laptop music S/D

Glances over at the stage: "The instrument that destroyed punk rock".

Oh, and search: Kompakt, Bpitch Control, Perlon...

And while I have no problem with people using laptops to do things laptops are good at, it's like a form follows function thing, which is why those labels and most of those microhouse or whatever producers get the idea...but when you enter the debate of software synths, there is no context. I'll put my Arp String Ensemble up against anything Reaktor can come up with!

And since I have music software but no laptop, I'll take the side of desktop music, thanks...

definate dud: owning ridiculously cool music gear and not getting around to using it.

and you got a 2600?

jeez

Also makes good lapdance music for your avantgarde strip club.

That said, I've been using some software that's pretty cool—Ableton Live, mostly. The coolest thing about it is that it kind of lets you think in layered slices of sound and takes you beyond that same old linear multitrack dealy.

Christ introduce me to the guy who did that trade. I have an emu sound module I could trade him for a moog!

Sorry. It took me about an hour to stop laughing my head off. Then another 43 minutes to stop chewing my wrists.

I don't really know what to say. You're comparing a dedicated string type hardware doodad with a piece of flexible software. If we play this like Top Trumps then . . .

Polyphony ARP 16 Voices REAKTOR unlimited
Oscillators ARP Viola&violin / cello / contrabass / horn / trumpet REAKTOR unlimited
LFO ARP n/a REAKTOR unlimited and applicable to any characteristic
VCF ARP n/a REAKTOR unlimited and applicable to any characteristic
VCA ARP Sustain (decay) / Crescendo (attack) REAKTOR unlimited and applicable to any characteristic
Keyboard ARP 49 keys REAKTOR whatever your Midi keyboard is. Flexible.
Arpeg/Seq ARP None REAKTOR completely customisable up to very advanced levels.

So then I suppose your next arguement is some bullshit about "warmth" or something. Ugh. Look, I'm sure you're happy limiting your artistic pallate as long as whatever you used is sufficiently vintage and comes in a nice sexy wood look, but for God's sake man, you're following the same logic that old rock guys did when the drum machine arrived. Do us all a favour and fuck off to the Irrelevant Bench along with all those other dinosaurs. I'll make sure you get a seat next to the clergy who imprisoned Gallileo.

The Arp String Ensemble makes the very best Arp String Ensemble sound when you want an Arp String Ensemble. If you decide that that is a sound you are very partial to, and can a)afford one(they're not that expensive) and b)have space for one, then it's a really cool instrument to have and yes, has a quality that may be to nebulous to put into words but yes, beats any attempt by any software synth to sound like an analog string synth.

Now if you want to make a different kind of sound, the String Ensemble is not a good choice.

I don't think it's a question of relevance, to take on your analogy, I love drum machines and many different kinds of drum sounds. DMX, 808, 909 etc, weird digital drum sounds you can make with your software synth, they all have their place, but if you want the sound of real drummer playing a real drum, you have to get a real drummer playing a real drum. I'm not trying to use the Arp as a synthesizer because it's not one.

The point isn't that the Arp String Ensemble makes Reaktor obsolete, but that Reaktor doesn't make the Arp String Ensemble obsolete, as some argue, and PERSONALLY(meaning, my own personal preference) I'd enjoy spending more time coaxing different personalities out of the Arp then I would Reaktor, sometimes the limitations are a good thing. Have you heard what a String Ensemble sounds like when you turn on all 4 sounds and both bass sounds and hold down many keys? It's amazing.

Somewhat like Richard Clark to that congressional hearing yesterday.

Just the facts mam.

Love everything

So what exactly is it then?

I suppose the argument progresses from here to philosophical levels about making music and thats not what you've asked for. However, sweeping bullshit like "I'll put my Arp String Ensemble up against anything Reaktor can come up with!" gets my back up when it isn't qualified in the slightest. So the ARP can do what the Travelizor and Plasma modules could? Hehe. I just hate seeing stuff like that put up because it reinforces a lot of the digi-is-shit opinions that I see on the net amongst us audio types.

as far as my "sweeping bullshit," that's just general hyperbole, and the kind of thing that gets lost in internet translation. I was just putting it up against the idea that with softsynths, you don't need(or shouldn't even want) analog synths. And while you're going up against the digi-is-shit opinions you get, I was going up against the digi-solves-all opinions I hear. We basically agree.

But I'd like to add, just because, well, I like causing trouble, but most of the contemporary producers I like use great deals of analog stuff, such as Metro Area and the DFA. But maybe that's as much because they've got a retro thing going at times.

Neither opinion is really "right", I'm on the digital side of things, you ain't. However digital is evolving damn fast and that's why I'm on that side. Basically I'm utterly anti-retro in any incarnation, but I ain't gonna impinge on the way anyone else gets their rocks off artistically.

I just find even the current possibilites of digital dizzying (nevermind the next 20/40/100 years) and I really can't quite be comfortable with why someone would want to lean towards retro kit / a retro sound with everything else that's on offer. I can see a huge schism between what's available and what's coming out. I know young lads who are doing stupidly interesting things with simple digital technology but it's the cocksuckers who are making bland, same-old-same-old crap that are getting the recognition. Ugh. I'm wandering here.

"Dude, have you heard that new Prosaic Observations 10"? Fucking wicked! Especially the Gentlemanly Banter remix on the b-side!"

What does this mean, exactly?

What would something like that cost me?

of course I don't use it much at all, so, as I said, definate dud.

and if you think the Arp String Ensembe fails the sonic possibilities per square foot ratio, don't even ask about the Farfisa.

well, neil landstrumm used to make tracks that sound like 303s and 808s and 909s. with buzzing hoover noises and stuff. straight techno, basically.

the catch is that he was using the same software most people were using to make really unhinged IDM sounding stuff.

*BUT* you kind of CAN tell a difference. in that NOBODY, except maybe some of the other people on landstrumm's labels, would ever be able to get the same sorts of edge to the production on those drums and synths using the hardware. it just makes his productions really distinct in a sea of samey-sounding stuff (techno + idm).

i guess it's just about positive constraint and all that. strive to be too crazy, out there, different and you just end up sounding like bogdan raczynski or funkstorung.

(landstrumm makes music for nintendo games, so he probably knows a bit about restraint)

Landstrumm has not made a good record since he decided to stop using a 909, a pro-one, a RZ-1 and a flanger pedal to make an entire album. I will take M-Cap EP or Index Man over Pro-Audio or Understanding Disinformation any day of the week. It all went to hell when he started Scandinavia and started to use Bias software for Mac.

IMHO Laptops are precisely the reason why electronic music is in the shitter right now.