swears
preppy-kei
Well, I don't think so really, but Brian Eno does. I was reading an interview with him from a couple of years ago in one of my mates' music technology mags. (Sorry, I don't think it's online) Anyway, it struck a chord with me. His basic argument was: anyone with a modicum of taste can knock up a decent sounding loop in Reason/Fruity Loops or whatever, and then build up a lacklustre track around it.
He compared it to how something like perfume is marketed now: you find the demographic, consider the pricing, draw up an image, then the LAST thing you actually decide is what it smells like. You're building a track up around a weak idea, a mere shell of a song.
Whereas, if you where stuck in front of a say...a piano, you would have to work out the fundamentals of a tune before you even got to the rest of it. The work would have to be strong enough on it's own merits before you got into all the production, effects, various sonic tarting-up procedures. It made me think as well about the roots of techno thread and how those early producers had to work with very limited equipment. Your limitations become fuel for your creativity. Eno talked a lot in the article about how he still mucked about with his trusty old Yamaha DX-7 and how he really loved to get into it's awkward and antiquated programming system.
It's a compelling argument, and I'm starting to think the democracy of software isn't such a great thing after all, I mean imagine working for Warp records and having to come into the office to be greeted by a huge pile of 74 minute long CDs of obscure "IDM" noodling. Yikes.
He compared it to how something like perfume is marketed now: you find the demographic, consider the pricing, draw up an image, then the LAST thing you actually decide is what it smells like. You're building a track up around a weak idea, a mere shell of a song.
Whereas, if you where stuck in front of a say...a piano, you would have to work out the fundamentals of a tune before you even got to the rest of it. The work would have to be strong enough on it's own merits before you got into all the production, effects, various sonic tarting-up procedures. It made me think as well about the roots of techno thread and how those early producers had to work with very limited equipment. Your limitations become fuel for your creativity. Eno talked a lot in the article about how he still mucked about with his trusty old Yamaha DX-7 and how he really loved to get into it's awkward and antiquated programming system.
It's a compelling argument, and I'm starting to think the democracy of software isn't such a great thing after all, I mean imagine working for Warp records and having to come into the office to be greeted by a huge pile of 74 minute long CDs of obscure "IDM" noodling. Yikes.