassis]

I heard he's never even seen a beetle.

[beerwolf]

I wonder if he still wants to suck on the milk mans wife's tits?

 

Firm, fruity and delicious.

[ferro4prez]

(my first post, but I've been lurking for 6 years)

 

The way I see this, it is no different than how classical composers played one/two instruments (or maybe none!), but wrote for an entire orchestra. It's the understanding of sound, the limitations/possibilities of the instruments, and how they all interact that is paramount. They wrote notes on a staff, Richard writes them into a sequencer. Exactly the same.

 

=Ferro=

[Hugh Mughnus]

(my first post, but I've been lurking for 6 years)

 

The way I see this, it is no different than how classical composers played one/two instruments (or maybe none!), but wrote for an entire orchestra. It's the understanding of sound, the limitations/possibilities of the instruments, and how they all interact that is paramount. They wrote notes on a staff, Richard writes them into a sequencer. Exactly the same.

 

=Ferro=

 

good way to put it! Welcome to WATMM.

[gritbox]

have you heard of the concept of using a midi keyboard to input steps onto a sequencer? it's quite common

 

Yes, you misunderstood what I typed. If the line you are attempting to write has some sort of irregular structure it may be simpler to place the midi by hand with no quantization. Unless you're good with a piano, it can be more cumbersome to take the time to learn what you are trying to write, then record it with either midi or audio. Different methods work better for different people. You can play it in, click it in, run it back at a quarter tempo and play it in with one finger, tap in something with quantize then wiggle the tempo knob about, and more!

[luke viia]

(my first post, but I've been lurking for 6 years)

 

The way I see this, it is no different than how classical composers played one/two instruments (or maybe none!), but wrote for an entire orchestra. It's the understanding of sound, the limitations/possibilities of the instruments, and how they all interact that is paramount. They wrote notes on a staff, Richard writes them into a sequencer. Exactly the same.

 

=Ferro=

 

[joshuatxuk]

(my first post, but I've been lurking for 6 years)

 

The way I see this, it is no different than how classical composers played one/two instruments (or maybe none!), but wrote for an entire orchestra. It's the understanding of sound, the limitations/possibilities of the instruments, and how they all interact that is paramount. They wrote notes on a staff, Richard writes them into a sequencer. Exactly the same.

 

=Ferro=

 

good way to put it! Welcome to WATMM.

 

Ditto, nice succint comparison. Well said.

[marf]

Prince can't program a sequencer. He played the bass to i would die 4 u BY HAND!

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

Prince can't program a sequencer. He played the bass to i would die 4 u BY HAND!

Whooooaaaaaah! i'm genius!

[Silent Member]

(my first post, but I've been lurking for 6 years)

 

The way I see this, it is no different than how classical composers played one/two instruments (or maybe none!), but wrote for an entire orchestra. It's the understanding of sound, the limitations/possibilities of the instruments, and how they all interact that is paramount. They wrote notes on a staff, Richard writes them into a sequencer. Exactly the same.

 

=Ferro=

 

good way to put it! Welcome to WATMM.

 

Ditto, nice succint comparison. Well said.

That also means they had to be able to "visualize" the sound of the entire orchestra without hearing it when writing the music, so I find it all the more impressive. With midi you can always hear what's going on.

[brian trageskin]

(my first post, but I've been lurking for 6 years)

 

The way I see this, it is no different than how classical composers played one/two instruments (or maybe none!), but wrote for an entire orchestra. It's the understanding of sound, the limitations/possibilities of the instruments, and how they all interact that is paramount. They wrote notes on a staff, Richard writes them into a sequencer. Exactly the same.

 

=Ferro=

 

good way to put it! Welcome to WATMM.

 

Ditto, nice succint comparison. Well said.

That also means they had to be able to "visualize" the sound of the entire orchestra without hearing it when writing the music, so I find it all the more impressive. With midi you can always hear what's going on.

 

i don't think you can compare what electronic musicians do with what classical composers do. making electronic music is mainly dealing with music production, sound processing etc, it's mostly about controlling signals. classical music cares less about such things, it's more about the 'inner' language of music, producing sheet music for others to execute.

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

i don't think you can compare what electronic musicians do with what classical composers do. making electronic music is mainly dealing with music production, sound processing etc, it's mostly about controlling signals. classical music cares less about such things, it's more about the 'inner' language of music, producing sheet music for others to execute.

What? Why electronic musicians & not electronic composers? Electronic musicians can't compose? lol - u must write "i don't think you can compare what electronic composers do with what classical composers do" or "i don't think you can compare what electronic musicians do with what classical musicians do"...

[Silent Member]

not really

[AnalogueCreamPie]

First of all, RDJ can play keys pretty well. Second, even if he couldn't & he only programmed his melodies... so what? Making music isn't about how you can do it, its about if you can do it.

[marf]

that's what we think. we get it. it's the majority of people out there who watch the american idol / xfactor shows who think it's all about the execution. We know to respect the songwriter, but many many people don't. I suspect aphex probably doesn't care anyway

[Guest xclark]

First of all, RDJ can play keys pretty well.

 

why do you say that?

[murve33]

(my first post, but I've been lurking for 6 years)

 

The way I see this, it is no different than how classical composers played one/two instruments (or maybe none!), but wrote for an entire orchestra. It's the understanding of sound, the limitations/possibilities of the instruments, and how they all interact that is paramount. They wrote notes on a staff, Richard writes them into a sequencer. Exactly the same.

 

=Ferro=

 

good way to put it! Welcome to WATMM.

 

Ditto, nice succint comparison. Well said.

That also means they had to be able to "visualize" the sound of the entire orchestra without hearing it when writing the music, so I find it all the more impressive. With midi you can always hear what's going on.

 

i don't think you can compare what electronic musicians do with what classical composers do. making electronic music is mainly dealing with music production, sound processing etc, it's mostly about controlling signals. classical music cares less about such things, it's more about the 'inner' language of music, producing sheet music for others to execute.

In a sense, Electronic Composing is far more in depth than Classical.

 

In Classical music you pretty much notate what dynamics and how you are to play certain phrases through sheet music, and the musician translates your notes when they perform. And Romantic Classical music is far more in depth than Baroque because I don't think they even wrote down dynamics and how to play phrases and just left it up to the musicians/conductor.

 

To rephrase: As far as controlling individual aspects of a composition; Baroque < Classical < Electronic

 

In conclusion, electronic musicians are control freaks who have robot ears.

[jchgf]

In a sense, Electronic Composing is far more in depth than Classical.

 

In Classical music you pretty much notate what dynamics and how you are to play certain phrases through sheet music, and the musician translates your notes when they perform. And Romantic Classical music is far more in depth than Baroque because I don't think they even wrote down dynamics and how to play phrases and just left it up to the musicians/conductor.

 

To rephrase: As far as controlling individual aspects of a composition; Baroque < Classical < Electronic

 

In conclusion, electronic musicians are control freaks who have robot ears.

 

In terms of mastery of the art of composition, I think there has been a regression since the baroque, romantic and classical era. Even most of RDJ's compositions are fairly simple, even simplistic, compared to the best of the crop from past centuries.

 

Now when I think of composition, I think of pitches, harmony, rhythm, etc. Not timbre, samples and mixing and all these aspects that most producers spend a lot of time working on. Maybe you could equate volume mixing with dynamics, but as far as I'm concerned, that's more a matter of production than composition.

 

Sometimes, I daydream about taking a computer box with Reason or whatever music software in a time machine and give it to Bach or Beethoven. I wonder what they'd do with it. Well, it would probably suck, production-wise. But I think that modern electronic music-making has shifted the attention of the composer (and listener) from composition to production. Modern music production is complex and offers an infinity of possibilities to musicians, but this field of possibility is fairly random and we are far from from the mathematical mastery of harmonic composition from the classic era.

 

That said, I'd rather listen to RDJ than Beethoven most of the time, of course, but that's a cultural preference.

[zlemflolia]

Modern day music is more percussion based and most people simply aren't capable of recognizing melodic complexity. Modern day melodies are very simple, especially in Western culture. Everything follows predictable patterns and modulations.

 

I think composers from any time earlier than 100 years ago would be astounded by the percussive complexity of our music (some of it, at least), but bored to death by its lack of melodic complexity.