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What Makes A Good Software Instrument?
As a percussionist, I don’t have a favorite musical instrument, which makes sense because percussionist are, by training and maybe by temperament, generalists. We learn how to strike and vibrate a great many instruments–from tympani, djembes, and snare drums to marimbas, gongs, and glockenspiels–without playing favorites. Each instrument is a world and requires its own… Continue reading
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Database: Frequent On Giant Effects Chains And Arbitrary Decisions Leading To A New Musical Place
“Just make a giant [effects] chain. A lot of times people ask me how I make a sound, and it’s like, I just didn’t stop where you would have stopped twenty effects ago. There’s no secret thing: you just keep doing shit and eventually you’ll get something interesting. And that’s the non-technical aspect of it:… Continue reading
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Keywords: Loop
The breakbeat, the round, the sequence, the riff, the inherent rhythm, the timeline, the tala–a loop is a groove propeller, a repeating bit that captures a feeling and spins it around and around until its sound feeling is airborne, aloft on its own motion, soaring over time. A loop proposes being circular for a while,… Continue reading
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Database: Paul Morley On The Thinking Process And Technological Limitations
“It’s all about the ears and imagination and the process. It’s a thinking process, almost. Ideas come from various members, and then it’s survival of the fittest ideas. A lot of stuff is improvised, and then 6 months later you notice that an idea that happened there is still attached to the music.” “What created… Continue reading
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Keywords: One Instrument
One Instrument is a constraint in the form of a pact with yourself to use just a single source for sounds in a track. I’ll make do with this you think, using the thought as incantation, and off you go exploring what you might do with the instrument. The One Instrument principle goes against the… Continue reading
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Same Walk, Different Music
Our subway stop has been under repair for a few months, so going anywhere involves walking a half mile to the 74th street stop. The 12-minute walk isn’t scenic, but it is a good time to spend listening to music. In fact, walking—not running, or sitting—may be the best way to listen to music because… Continue reading
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