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Post by spacedog on Oct 6, 2020 17:08:51 GMT
An interesting interview with Thorsten Quaeschning (of Tangerine Dream): The Accident of Creativity |
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Lugia
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Post by Lugia on Oct 6, 2020 19:34:47 GMT
I look at "accidents" less as that, and more as Eno's Oblique Strategies puts it: "Honor thy mistake as a noble intention". Perhaps "mistakes" are really just the music itself trying to assert ITself.
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Post by admin on Oct 6, 2020 22:13:46 GMT
Well, in the absence of musical training, I have to say that all my tracks are the result of happy accidents. I can get more creative with my modular because of it's invitation to exploration. I now also have a keyboard synth (Korg Wavestate) and although it's infinitely capable, I don't get the same vibe with it. It's like the keyboard is a barrier!
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Post by funbun on Oct 7, 2020 11:52:05 GMT
I now also have a keyboard synth (Korg Wavestate) and although it's infinitely capable, I don't get the same vibe with it. It's like the keyboard is a barrier! I felt exactly the same way about saxophone. You spend much time with such a limited set of frequencies and a clunky interface like a keyboard or fingering system, that the 12-tone Western Tempered Scale limits your creativity, imo. The beautiful thing about synthesis is you have direct control over every aspect of the sound. |
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Post by spacedog on Oct 7, 2020 14:34:41 GMT
It was a long read, but digging through the point that pulls it back to "The Accident of Creativity" was: In fact it is hard or impossible for me to spot this moment [the ideal state of mind for being creative] while it’s present. So I have no other choice than to start working and see what happens. To get into the creative flow is an accident that creates nearly automatic behaviour.To me, that's a really interesting point, and one that resonates with me. Thorsten's point was, I believe, at least one level above the mistakes that happen whilst playing. It was about getting to the point where those mistakes can (and are allowed) to happen. We can all do our best to make that creative environment appear: we can stop doing things that we think prevent it, and we can actively do those things that we think will promote it. Still it can be mighty elusive. My personal method is just to start doing something, usually sound design (another one of his points that has resonance for me) and then suddenly I realise that I've became lost in what I was doing and (because I remembered to press record) there is 30 minutes of interesting/crazy/weird/great/bad (delete as applicable) music. Of couse, once it becomes observed, that creative moment can slip away once more, so I try to be in the moment and observe it without disturbing it. I'm quite comfortable with that detachment into the moment and that brings with it a lot of fun music for me. Modulars can be more problematic if you're going to "patch" in the moment. "The "tweaking" is much easier - or at least I find it so. So, I like to have more than just one sound patched up, and preferably some interaction going on between sub-patches. I also like to have another synth to join the modular, so that it can take over should I need to do more than turn a few knobs. It's nice if they can interact through the effects (e.g. share one, via a mixer send/return). There's no "one size fits all" here, it's really a case of finding what environmental effects affect you and nudge you towards that flow. Sometimes they can be internal to you, there will be a lot of ones external to you - and maybe there is even the odd special one that comes from somewhere else altogether  Just some random thoughts that rattle around inside my head - and likely the head of many others here. |
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Post by spacedog on Oct 9, 2020 9:29:28 GMT
Well, in the absence of musical training, I have to say that all my tracks are the result of happy accidents. I can get more creative with my modular because of it's invitation to exploration. I now also have a keyboard synth (Korg Wavestate) and although it's infinitely capable, I don't get the same vibe with it. It's like the keyboard is a barrier! I skipped over this in my earlier response on this thread. admin makes a good point about about the traditional keyboard being a potential barrier. Of course, that traditional keyboard isn't the only way to interact with your synth, it just happens to be a physical representation of what we hear as sounds "rooted in the tradition of Western music" and its musical scale of notes. I'm more than happy to be corrected/amplified by anyone with a more in-depth knowledge, this is just how I see it. Of course, just about all synths either come with such an interface as part of the deal, or are designed to interact with an external one. The basic circuitry within synths also pays homage to this by virtue of using usually internally quantised Volts/octave (of various flavours) or Hz/Volt to generate note pitches. It's when we can get at the raw oscillator module that we have an easier ability to break free of quantisation, if we choose. So, when we're interacting with our musical weapon of choice, the easiest method of transferring our thoughts into musical outpourings is usually the traditional keyboard. It's omni-present and it produces intervals that we learn to recognise and appreciate from even before we are born. Differently- and non-quantised pitches can and do exist all around us, but we will need a different way of interacting with the sound-making end of things. I'm not pretending to be saying anything that isn't obvious, it's more that we should accept that the traditional keyboard is but one possible interface, and if we find it restrictive it can be fun to find new methods. Here's Suzanne Ciani showing how she interacts with her Buchla setup, although when she wants to sweeten the sound she does resort to a traditional keyboard, albeit via an iPad. Hopefully, this will open up some thoughts, or even discussion, on how we interact with our musical instruments of choice. For now, enjoy Suzanne. |
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Lugia
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Post by Lugia on Oct 9, 2020 21:50:26 GMT
Of course, this is all a big part of the "East Coast" vs "West Coast" debate. Bob Moog wanted a black-n-white keyboard there so that people would more readily get the point that his synths were _musical instruments,_ first and foremost. But Don Buchla did NOT want this, nor did the SFTMC bunch, because they felt that the old-skool keyboard would constrain users to sounds that lent themselves to keyboard playing. So, for about the first 50 years, you could say that "Bob was right"...but not now, since there's a bunch of builders who've allowed users to FINALLY explore how Don's controller methods could be used. Hell, you can go out and buy this sort of controller at Guitar Center these days, in the guise of the Arturia Microfreak, for dirt-cheap; contrast this with how infrequently you'd see Buchla or Serge gear pretty much ANYWHERE outside of academia.
And, tbh, that's how it should be. There are times that the regular ol' keyboard is the right tool for the job. And there's those where it's not. So why not both?
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