How do you record your hardware into the computer?

[sweepstakes]

 

 

I realised that in the early '90s Orbital, FSOL, Aphex etc. were all recording stuff live to tape and as these are all my favourite artists, decided I just need to learn to up my game and get good enough to do that. If I want to do something really detailed I'll do it in-box; if I'm doing something with hardware I'll just whack it as a stereo track into my 4-track so I can add a bit of improv on top if necessary and then do a stereo mix into my laptop. It's really quite liberating thinking like that.

Missed this post but this right here, especially the liberating thought process part. I feel like it makes you look at life differently, it reminds you that you can do so much with gesture and timing.

 

It's just so much more fun and satisfying grabbing a good jam than tracking every last bit of navel fluff, culling through it all, and editing it to kingdom come.

 

It also means you can pull it off live, almost by definition.

[ignatius]

^^^ yeah.. when you can set up and perform a track doing a few takes it's really fun and definitely liberating! i know people who do amazing stuff this way... some are just natural performers or come from a background of battle DJ skills so just _need_ to do it that way and can't be bothered with multi-tracking and mixing and all that goes along w/that.

 

venetian snares is working this way and has for a while it seems.. all hardware and rocking out and capturing it. bing bang boom done.

 

i will do a sort of half way into that sometimes but usually i'm not very good at it. with the modular i like to record long jams and multitrack it all and go back and pick out the parts i like and then mix/rearrange etc.. anything with a sequencer lends itself well to that method really..

 

in the computer that's certainly possible with lot's of preparation using something like Live or audiomulch.

 

hard drive space is so cheap these days there's no reason not to just do many takes and different versions or stereo versions then multi track versions or whatever.

 

if you watch that 1996 squarepusher interview when he's got his few bits of gear piled up and an 8 track he's just turning the mix into a performance and his stuff has evolved in that way as well just having wicked chops of course.. but he does that same kind of performance with peavy PC1600 and his eventides.. controlling all the fx live.. god i hope he puts out other versions of that era's recordings..

[AAAAh]

i record to a roland vs-840GX with an SD Card, then transfer it to my pc using a roland DUO-CAPTURE mk2. Its kind of a shitty way of doing it.

[purlieu]

It's interesting, if not surprising, that this has mostly turned into a polarising "super-edits" vs "raw one take jams" discussion. Such is the way of the internet.

I love both approaches and everything in between. I love the aforementioned Laughing Stock by Talk Talk, which is an album that could never have come about live (and thus the band's refusal to tour is and Spirit of Eden). I also love, for example, early Aphex, which has low production standards and occasional bits which are probably errors, but sound fucking great. Both can produce enduring music.

The key thing is what aspect of the process you enjoy. For me, I get far more pleasure out of the performance side than the editing side, thus my preferred move to hardware and live takes. You always make the best music when your heart's in it, so if you prefer doing intricate editing with your mouse then that's going to give good results. I hate it, so more time spent perfecting my piece through various live takes and jams, the better quality my music's going to be. The fact that lots of my favourite artists have made music like that in the past (and still do - I sometimes talk to Brian from FSOL and he says he's always doing jams to stereo tape; Syro was recorded direct to tape too, I believe) means I don't have to sacrifice my style to do that.

[Guest Chesney]

Yeah, it's hard though. I find myself slightly annoyed that I can't do something that would need editing so I try and do what's best. I find editing tedious and not fun unless I have a eureka moment while doing it and the track turns into something new.

The fun part is to make everything outside the box and get it working together. The reason I have a hard time finishing things or getting things to a satisfying level I can be proud of. Still not there yet.

 

Everyone has different ideas of fun, we have to accept that and not keep assuming that we know something they don't by doing it our way. Sometimes it is beneficial for people to learn of new ways though so that's why it's still good to talk about it, like we are ;)

[LimpyLoo]

 

I just cannot imagine starting a random jam from scratch and perform it so flawlessly that it could go on an album. I am really interested in others' workflow when recording hardware.

That's pretty much all this guy did.

Keep in mind that all the Electric Era studio choons are jams based on loose compositions...and heavily edited

As early as Miles In The Sky he was cut-and-pasting sections together

The first choon on Bitches Brew even has a literal copy-and-pasted repeated section

So...editing. Don't forget all the editing.

[Guest WNS000]

Interesting stuff, Limpy. Didn't know that.

[psn]

Escaping an iterative process is near impossible.

[xox]

end product! that's what matters to me. yes, i like to talk about form too (i no, why wouldn't we talk about it? i mean, i post at gearslutz regulary for about 8 yrs) but lets us not forget that emotions and artistic ideas is what's keeping us here, right? so do it like you want. there's no one way, nor two. heh

 

but what bothers me is that people was always much more interested in form...it's analogue, it's tape, it's modular, it was made in one take, it's all max, it's all supercollider, it's generative, it's algorithmic...ect. = therefore that music must be ingenius. heh2

 

also, people like to listen to artists which they perceive that they could imitate, either in technique or in style. heh3

[Guest WNS000]

end product!

 

Absolutely.

[Guest Chesney]

^^^ seconded. Well, the journey has to be fun but it's all in search of that perfect end product that defines me.

 

I hate the whole, I did it this way on this and this and this, etc etc. I use what I use because I want to not to keep up with the Jones' and pretense.

Many people do and it's kinda sad. I do get excited with gear though and love to talk about it but that's just because I love it and i'm a geek not because i'm showing off or trying to be someone.

[ignatius]

 

 

I just cannot imagine starting a random jam from scratch and perform it so flawlessly that it could go on an album. I am really interested in others' workflow when recording hardware.

That's pretty much all this guy did.

Keep in mind that all the Electric Era studio choons are jams based on loose compositions...and heavily edited

As early as Miles In The Sky he was cut-and-pasting sections together

The first choon on Bitches Brew even has a literal copy-and-pasted repeated section

So...editing. Don't forget all the editing.

 

 

i highly recommend getting the Bill Laswell "Panthallassa: the music of miles davis". he got all the original takes from the the "on the corner" era recordings (in a silent way, big fun etc) and and put them back together in what he called "closer to what happened in the studio" and used more or less the same process as Teo Macero when the albums were compiled from various takes. the bill laswell mixes are fantastic and take advantage of better studio gear.. there's more low end.. more detail etc.. they're just amazing songs.

 

there are numerous interviews with Teo Macero about the studio process with miles davis.. worth hunting down if that's something that interests you.

 

also, go get "Big Fun" on disc. it's so good and weird. they did some weird stuff when mixing.. all the drums panning left to right rather abruptly... it's a pretty drugged out record too. at least it feels that way to me.. full of longing or something.

 

as for process i use.. i'll just add that at times it's hyper edit in the computer.. others it's jam session and done. just depends on mood and the track :)

[purlieu]

I'm always trying to find the right balance between pleasure in making it and quality of the end result. It used to be so easy back when I hadn't a clue what I was doing, but the more knowledge I have, the harder I find it to get the balance right. Like, do I work hard at something I hate doing to get a better result - or do I just have fun and end up with something that I wouldn't buy if someone else had made it?

[Braintree]

I've worked 'inside the box' for ages and finally got sick of it, so I bought an Apogee Duet to record some stuff live. I got really bored writing in automation data and really yearned to be able to twist a knob and instantaneously have the sound affected.

 

One thing that I'd like to have in my music is a lot more movement and expression from the synths themselves, so this will be a freeing experiment. Also should be good for general sound design.

[LimpyLoo]

Oh god same here, Braintree

[Guest WNS000]

 

One thing that I'd like to have in my music is a lot more movement and expression from the synths themselves, so this will be a freeing experiment. Also should be good for general sound design.

 

I am concentrating on this a lot lately. Really trying to improve my sound design because, no matter how good a composition, if sounds suck it does not work in the end. I am glad I have Blofeld for this. I can quickly try some basic sound design stuff that I managed to skip during my years of music making. I have started from complicated and am now going back to more basic stuff from time to time but I try to perfect them so that I can express more with doing less.

[MisterE]

for me its not some big spiritual decision, i either edit or don't. i also keep in mind that nobody else is gonna give a fuk

[LimpyLoo]

for me its not some big spiritual decision, i either edit or don't. i also keep in mind that nobody else is gonna give a fuk

Self-fulfilling prophecy imo

[ignatius]

for me its not some big spiritual decision, i either edit or don't. i also keep in mind that nobody else is gonna give a fuk

 

yeah. it's just a thing to do so do whatever is needed. i think trying to just be pragmatic about stuff can plow through any road blocks.

[Guest WNS000]

Yeah, just using whatever works.

[Guest WNS000]

i also keep in mind that nobody else is gonna give a fuk

 

I don't agree with this. I am doing the music for myself and I want it to be as good as possible. I have no mindset "this is acceptable for a clueless listener".

[TubularCorporation]

 

 

 

I just cannot imagine starting a random jam from scratch and perform it so flawlessly that it could go on an album. I am really interested in others' workflow when recording hardware.

That's pretty much all this guy did.

Keep in mind that all the Electric Era studio choons are jams based on loose compositions...and heavily edited

As early as Miles In The Sky he was cut-and-pasting sections together

The first choon on Bitches Brew even has a literal copy-and-pasted repeated section

So...editing. Don't forget all the editing.

 

 

i highly recommend getting the Bill Laswell "Panthallassa: the music of miles davis". he got all the original takes from the the "on the corner" era recordings (in a silent way, big fun etc) and and put them back together in what he called "closer to what happened in the studio" and used more or less the same process as Teo Macero when the albums were compiled from various takes. the bill laswell mixes are fantastic and take advantage of better studio gear.. there's more low end.. more detail etc.. they're just amazing songs.

 

there are numerous interviews with Teo Macero about the studio process with miles davis.. worth hunting down if that's something that interests you.

 

also, go get "Big Fun" on disc. it's so good and weird. they did some weird stuff when mixing.. all the drums panning left to right rather abruptly... it's a pretty drugged out record too. at least it feels that way to me.. full of longing or something.

 

as for process i use.. i'll just add that at times it's hyper edit in the computer.. others it's jam session and done. just depends on mood and the track :)

 

 

Seconding Big Fun! That, Agharta and Get Up With It are my favorite things he did.