can we stop using the 'brutal electro' patch from massive?

[John Locke]

@slothrop and shonx - yeah ok, fuck it if it works. but extra props if its also original (which of course it still could b even with a preset, depends on what u do with it). and no, i'm not a big fan of musique concrete or pure sound design shit, but still think presets r kind of wak tho, but maybe thats just an irrational prejudice

[John Locke]

I kind of think that the idea that it's important to be a pure and driven artist in complete control of every aspect of your creation is a load of trumped up bollocks invented in the 19th century that's got annoyingly stuck into the popular imagination.

hmmmm...another (less negative) way to put it might b that the role of artist has changed over time. nothing wrong, particularly annoying, or even avoidable, about that

[shonky]

I think it's more to do with the fact that most of the software I've bought has fairly shit presets to be honest (seem to constantly be designed by trance monkeys somewhere), but if I was after a reese (heaven forbid) I could just flick to that, play the tune, resample it and do what I wanted rather than have to design the reese first.

I wouldn't expect a writer to make his own paper and ink, and there's plenty of people that can make good music straight off the synth if they choose, and it usually makes them more creative musically. I find a lot of the tweaking and technical side quite dull to be honest cause I just want to do melodies and riddims most of the time. It's good to have the knowledge, but I'm not going to feel like a cheat for doing something that saves me shitloads of time so that I can do what I want to.

Best not to use the well rinsed ones though deffo

[two oh one]

I'd rather I heard a memorable track that used a preset than a forgettable track where the 'producer' spent a week just getting just the right bass soundZZZZzzzzzzz....

Can we stop making dull and ultimately forgettable knob tweak fests?

[shonky]

I'd rather I heard a memorable track that used a preset than a forgettable track where the 'producer' spent a week just getting just the right bass soundZZZZzzzzzzz....

Can we stop making dull and ultimately forgettable knob tweak fests?

And use more than one note in your basslines please

[wang]

I'd rather I heard a memorable track that used a preset than a forgettable track where the 'producer' spent a week just getting just the right bass soundZZZZzzzzzzz....

Can we stop making dull and ultimately forgettable knob tweak fests?

And use more than one note in your basslines please

And when you do manage to use several notes, make sure they're in the same scale, you shit-eared tossers.

[tempest]

lol!

[slothrop]

This is turning into a grumpy version of the Production Bible.

Hipass your track at around 20-30Hz to avoid wasting headroom on stuff that won't get reproduced anyway, tnuc-nose.

[John Locke]

hey, this is my kind of thread: quit producing now, knackerweed!

[thesynthesist]

sum tnuc will probably write a thread exposing u on a forum somewhere

Bingo

[boyd]

I'd rather someone used a preset and came up with a good tune than fiddled around for ages getting a bass sound and then wrote shite with it

given that what sets electronic music apart from most other types of music is that its 50 percent about creating sounds, not just melodies and riddems, then surely using presets IS kind of lame? or at least not AS creative as making yr own.

I'd agree, sometimes I think it's more than 50%.

With a great big, dirty, original synth sound your actual melody is less important. A lot of big tunes rely on how interesting the bass sounds rather than how interesting the melody that it's playing actually is. With a presets or just standard sounding synths I think the melodies need to be much more interesting.

Both ways take skill and can result in equally good tunes.

[shonky]

With a great big, dirty, original synth sound your actual melody is less important. A lot of big tunes rely on how interesting the bass sounds rather than how interesting the melody that it's playing actually is. With a presets or just standard sounding synths I think the melodies need to be much more interesting.

That's probably why I find loads of those big tunes so fucking boring though. I think it'd be interesting to have a production competition where people actually had to think more musically rather than just playing a one-note bassline ad nauseum

[two oh one]

musically

Don't use that M word in here! It's not music, geez! It's undagrarnd, yeah?

Thems tracks you 'eard, not music, yeah, lol, yeah, innit?

Music notes is frowned upon in the undagrarnd, innit? Geez? Yeah? Lol! The minute you change to another note, then you're just obviously a show off muso swot. They'll call you all Liberace an shit, yeah?



Just sit down, shut up and get into the tedium of tweaking patches wot only other producers will care about, yeah? Make music for other producers, not yourself and listeners. Yeah? You're just making 16 bar intros before dropping a bass line wot did took you for ages, yeah?

[slothrop]

^ That is easily the most pimpin thing I've seen this year, I want that so I can rock it down the pub in nottingham.

I can see both viewpoints tbh - sometimes it's great to hear a tune that works with simple sounds and great rhythm / melody to do something really exciting, but sometimes it's really exciting to hear something totally raw and stripped down and minimal that makes you feel like you've been shot out of a cannon by playing just a single note:
Hey, check this amazing noise:
Weeaaoouwowoweeeaaauuurrrrrrt
Here it comes again:
Weeaaoouwowoweeeaaauuurrrrrrt
Now backwards, with echo:
Trrrruuuaaaeeewowowuooaaee... ee... e... e...


Part of what I like about dubstep is being able to hear both in the same set, sometimes both in the same tune.

[ill gates]

heh heh.

my work here is done

[donna_dada]

You better put your money where your mouth is and rock my shambhala world

[shane]

is brutal electro 2 still ok?

[ill gates]

You better put your money where your mouth is and rock my shambhala world

i am going to rock the living fuck RIGHT out of your balls sheena... right out of them!

[blip]

Had never used Massive before, but the first time I started it and heard the init sound, or very first preset, I thought of quite a few tunes...

I have been trying the "make your own sounds" route. But as it seems I happen to be even worse at making sounds than tunes, will be less pretentious and give presets a go.

[el hombre invisible]

I write for the creative process, and that includes sound design. Tired of spending so much of your 'production' time flipping patches?...then pick a synth and learn it in and out. You'll find that you will eventually be able to create the sound you are imagining in your head instead of comprimising by using the closest patch. I get the feeling that some use patches because they think it's too complicated or time consuming to create your own, but I think the reality is just opposite. I'm a control freak in general, so guess it could be a personality thing...to each their own.