Technical Knowledge vs. Imagination

[wub]

Technical knowledge is not a strong basis for art, it is a necessity, it gives you the visual vocabulary to command a viewer's emotions, without this sound basis in visual communication your communication of emotoion - which is ultimately the goal of all good art - is a hit and miss affair.

Technical knowledge should always be a precursor to imagination, for imagination without the skill to pull it off leads only to frustration.

Agree/disagree/thoughts?

[Terpit]

You dont really need either, everyone knows EDM producers just hit buttons at random.

[Genevieve]

Like most of these statements, a total overgeneralisation that applies to some and not to others. And in electronic music, 'technicality' and 'creativity' can be kind of hard to discern anyway

Edit: oh it's from DOA, yeah makes sense.

[alpz]

While I believe that without imagination all of your technical knowledge is asinine (just ask Tiesto), I definitely agree that without the technical knowledge your imagination will only leave you frustrated, I've been there (still am frequently). You need a good balance of both (preferably a high amount of both) to make next level stuff, regardless of medium.

[JTMMusicuk]

id say this only applies to EDM, with painting, modern art and instrumental music you deffintily dont need the technical knowledge and the lack of technical knowledge is sometimes mistaken for knowledge, think grunge music - although the genre spurted out alot of amazing guitarists it also had its fair share people who didnt espesically know how to shread or whatever but they could be imaginitive with how they used the instrument without knowing exactly how it was going to sound before they did it....using feedback for the most part
within EDM though it really depends what you determine to be 'technical knowledge' after all burial and Ill gates didnt know about synthesis or much about their daws when they first got signed; Ill gates in particular just worked with samples.
Obviously you cant get any where without imagination but you can get somewhere without technical knowledge depending on how you define it

[samurai]

I still would classify the above (the examples of burial and ill gates) as technical knowledge. those guys wouldn't be able to rock their equipment and make the tunes they did without technical knowledge. technical knowledge basically refers to craftsmanship. just because an artist uses their tool in an unorthodox way doesn't mean they lack technical knowledge.

everybody has an imagination. the talent of the artist is being able to physically realise their thoughts through their craft. some people are more technically adept than others, but they will lack the required "imagination" to produce quality art. some people will have great ideas but won't have the knowledge or skill to translate these to reality. a balance is always needed.

[JTMMusicuk]

Surely though there is not much 'technical' about just cutting and pasting, i think the discussion wouldnt be too interesting if it was the case of 'can you make computer music without being able to use a computer'

[wub]

Surely though there is not much 'technical' about just cutting and pasting, i think the discussion wouldnt be too interesting if it was the case of 'can you make computer music without being able to use a computer'

But surely you would have to use something to make something...Burial (as Samurai said) is a great example. Didn't have any fancy shit, just had Soundforge and samples but knew how to work them to beyond the point of anyone before.

[JTMMusicuk]

thats my point, technical is a very loose term meaning you know how to use the technology you have to the best advangtage
so obviously if you cant work your technology well it wont sound good

Edit: just realised i wrote can instead of cant...shit

[Dystinkt]

nobody ever had success from randomly pressing shit on their computer, every artist in EDM has a lot of knowledge of what they use. Burial as an example is just shit hot with soundforge, he always knew what he was doing, he didnt timestretch samples and place drum hits by hand without knowing why he was doing it. Technical knowledge in EDM is as important as creativity, because you cant express your ideas well without it. And sometimes it masks a lack of creativity, like creativity can mask a lack of technical knowledge.

[Terpit]

nobody ever had success from randomly pressing shit on their computer, every artist in EDM has a lot of knowledge of what they use. Burial as an example is just shit hot with soundforge, he always knew what he was doing, he didnt timestretch samples and place drum hits by hand without knowing why he was doing it. Technical knowledge in EDM is as important as creativity, because you cant express your ideas well without it. And sometimes it masks a lack of creativity, like creativity can mask a lack of technical knowledge.

I think I got a bite

[wub]

And sometimes it masks a lack of creativity, like creativity can mask a lack of technical knowledge.

So paradoxically one can cover for a lack of the other, but both are required.

[Terpit]

And sometimes it masks a lack of creativity, like creativity can mask a lack of technical knowledge.

So paradoxically one can cover for a lack of the other, but both are required.

Without the technical knowledge you can't Do anything IMO, at least if youre creative you'll have ideas.

[NinjaEdit]

The fallacy of technique vs creativity is the vs.

[wub]

Vs. does not always mean in competition...it can also be used for comparative purposes

[travis_baker]

Surely though there is not much 'technical' about just cutting and pasting, i think the discussion wouldnt be too interesting if it was the case of 'can you make computer music without being able to use a computer'

But surely you would have to use something to make something...Burial (as Samurai said) is a great example. Didn't have any fancy shit, just had Soundforge and samples but knew how to work them to beyond the point of anyone before.

i think taste has o lot more effect on the way things sound than creativitie, in my opinion making electronic music is mostly descision making.... fitting to taste. but i could be wrong.

[legskeattch]

From my experience creativity has decreased as technical knowledge has increased.

I used to make mad creative tunes that sounded terrible, now my technical knowledge outweighs my creativity.

[wub]

From my experience creativity has decreased as technical knowledge has increased.

I used to make mad creative tunes that sounded terrible, now my technical knowledge outweighs my creativity.

Creativity doesn't decrease, but maybe the increase in your technical knowledge means you are now focussing more on the sound than the idea.

[JTMMusicuk]

sometimes being technical is the creative part

[slothrop]

thats my point, technical is a very loose term meaning you know how to use the technology you have to the best advangtage
so obviously if you can work your technology well it wont sound good

I think the really big thing that happens in production discussions on the internet is that "technical knowledge", "skill," "technique" etc end up basically referring to mixing and sound design. So people lose sight of the fact that there's a whole lot to be learned and understood about chords, rhythms, structure, phrasing etc