Digital Music as CGI

[luka]

 

[luka]

thats a picture of a Chinese man against a red background.

 

[shiels]

The effect on music of headphones is possibly underestimated. I mean that there's a lot more people with headphones than there was before smartphones (mp3 players even were much less ubiquitous).

Some of this stuff seems made for noise cancelling headphones.

its pornographic.

 

[luka]

So much dissensus chat is basically I've already said this and articulated it better!

There I was thinking about sound denoting an operation, a movement, and how a point is reached at which that movement, that operation, is rationalised into engineering, away from the exigencies of an individual human body, abstracted into an energy equation.

To hit a drum becomes a mechanised procedure of downward pressure, rationalised, a piston, without the complex rotational, hinged architecture of shoulder, elbow wrist, bicep, tricep, hand etc

Bodies are abstracted into machines but then the machines themselves are abstracted out of existence. The stage we are at now.

 

[wektor]

why does mistreating the amen break sound so good to our ears?
what's happening to the virtual drummer while we're doing that?

 

[luka]

what do you mean by mistreating exactly?

 

[shiels]

Yes but the use of space is different with the weirdest stuff in that it feels lke rather than listening to a certain time and space, or interaction of musical elements, rhythm texture etc .... all the spaces is sucked out and it’s this serving up of these gross tacky and thrilling fetish objects. Extremely defined things contrasted against a void in a very knowing precise camp way

 

[wektor]

makes me think about how if you loop 2+ simple synthesised sounds in any sort of configuration they do start to resemble a movement of some sort, more elements the more complex the movement, you can even somehow differentiate what's back/forth and so on

 

[wektor]

what do you mean by mistreating exactly?

speeding up, stretching, cutting, pitching up and down, if you slow it down you get this giant stoned jazz drummer, a golem perhaps

 

[luka]

speeding up, stretching, cutting, pitching up and down, if you slow it down you get this giant stoned jazz drummer, a golem perhaps

this gives me the same feeling. the time medium itself has slowed down

 

[mvuent]

makes me think about how if you loop 2+ simple synthesised sounds in any sort of configuration they do start to resemble a movement of some sort, more elements the more complex the movement, you can even somehow differentiate what's back/forth and so on

music writers sometimes mistakenly assume that having a lot of drum layers or rich spectral complexity is just a matter of being a showoff, flexing technical capability--when it's actually a matter of achieving more vivid, beautiful animation.

 

[thirdform]

also that is a very fair point, among the people I know (some who claim to be into boo hoo genres such as harsh noise, industrial gaba, generally sounds overdriven to hell and back) still feel extremely put off by pure sine tones.
so you're having a wank over how supposedly heavy this terrorcore record is, but you cannot handle a little bit of the cute japanese lady jamming on a sampler?
ok mate

pure and digital is the new heavy

To be fair I can't get on with her records because there's too much negative space, but not as a rhythmic augmentation like you get in jungle or even (coughs) dubstep or dub reggae.

I prefer Alva Noto's early 2000s work for that sort of thing. Digital abstraction but still full of dynamic changes.

 

[luka]

vegetable time or mineral time.

 

[wektor]

makes me think about how if you loop 2+ simple synthesised sounds in any sort of configuration they do start to resemble a movement of some sort, more elements the more complex the movement, you can even somehow differentiate what's back/forth and so on

just realized why do I dislike some of the hyperpop newschool stuff so much.
the sound design might be good but it simply does not make sense.
ie why in the fuck is this giant morphing blob opening a can of soda now?

 

[mvuent]

other than "motion capture" (like eshun described) i think part of the appeal of the amen break is its really distinctive drone in the treble range. even if you can't hear the details, just catching that aspect of the sound establishes a specific vibe.

 

[shiels]

 

[boxedjoy]

guess that's where (european) hardcore came from, man this kick sounds masssive, why would the tune need anything else?
still awaiting for purely kickdrum 4/4 based music that would only change the timbre of the kick slightly every 16 bars
no obnoxious fx

there's an interview with Thomas Bangalter where he talks about how if there were two songs that were just a kick and a hi-hat for four minutes, you would still have one you would prefer based on tone and timbre

 

[boxedjoy]

always loved this one, the joy of monotony and repetition

 

[shiels]

just realized why do I dislike some of the hyperpop newschool stuff so much.
the sound design might be good but it simply does not make sense.
ie why in the fuck is this giant morphing blob opening a can of soda now?

but it does make some sense if you think about the advertising jingle sound design pornographic cinematic CGI innovation drive we're discussing

 

[wektor]

always loved this one, the joy of monotony and repetition

remix