Musical techniques or elements that have lost favor in recent years.

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I was listening to a Change song and their was an octave vocal harmony in the high ranges and it occurred to me that I don't hear this much anymore in the music I listen to. (Contrarians, feel free to point out how common this still is.)

But what are some musical techniques, instruments, whatever that have lost favor in recent years, besides the harpsichord...

― Confounded (Confounded), Thursday, 9 February 2006 02:30 (nineteen years ago)

Harpsichord appeared on the Joanna Newsom album.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 9 February 2006 02:33 (nineteen years ago)

i thought of the dulcimer but that's on the new vashti elpee

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Thursday, 9 February 2006 02:57 (nineteen years ago)

Digital multi-efx units.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 9 February 2006 03:23 (nineteen years ago)

egregious auto-tuning and the stutter effect. Thank goodness.

― Jubalique (Jubalique), Thursday, 9 February 2006 04:36 (nineteen years ago)

Really? I hear egregious auto-tune all the time.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 9 February 2006 05:17 (nineteen years ago)

harpsichord came back pretty damn strong during the 60s, what with the whole baroque pop/light psych thing, baldwin even made an electric one that the Beatles and Hendrix used (Because and Burning of a Midnight Lamp). i'd say any band going for a 60s pop throwback thing would rock the 'chord. i know of like, one studio in the country that has a Baldwin- they are very rare. 'real' harpsichords are fairly, uh, rare as well.

i nominate superfulous, hoplessly white, out of context record scratching (such as on a, say, Modest Mouse record). and its foul cousin, the fake vinyl noise needle drop on the record intro, to which i can only shudder.

― b mulvey, Thursday, 9 February 2006 07:07 (nineteen years ago)

I really like the fake needle noise at beginning of At Action Park though.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Thursday, 9 February 2006 07:28 (nineteen years ago)

say what? i've had that on cd and vinyl for years and dont remember that. i just checked- are you talking about the little string scrape sound by any chance?

― b mulvey, Thursday, 9 February 2006 07:58 (nineteen years ago)

the stutter effect

You haven't been listening to many dance records recently have you?

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 9 February 2006 10:01 (nineteen years ago)

The stutter effect as in Nu Shooz "I-I-I Can't Wait"??

Stuttering by sampling or vocals or...?

I was going to say, hip-hop-wise, sampling drum breaks has declined in popularity a ton.

― Confounded (Confounded), Friday, 10 February 2006 20:20 (nineteen years ago)

FUCK ILM

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 10 February 2006 20:42 (nineteen years ago)

Winnah.

― Confounded (Confounded), Friday, 10 February 2006 22:09 (nineteen years ago)

Nu-indie-rock e,g Strokes, Futureheads, Razorlight seems very fond of staccato meshed-together guitar. But no-one seems to ever play a POWERCHORD that RINGS!

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Saturday, 11 February 2006 09:32 (nineteen years ago)

no-one seems to ever play a POWERCHORD that RINGS!

There are still lots of young and old man bands doing classic rock and releasing CDs. I hear about three to half dozen a week, typically.

― George the Animal Steele, Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:24 (nineteen years ago)

Slap bass.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Saturday, 11 February 2006 18:35 (nineteen years ago)

Playing spoons. During the years of Captain Kangaroo, Hee Haw and Soundgarden's Spoonman, everyone wanted a piece of the spoon action. Can we not remember fondly the spoon solo somewhere on Heartbeat, Don Johnson, the Miami Vice-ster's album? Even David Hasselhoff played spoons on 1985's Night Rocker.

― George the Animal Steele, Saturday, 11 February 2006 20:33 (nineteen years ago)

The "stuttering" granulizer sound, like in Mouse on Mars and plenty of other IDMers. I've not heard egregious auto-tuning in ages! Where do they still do it, Abbad? I think the last time I heard it was during and shortly after Cher. But then again, maybe it's just gone in that weird in-between indie and mainstream output that I keep missing.

― Jubalique (Jubalique), Sunday, 12 February 2006 00:17 (nineteen years ago)

WGHAT===

what with this whole '80s' thing, im surprised noones made a record with a FAT gated snare

― FRAGRANT VAGRANT, Sunday, 12 February 2006 20:47 (nineteen years ago)

when every indie rock band during the 90's threw a steel/lap/slide guitar into their songs, i was secretly hoping that someone would incorporate a steel drum into something. sadly, the closest we got were vibraphone players in post-rock bands.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 12 February 2006 21:36 (nineteen years ago)

that bit in the 90s when every band seemed to have an analog synth player.
that phone effect on vocals from a few years ago (especially in the background, with someone saying "uh huh" or "yeh" or "come on" etc)

― zappi (joni), Sunday, 12 February 2006 21:41 (nineteen years ago)

xpost

didnt lambchop?

also, i am very much missing this element :)

― AaronK (AaronK), Monday, 13 February 2006 00:15 (nineteen years ago)

what with this whole '80s' thing, im surprised noones made a record with a FAT gated snare

Uh, rap music?

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 13 February 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

The "stuttering" granulizer sound

Ah, the "shuffle" effect?

what with this whole '80s' thing, im surprised noones made a record with a FAT gated snare

Electro-house?

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 13 February 2006 08:06 (nineteen years ago)

Yes! Shuffle, if that's what it's called! I need a dictionary of musical colloquialisms... I think I know get what everyone calls "Stutter." I'd throw that in there too, but I'm pretty sure I heard it the other day. Arrrgh.

― Jubalique (Jubalique), Monday, 13 February 2006 13:54 (nineteen years ago)

I thought that was micro-editing, and shuffle is when you change the timing on your sequencer so that 8ths and 16th don't fall exactly into place, making it sound less perfect/more human.

― naus (Robert T), Monday, 13 February 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

Not always "less perfect/more human" -- it's just a swing beat! Shuffle, swing, whatever. Light use gives it a more human feel, I guess, swinging a little off the grid; moderate use is just a regular swing beat, which can still feel plenty gridlike if you want it to.

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 13 February 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

Seriously, fuck ILM.

― n/a (Nick A.), Monday, 13 February 2006 22:00 (nineteen years ago)

"YEAH, Nick, grab ME a PIECE!"

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Tuesday, 14 February 2006 15:17 (nineteen years ago)

Getting back on track - you don't hear synth pads with a built-in third or fifth much...

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 02:24 (nineteen years ago)

...but slap bass wins the thread. It's the one sound that seems totally impossible to recontextualize in a "hip" way.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 02:25 (nineteen years ago)

untrue.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 06:02 (nineteen years ago)

Well, I guess it depends. Full-on Primus style slapping has always sucked and is hard to bring back cause it never should have existed in the first place, but more moderate funk soul style bass with slaps and pops is a nice sound; isn't that often found in house music?

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 06:05 (nineteen years ago)

jazz funk, I don't know, whatever the fuck it's called.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 06:07 (nineteen years ago)

I heard a recent unreleased Maurice Fulton track on a mix of his that's full of slap bass. Sounds very Patrice Rushen/roller boogie. I hope it's a hit.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

YODELING

― fsdjkl, Tuesday, 21 February 2006 18:59 (nineteen years ago)

What do you call that thing that's on a lot of songs by the Cure where you can hear the first syllable of a verse sort've phasing/delaying in before the verse really begins? Is it actually called "reverse delay" or is that something else?

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Saturday, 25 February 2006 06:48 (nineteen years ago)

I was thinking that having a dj in a rock band is finally out of style, but 14 million Linkin Park fans continue to prove me wrong

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Saturday, 25 February 2006 07:18 (nineteen years ago)

x-post There's a bit of that reverse delay on the last My Morning Jacket LP. The Cure loved to put it on the snare too e.g 17 Seconds.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Sunday, 26 February 2006 10:18 (nineteen years ago)

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