I wonder, isn't most modern "producing" just fiddling with sound, tweaking something to be a bit more or a bit less like some kind of thematic little song, actually some form of digital vandalism? "NI slop." The DAW as a digital stencil, like a few spray cans, with which killing precious time in that moment — "Brooks was here." — defaces the facade of an sometimes truly uncomfortable silence. Is it vandalism, or isn't it? Rhetoric. It is possible that it depends mostly or entirely on what the "producer" thinks of their own scribbling. Yes, tuning jet turbines into D minor, is something for which time is not forever and permanently and vainly wasted, time which is, as the story goes, pricelessly precious.

 

Last edited: Mar 29, 2026 at 12:50 PM

@dtmd - "in the 90´s", if you took a week/month/s and done sessions, made 30 of these tracks, slapped them onto a DAT tape.. later on worked with someone who mixes it maybe thru the board and later on sent to someone who does mastering, like how it was done back in the day, whatever would fit on a vinly it would probably sound like its own thing and stood the test of time...maybe someone would end up singing over a few of these too, idn if you catch my though process here.

Now, where i see the problem with a track like that, since a person is in the "chaos" state of flow, someone would need to pick what tracks will get muted in the first part, what will get muted later and the mixer will automate his thing, mastering engineer will automate something maybe/hopefully(Lurssen console) and the thing would have the flow, and this is the perfect example of a track(in my opinion) that has everything and needs picking apart and spreading it out. Resolving the chaos, like, "don't leave me with t/his chaos" , i need to be functional after hearing it so do whatever you need to do type thing. In short, i like it but i wont listen to it again until i remember it again and go back for a little chaos.

i´m thinking too much.

I was actually listening to Eno vs Rick Rubin interview, there's a lot of important stuff i took from that, intentional listening, limiting what you listen and even listening the music you like the most the least, like there is a method to the madness.

 

^"in the 90s", since 1991 to be a little more precise, we used DAT tapes the same we use a stereo file today. DAT tapes played no role in the actual mixing stage. Since most songs back then were 5 minutes or longer, plus leaving gaps between songs, you could maybe squeeze 2 full albums on them. It's funny how many unreleased tracks got blamed on the mythical "lost DAT tape".

 

yeah you´re right, it was the "2track" thing, so the mixing part if off the deal

anything mythical, i´m always interested in!

We overlook the 90s process, getting up multiple times, walking multiple miles, having to deal with stuff until the hopefully track is "stemmed" out or if it is recorded onto a dat/tape versus sitting in front of a screen making moves until the thing is clinically finished, it is a different method which in my opinion(and i recently started realizing it) needs a different approach.

I think peope should start teaming up and mix each-other tracks and even master versus what is going on now "i produce/mix/master and i´m equally good at every single step of it", which might be a huge waste of time.

Anyway, dtmd, dope track!

 

Last edited: Mar 29, 2026 at 9:56 PM

In the 90s, of course, shaped by the "Zeitgeist" spirit of the time and differing greatly depending on where one happened to be geographically, someone who wasn't born into a well-off family that supported a child’s "musical ambitions" could only dream of having a home studio. Digital gear is cheap. A band made up of perpetually broke musicians, waiting tables, delivering food, doing not particularly demanding construction work, trying to steadily nurture that love for "making music," fumbling around with sound, would have to set aside a decent amount of money just to record a demo that, ideally, someone somewhere might actually hear, and one that didn’t sound like the typical disaster of a poorly mic'd and acoustically untreated garage. In the 90s, the advantages of "bedroom producer" the modern era simply didn't exist. Today, of course, not literally everyone but practically anyone who considers experimental tinkering with sound a worthwhile way to spend precious time can afford to do it. Perhaps that very accessibility, the fact that almost everything is available to almost everyone, makes the crucial difference.




A kind of consumerist existence, in which anything that is available to everyone, in quantities impossible to consume, doesn’t really carry much value. Which may not be such a bad thing. Someone who latches onto the idea of "music production" for the sake of royalties, may quickly grow tired of trying, or of trying "to make love to sound." A passing fad. After quickly losing interest in that kind of playing in digital mud, their little buckets and shovels, the studio gear, may end up on the second-hand market of toys available to almost everyone... who may not intend to become a Jesus Christ Superstar, but who sometimes enjoy getting lost in a closed feedback loop, listening to the noise they themselves have "producer erectus" brought into being. The digital age is rather charming. Of course, provided one is not geographically positioned within some version of reality where "make bombs, and drones, and smart helmets, and… not amps, or pedals, or cheap Behringer synths…" in the service of someone’s profit through the detonation of expensive projectiles financed by hard-working, god-obeying people, disrupts those small, private moments of enjoyment in one’s own finely crafted noise. A blessed escapism. There’s no such thing as "thinking too much," methinks.

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2026 at 1:25 AM

My forte is writing and expressing myself artistically, personally totally sucking at anything and everything technical, and it a terrible chore and near nightmare for me to mix the fruits of my imagination. I'd much rather hand off the mixing and polishing, everything after the writing and tracking to someone with the chops and ears that surpass my own. I'm no Todd Rungren, Alan Parsons or Jeff Lynn who are great on both sides of the recording desk.

 

The sounds used are from BigTick - Rhino VSTi, Celox - MegaCelox VSTi, and the voice samples are from Balabolka, a speech software. I deliberately avoided using bomb sounds and gunfire, as the news is already full of that and I didn't want to trigger any more fear.

 

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2026 at 5:25 PM

Hello @MindCtrlDel, you are in "Friendly Non-Contest #19", your post is not allowed, please post in My Music etc!

 

Someone recently wrote that every genre is allowed, but because I say it actually has nothing to do with the contest, it's suddenly not good. Okay, then I know that for now.

 

The Non-Contest only regards music composed for the image given.

 

You're mixing things up, @MindCtrlDel. Friendly Non-Contest #19 is theme-based; you have to follow the rules. The decisive factor is always the given theme. Anyone writing anything else that doesn't fit the theme is off-topic. Stay on topic.

 

Ok
If I remember correctly, I also posted tracks in the previous contest that actually had nothing to do with that image, for example the Timbaland remix.

 

Check you balance, you were deducted 50$, that is why they were silent!