Going Raw!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Green Gizmo
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:laughings:

I'll show you all!

One day my bones will be owned by Michael Jackson.
 
"All you need is Three Chords and the Truth" has been done. Now we're trying Three Synths and a Bunch of Bullshit. I like both approaches.
 
I have a electronic kit just for the fact I can practice at any hour and I have used drum and orchestra programs because I do understand the use out of necessity but guitars and bass?
Bands like the Doors and Lifetime in the 60s specifically didn't go for a bassist because they had organists who would play the pedals. Those fat funky 70s basslines {for example Stevie Wonder did some on "Innervisions"} on synthesizers were already pointing at a day when the bass guitarist might be surplus to requirements.....
and every album that comes out its less and less real drummers and now less bassists.
I recall this sort of thing being said in the very early 80s by rock stars that played guitars, about synth bands.
Necessity is defiantly part of it but I think its also just a matter of convenience of why involve someone else when I can do it myself..
Well, there's some truth in that but you say it as though it's the crime of the century.
Let's assume for a moment that you're a hobbyist that knows people that play various instruments. Firstly, they're not at your beck and call. To get them to lay down parts on your creations takes alot of persuasion, organizing and fitting around people, their kids and families in general and them around you and then you have to think of your neighbours. If your trumpet wielding or saxophone parping or electric guitarist with the 700 watt sound friends can only play in the evenings, you're already severely limited. And then it's an assumption that you're always going to be satisfied with what they lay down and it doesn't have to be done again in 8 months time. So yeah, I can see why there are those who, if they can do it all themselves, will. Of course it's convenient. But who cares as long as you dig the songs you come up with ? And a few of your friends will like your songs too.
I look at home recording the way I look at DIY. No reason to hire someone to paint the house when I can do it myself. And I don't need to feel bad if I use an automatic paint spreader rather than a grade 3 brush.

Is there a mob of VSTi's banging on your door trying to replace you?
Yeah. But I applied the old adage, "If you can't beat them, get them in the band !" :D

This thread is about 30 years late.....:eek:
Funny thing is, people were saying these kinds of things 30 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago.....They said it when records replaced pianos and sheet music ! :D

I know how much you hate writing (and reading) long posts...the line-breaks just don't come naturally for you...
...but I like when you write longer posts, they are usually good ones. :)
Actually, that's very true.

"All you need is Three Chords and the Truth" has been done. Now we're trying Three Synths and a Bunch of Bullshit.
Depeche Mode and Kraftwerk beat you to it by three and four decades !
 
WoW Grim are you up early or late?
Late ! I've been on leave for the last 3 weeks so I tend to go to bed between 5 and 6 am. Usually at this time I'm at work ! When I'm on leave, I'm only ever up early if there's a plane to catch or the house is on fire.
 
For me -- the kettle is on and I've had way to much coffee!
 
Somewhere everyone got the idea that I think that the everyday musician is going to be phased out and that I think some armageddon is approaching.
History repeats it self and it applies to all interests, people have the same fear of free health care as they did social security and medicaid and I have no such fear.
I know all about the fears people had throughout history about new technology devastating their lives. I know the benefits of virtual instruments and use them.

Unlike the fear of sheet music and metronomes those musicians didn't feel a impact, it was just irrational fear and none of these history lessons have actually replaced the actual musician.
Even rock bands who thought the synth was going to replace them their fears just turned into its own music genera. So all those arguments about the past 50 years don't apply because none of them were an actual replacement.

Now this is where the difference comes in, all the people who had that fear of sheet music and the metronome didn't loose work in the end but this time around musicians have been affected myself included. I don't deny the samples these companies put out are great because it gives the common person access to results that can only be gotten in these high end studios and can be used at discretion but it does have an impact. It is a tool and has its positives and negative effects

Well that's all the input I have :) It's just interesting to me to see watch music evolve.
 
Yeah, they do have an impact, without a doubt. And actually, all the things mentioned did affect some people in music adversely. But the world didn't end. I wasn't belittling what you were getting at. I was simply pointing out that humanly speaking, throughout history, new moves have generally meant bad news for somebody. Someone has always been left trailing in the wake of progress. And musically speaking, musicians have often faced redundancy of one kind or another. Synths and mellotrons did mean less work for orchestras and bass players and drum machines did mean less work for drummers. And all before this century.
Personally I feel that sometimes, the technology is utilized in a way that goes to far, but that's just my little bugbear. I mean, I can understand loops of drums or percussion, but melodic instrument ones ? Get out of my house !
I was reading up on compressors and some of the present uses of the compressor weren't originally intended. They were discovered by accident and the effects were liked. That's about the way people utilize things. Same with alot of todays recording technology.
Do you think that audio engineers quest for producing the best end result and try to eliminate human element?
Like Micky Most said in that 1981 interview, humans make errors. So he was looking at that. Maybe many others are too. But I also think that things go in cycles, rather like how some artists bent over trying to introduce rough and lo~fi in their stuff to counteract the seeming quest for perfection.
 
I think there is some real stuff out there. Ray LaMontagne last album was basically done live in his house. The playing sounds real good to me. Not everything is auto tuned. I have a friend in LA who recorded Leann Rimmes(sp) vocals on her last record. I asked if he used melodyne, he said absolutely not. Good real stuff is out there, its just hard to tell what is what. I don't mind using the tools, but i try to qualify my talent. If they can sing and play, I don't worry about pitch correcting a few spots in a good take or editing an instrument track. If they can't sing or play I tend not to. There is a fine line there.
 
I can't help but feel like I was born in the wrong era...being a 16 year old in today's world who listens to Santana, Hendrix, B.B. King, Bad Religion, The Clash, The Ramones, etc. gets pretty old. It never gets easy to listen to music in your car, and have your friend go, "Wow, I know this song! Have you heard the Skrillex/Deadmau5/whateverthefuck remix?"
It doesn't seem like anybody values real musicians anymore. The "big thing" at my school is the British indie-pop band The xx, who use a freaking drum machine on every track. Yeah, it's easier, but it's not the same. Listen to a real kick drum from an old record, then to a simulated kick from one of their songs. Not the same. Period.
Even my own band is getting closer to this synthesized crap...the lead singer basically forced me to put flanger, reverb, and delay on the vox for one of our songs, and my biggest fear is that this will become a normal thing. I just had a band in my home studio a few days ago who had me bit-crush their vox...I don't think I'll ever feel clean again.
Damn...I'm rambling, stuff like this just gets me off sometimes. Good thread btw, gives me a bit of time to vent.
 
, Bad Religion, The Clash, The Ramones, etc. gets pretty old. .

No it doesn't. There's plenty of punk being made still that's worth listening to - if you want to. I'm perfectly happy listening to Rocket To Russia for the 60 millionth time. :D
 
No it doesn't. There's plenty of punk being made still that's worth listening to - if you want to. I'm perfectly happy listening to Rocket To Russia for the 60 millionth time. :D

Meh, not much new punk in my area. I live in the Newport Beach area, and that used to have a massive punk scene. Don't know what happened to it really. Lol at the Rocket to Russia thing though...I literally wore out my CD of London Calling, I played it so much. I didn't even think that was possible.
 
Meh, not much new punk in my area. I live in the Newport Beach area, and that used to have a massive punk scene. Don't know what happened to it really. Lol at the Rocket to Russia thing though...I literally wore out my CD of London Calling, I played it so much. I didn't even think that was possible.

lol @ CD of London Calling. I wore that bitch out on vinyl. :D
 
I love Greg threads. Somehow they always go way off topic in some good way.

Thread saved with the new topic of punk.
 
I personally have never been a fan of over produced music. Especially when people pay no attention to this side of the music (the creation and recording of the song/album). Making bands sound good is what annoys me, billy talent's albums have some of the tightest guitar sounds ever they're so clean cut, no edge to them at all.
And i personally think they are rubbish live, the recordings just don't translate to a live performance.
For example arctic monkeys who i don't actually like much at all, their first album was recorded in there bedroom and its very noticeable there are timing issues everywhere but i really like the as we are talking about "RAWness" of it. I wish music wasn't so over produced nowadays with utter rubbish at number ones every week!
 
I personally have never been a fan of over produced music. Especially when people pay no attention to this side of the music (the creation and recording of the song/album). Making bands sound good is what annoys me, billy talent's albums have some of the tightest guitar sounds ever they're so clean cut, no edge to them at all.
And i personally think they are rubbish live, the recordings just don't translate to a live performance.
For example arctic monkeys who i don't actually like much at all, their first album was recorded in there bedroom and its very noticeable there are timing issues everywhere but i really like the as we are talking about "RAWness" of it. I wish music wasn't so over produced nowadays with utter rubbish at number ones every week!

A live performance isn't supposed to sound like a studio recording. That's why one's a recording and one is live. I'm always amazed by people that complain that a live band sounds nothing like their slick and shiny commercial release. They're not supposed to. That's why they go into a studio and use multitracking and overdubs and stuff like that, as opposed to hanging a mic at the back of an arena during a live rehearsal and pressing record. I'm always suspicious of bands that sound live exactly like they do on a recording. You know backing tracks and trickery are being used. You mentioned some bands recorded guitar sound. It's never gonna sound like that live. Do you go to live shows with your ear pressed against a speaker grill? What a mic hears pressed against the grill for recording purposes and what you hear in the crowd at a club or arena are two totally different things. It seems that what you think is "overproduced" is really just regular produced, and you prefer a minimalist approach to recording. Nothing wrong with that. I like raw stuff too.
 
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