[PD] Analog/good-sounding oscillators in PD

[Chuckk Hubbard]

Part of the decision for me is whether most people already have
several CDs that sound like it.  Being that I'm not a hot woman, my
only chance is if I make music that's different, that folks can't get
unless they come to me.
I'm very very interested in the science of perception, and how people
perceive order in sound, and so the other part of the decision for me
is that I just find it more interesting to make music that's tonally
complex.

I also like the process of expectation and disappointment.  Get a good
booty-shakin groove going, then let it fall apart.  Bring it back in,
let it fall apart again.  Bring it back in again, at which point no
one "trusts" the groove to keep going, but at the crucial moment, add
more instruments and modulate and make the groove stronger as a
pleasant surprise.  They'll respond much more than if you just looped
the groove over and over, and not know why.  The effect is even
stronger in that most people have no vocabulary to describe what just
happened.

The best explanation I know of emotional response is Leonard B. Meyer
in 'Emotion and Meaning in Music'.  It's an abstract, esoteric book,
but one point he makes is essential: emotional response comes from
tendencies being inhibited.  If a smoker reaches into his pocket for a
cigarette and pulls one out and lights it, he does so with very little
awareness of what he's doing.  He might not even remember later
whether he had a cigarette.  If, however, he reaches into his pocket
and finds an empty pack, he is immediately aware of the action and has
an emotional response.

Form isn't something for chin-strokers, it has a real visceral effect
that you should study if you want to move people with music.  It's not
*that* removed from the experience.

-Chuckk

On 4/7/06, cyborgk at nocturnalnoize.com <cyborgk at nocturnalnoize.com> wrote:
> Well first off, when I say it's easy, I don't mean it's going to write
> your tracks or patterns for you. It will just allow you to to stepsequence
> any synth parameter, and build patterns quick. What you do with that stuff
> is up to you. It doesn't make beats for you or anything...
>
> Second, I'm a socialist, and I think the "means of production" should be
> available to everyone. The tools already exist if you buy them, so I want
> to make some free software, as in "free pizza" and "free beer" that can do
> it. Also, I think it would be nice to have free tools to teach with.
>
> So you are right, cost IS the reason to simulate an analog synth. No way a
> working guy like me can afford an analog synth and the gear to record it
> right, besides it won't fit in my tiny studio apartment.
>
> Finally, I think academic researchers can worry about how to "try out new
> techniques and create new and original sounds". I think the technique has
> to match the aesthetic goals, and will vary from project to project. When
> I make beat oriented music, it's usually played at a party, it's not for a
> bunch of chin strokers to analyze. I'm happy to see booties shaking and
> people smiling than to think about how innovate and deep I have to be.
> Sorry if that doesn't match some bourgeois "high art" concept and sounds
> like "entertainment" to everyone... I do other music that is more
> "serious" though, I say everything has its place.
>
> ~David
>
> Peter Worth wrote:
> >
> > i'm skeptical about the concept of making idm etc easy to create. i've
> > always thought the point of his kind of music is to try out new
> > techniques and create new and original sounds. if its easy to do, and
> > a producer is just painting by numbers then the result is probably
> > going to be formulaic to say the least.
>
> >
> > i suppose cost is a reason to simulate an analog sound. hardware can
> > get quite pricey.
> >
>
>
>
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--
"It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover
of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters."
-Friedrich Nietzsche, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra"