I understand from a verified source on AudioZ that, in order to be a proper digital musician I have to be able to make a snare drum with Artutria's Moog Modular.
Then my life would be complete and I will be destined for greatness when I've learned this.

Big Hug for my STUPIFIEDMONKEY buddy

read comments :P

Greetings PARAPLU020

 

I'm not sure that's quite the point he's making. I think he's essentially complaining that there is no longer a real ambition or appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. People just horde stuff, fiddle a bit with the presets here and there, but they never dive any deeper. It's become too easy to create superficially interesting soufflés of artfulness, but once you start to look at the details the whole things just falls apart as a load of 'product'. The half-life of music has seriously gone down in some respects.

 

Seems his ONLY point is his incredible superiority in EVERYTHING!

He can tweak, create and even rave better than all of us.

I`ll just bet he has a tiny penis!

 

I understand and agree in a way. But come one, nowadays there's SO MUCH you have to master ! Songwriting, lyrics writing, recording, mixing (Maybe mastering), playing instruments, learning architectures of all your synths/virtual instruments, you have to find a shitty work to buy some gear, you have to be a salesman if you want to sell your music, then a business man and I probably forgot a lot...

And all of this because of what ? Because people can't work together anymore, in the past there was lyricists, sound engineers, guitarists, keyboardists, singers etc etc etc... A guy for arranging your song, one for recording it, one to sell it and again and again...

So what do you call "ambition" ? Loosing your time on all those "details" or focusing on most important things if you want to achieve something ?


But I totally agree that a lot of us should be specialists in one or two subjects instead of thinking they can achieve all of that themselves !


And there's some assholes out there only using loops or shits as this and calling themselves "musicians", especially in electronic music (Or some of them assume they only enjoy playing music sometimes on Sundays or whatever and don't attempt to be musicians, and I respect them), sadly in one hand, home studios have hurt the music quality really bad...

 

Well people used to create snares within synths because there were no samples.

Nowadays it's just an nerdy academic exercise and quite useless with thousands of samples (and drum synths) around.

It's quite ok to use presets. If I play piano I use a preset as well. ;)

 

When Pink Floyd did “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” on the Minimoog, Richard Wright only knew how the play the damn thing. The sound preset was already in it. Billy Joel used The Fender Rhode to make "Just The Way You Are". No, he didn't design shit, he simply chose a preset.. oh wait!! the Rhode had no presets hahahah. See? just that one sound that you could slightly tweak. However, tons of other hits were made using the same Rhode. Bob James used the Fender Rhode to record "Angela". Bob James only knew how to play the keys not designing the sounds. Tony Banks of Genesis on The Mellotron, Frank Zappa on the Synclavier. Radiohead's OK Computer have tons of Mellotron's presets or "Tape Loops" as they called it at that time.
Shoop, Stevie Wonder. Please, don't ask the guy anything about designing snare. However, he'll play the crap out of the presets that comes with the Hohner Claviner. And... he has tons of hits to prove there's nothing wrong playing the presets. The Doors' "Love Me Two Times", Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Under Foot", Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters, Bill Withers' "Use Me" all done on the same Hohner Claviner presets.
The Roland Fantom is popular among keyboardist because of many reasons, and one them? the patches/presets already in the keyboard. Korg Triton? same thing. Minimoog itself is famous and legendary in part for what? yeah, let's spell it: P R E S E T S.

So, now, somebody to be considered musician, he/she has to know how to design a patch? There's a reason there are musicians and there are producers (NOT necessarily a musician in a lot of cases) and there are Sound Designers. If you can be all three then more power to you and G-d bless your soul. However, there's no mandatory law out there in music land that says you have to be all of them.
After all, I've yet to hear any great keyboardist/musician going on the road day in and day out, setting up and breaking down monthly complaining about presets, because a huge part of their daily routine relies on? presets, presets, presets.

 

It's OK to use presets, but please use them in original ways. I'm becoming incredibly bored with music. Too much point and click with an agenda.

By ambition I meant the will to be - at least - a little bit surprising & meaningful, not the desire to become rich or famous.

Great things can come from incompetence, too, but there has to be a will somewhere. "Shine on you crazy diamond" stands as an original piece of music, the n-th rehash of it doesn't.

Coltrane once said 'you can make a shoestring sound great if you're serious.' [let me correct that, his words where: 'you can play a shoestring, if you're sincere']

At least break new ground. I don't care if you use a plastic spoon.

What perplexes me is that there are millions of people armed with computers & the latest greatest software but where is all that wonderful stuff they should be doing with the lute?

 

The same piece of equipment can be used in hundreds of tracks, yet would come out different every time if they are not carbon copies. If you are quoting Coltrane as John Coltrane, the Jazz Saxophonist then he, himself would know that. The Sax he used was not exclusive to him. He went to a store and there were tons of the same Sax in there. Many other great Jazz Saxophonists used the same one he had. Of course, Sax doesn't have presets. However, what saved him from sounding like any other Jazz Saxophonist at that time was his creativity. That's what it all comes down to, how creative one can be. Presets were, are and will always be part of music instruments and production process, be it analog or digital. So, if anything let's start blaming the people using the equipment/virtual equipment themselves. Presets have nothing to do with how musical sound are declining, it has to do with people not being creative enough.

 

And perhaps coming back to our friend the Combat-Koala. I think What riled him up the most was the fact that the K in question wasn't working properly, but nobody cared to notice because they where only playing with their new shiny toy for five minutes before moving on to the next great thing. Consumerism at its finest.

 

I agree, you got to work hard, be dedicated and try to master as much as you're capable of. for me, i want to learn 'everything'. my point is just that so much people complain about nobody being creative no more, and they're right in a way... but this elitist knob fetishists are saying that it's bad to use presets, even when you tweak them. they make it seem you HAVE to do EVERYTHING manual, even program your drumkits from scratch. i respect their ability, but to think everybody has to be like this to be a SERIOUS musician is complete trash talk..

everything is possible except 100% loops, for me this is the only exception..

THANKS for your responses

 

I agree with you, except perhaps that musical sound (in the formal sense , e.g mastering) isn't declining. It has drastically improved. But creativity seems to be in decline and that I find worrying.

 

yup, nothing wrong with it, but nowadays i feel like you should tweak them to taste (that might be, NOT tweaking :P)

 

yes, but i don't like the way he said it, so arrogant.

 

Can you do me a snare drum with Artutria's Moog Modular ? Sounds like he's calling you out? Why don't you both meet on Devil's Bluff and have a race to see whose fastest at doing him a snare drum? I'm sure no one will die.