What kind of music do you want to make?

[operator808]

Here's my two cents.

I got into eurorack from a acid techno background where I used some digital synths (Korg R3, Casio CZ101) plus software to produce music. My favorite band is Autechre (a little cliched, I know).

When I started out, I began to make more linear techno, dance-floor kind of stuff, but it sort of got frustrating because it took a long time on eurorack to achieve what I could with a few clicks in a DAW.

When I began to look outside of techno and just began experimenting with sounds is when I really fell in love with my modules. There were times when just having one simple patch looping for 20 minutes, a bassline for instance, would leave me with gooseflesh. That did more for me than my previous approach so I began to study the modules in depth and then became really invested. Now it's hard to look back at my older gear, but I've started to integrate everything together via MIDI.

Like fackir just said, not having a goal was the perhaps most liberating part of the experience. And while I do want to play live and cut an album someday, I still am too occupied with just figuring out how stuff works. Which, for me, is where the fun lies.

[facklr]

I love reading noobie posts where they detail every single thing they are intending to do with every single module even though they haven't even touched one yet, else someone question their intellect.

For a newcomer it can actually be quite helpful to have some specific functionality in mind, because the modular is one giant puzzle machine, especially if you don't have a lot of modules. I learned the most when I had to patch around missing functionality in my (nearly empty) rack.

I currently do not have a sequential switch, and it is enormous fun to conjure up that functionality with a host of other modules.

It's not a critique of the noobie, it's just funny to see so many preemptive strikes.

Yes it's ok to figure things out beforehand. It's just funny when the tone is so assured, and it happens a lot. Just an observation, not a criticism.

I remember being a noob very well. I wasn't born with a fistfull of patch cables. I can't even find my patch cables half the time.

Puzzle machine, indeed.

[vytis]

I got into modular because I wanted to see how far I could go with my idea of a self-contained rock'n'roll system. A band in a box literally. Verse, chorus, vocals and all that shit. I feel like I've succeeded in finding my own approach. Have never felt more productive.

Here are my findings:
1. No multitracking, straight two track recording works for me! I'm loving it. Once it's done it's done. Decision making happens during performance, you can't go back and replace a snare, shift a few notes. Spontaneous decisions and small mistakes add to the liveness of a recording.
2. I am in full control of my own band or orchestra. In my system I am able to define how much personal freedom each musician is allowed. It works for me.
3. I like the sound and immediacy of analog. Want to dirty something up? I can fm the oscillator with a bit of white noise. Need an extra oscillator? I can use a resonant filter.
4. I re-discovered fm synthesis. West coast and all that.
5. I stopped using sequencers and learned to patch my own 'sequencers' out of individual modules - clock dividers, mixers etc. Many unexpected evolving melodies can be made this way. I don't want to go back to sequencing in a DAW.
6. My idea of a self-contained polyphonic rock'n'roll machine has been realised. It totally works for me. Build up a song, perform, record, unpatch. Done. I actually love pulling out cables!
7. I am enjoying the freedom of going wild, west coast style when I feel like it or sticking to a certain tempo or scale.
8. I see my 18U as a music laboratory, not just an instrument. I wish I could take it out and perform, but for the type of music I make it isn't really feasible. I guess I am a composer first, performer second.

I am an artist and my modular is my easel. My music easel. Don Buchla chose a really good name for his instrument. What a coincidence. My 18U is an easel I paint on. It is my dear soul mate.

[MindMachine]

The kind that blows your fucking mind

You played with Negativeland. That blows my mind! I hope the Weatherman was there with his bottle of 409 cleaner.

Great tunes sir! Poseidonis is epic.

I would be happy if my music just impressed a few people. It used to. But then they died. Hopefully my music had nothing to do with it.

[mousegarden]

I gave up using the word "original" a long time ago. It's pointless, everything we do is influenced, it's just that some people are better at disguising influences than others, these people are often called geniuses.
My only desire is to make music that reflects, genuinely, how I'm feeling at the time, so that I can then throw that out there and see if it makes a connection with anyone who will then say "that's great! I feel the same way too sometimes! I can identify with this feeling, it makes me feel warm and cozy!, even though it can be disturbing sometimes"
That's it, that's all there is to it for me. Except that most of the time my music isn't being heard by anyone, that's a bit like living in a city surrounded by people and being the loneliest person in the world.

[trinithis]

Good thing "original" and "good/enjoyable" are two very different things. John Cage taught us that lol.

[asteraster]

ambient

i want to make relaxing, reflective, meditative, healing music

this is the song, on the album that made me want to make music


i didn't know then that it was all guitar loops, but listening to the sounds led me toward synthesis as a way of approaching the kinds of sounds i was hearing.

[mousegarden]

ambient

i want to make relaxing, reflective, meditative, healing music

this is the song, on the album that made me want to make music


i didn't know then that it was all guitar loops, but listening to the sounds led me toward synthesis as a way of approaching the kinds of sounds i was hearing.

Sometimes I like to make restful, "healing music" but most of the time I'm a disturbed anxious wreck inside. I was wondering how many people here think that the music they produce is the exact opposite of the way they feel generally. If I'm feeling serene and contented, which isn't often, I'll sometimes produce music that is chaotic and disturbing, or deliberately annoying.

[gaston]

ambient

i want to make relaxing, reflective, meditative, healing music

this is the song, on the album that made me want to make music


i didn't know then that it was all guitar loops, but listening to the sounds led me toward synthesis as a way of approaching the kinds of sounds i was hearing.

Sometimes I like to make restful, "healing music" but most of the time I'm a disturbed anxious wreck inside. I was wondering how many people here think that the music they produce is the exact opposite of the way they feel generally. If I'm feeling serene and contented, which isn't often, I'll sometimes produce music that is chaotic and disturbing, or deliberately annoying.

I can kind of relate, if I'm anxious, stressed out etc I generally go to ambient land.. But when I'm at a good place I like to mess with stuff, trash stuff up, which maybe buys me a ticket back to ambient land in the end.

[petersandbach]

I gave up using the word "original" a long time ago. It's pointless, everything we do is influenced

Exactly!

For me I want to make something like the combination of Queen, Debussy, Moderat, Prodigy and Simple Minds!

[x2mirko]

The question:

"What kind of music...?"

and the similar but, to me, enraging:

"What are you hoping to achieve?"

are extremely obnoxious questions to me. As far as I'm concerned, they are best answered with:

"I want to explore sound"

I tend to ask this question and i think that "I want to explore sound" is a completely valid answer, but not the only possible one. Of course, it's always true to a certain extend, but there are many different flavors to it.

By now, eurorack in particular is so diverse that, if you want to build a starter system for a certain amount of money, there are completely different possible approaches - one person might want to build what is basically a normal mono synth with more interesting routing capabilities, another might want a dronebox for meditative soundsculpting sessions and yet another might want to build a polyrhythmic sampler/groovebox-type thing. These three are different and require a different set of modules if you're restricted to a certain budget. Long-term, you can of course build a system that can fit all three of these scenarios and any modular synth can be used in many creative ways to somehow achieve a goal even with not perfectly suited modules, but I still think that asking about a general idea or direction that the person has in mind is valid. Calling that question "enraging" and "obnoxious" seems to me like a massive overreaction.

[pre55ure]

I want to make synthetic punk rock.
Or maybe metal.
I don't know, the music that the bad dudes in Escape from New York grew up listening to in the alternative gritty dark John Carpenter future. Or the music that the disgruntled youth living in the world of Bladerunner listen to.
The only problem with that is that I don't really know what it sounds like... So I just incrementally inch my way closer to what I imagine that sounds like. It's hard to imagine what something you haven't heard sounds like though. And while I figure it out (which I never will...) I just enjoy the awesome sounds that get me a little bit closer each time.

[noisetheorem]

Slow motion industrial...or machine shop ambient. I'd say either phrase captures it well.

http://www.noisetheorem.com if you're interested in finding it.

[luketeaford]

I like making all different sorts of music. Sometimes I want to create a very specific sound and compose around it. Sometimes I whip up a 4/4 kick drum and let it do its thing while I study one or two other modules in detail.

[sduck]

Robot farts. But really good, high quality robot farts. The best robot farts. The kind that stoners love, and gets 300K views on youtube.

[chamomileshark]

Robot farts. But really good robot farts. The kind that stoners love, and gets 300K views on youtube.

Is there any money to be had in that?


For me it was the same kind of music I was making before - another tool to expand the palette of sounds and techniques.

[Zodanga]

If someone comes onto a forum and says, “I’m new to this; what should I buy?” or “Take a look at my [proposed] rack and tell me what you think I need” (which is becoming more and more common here… perhaps should be its own forum)…. Then I don’t see why the first response shouldn’t be, “Well what is it you want to do?”

Sure, a modular synthesizer is arguably the most flexible musical instrument ever created, and can therefore be used for many varied purposes. But why are so many opposed to asking what the questioner is looking to accomplish with it? Entering the world of modular synthesis is often a daunting endeavor and usually/eventually quite expensive. Is it not worth trying to get a sense for what the person’s aims might be before advising them?

If you walk into a home improvement store and say, “I need some paint,” the first thing the dude with the orange apron is going to ask is, “Well, what for?” right? Interior? Exterior? Matte/Satin/gloss? What is the surface you’re painting? Metal? Wood? Plastic…? Do you want high quality or is money an object? Even an art store will ask, “Oils? Watercolor? Acrylics? You can’t just ask for ‘paint.’”

Discovering what inspired a newcomer to come here looking for answers seems like the first logical step in actually being helpful. Otherwise, your advice to them will just be what YOU want/wanted from synthesizers. Isn’t the point of modular that you can customize an instrument to your personal needs? Well then, what are those needs? If you can’t answer that, then why are you asking for help?

In my experience, most people think that they themselves have quite varied musical tastes. But often when they list what they enjoy, it quickly becomes obvious that it’s the old, “Oh, so you like Country AND Western music?” Often our own scope of tastes is not nearly as wide as we think when viewed from another point of view. Amusingly narrow, sometimes. (And that’s fine!)

If I’m deep into Xenakis, Oram, Spiegel, etc. and someone says, “Hey, you know electronic music, what should I buy?” Then I give them a shopping list, they rack up a credit card bill, and come back to me and say, “Okay, how do I start making mechanically cyclic 4/4 rhythms and drum sounds for my dance music with this?” … uh… I guess I should have told you that you might have wanted a sequencer and/or a drum machine first instead of 16 ring modulators, an envelope follower, and two delay modules. Never occurred to me... I should have asked… I just assumed…

If the newcomer says, “I dunno, I just want to explore,” well then, okay. The world is your oyster. Buy anything at all and see what happens when you hook things together. That level of open-endedness practically invalidates the question in the first place. But I think that even when people imagine they want to do “anything & everything” they still have something fairly focused in mind, based on their own tastes, even if they don’t think so. Even if it’s just what they’re into this month.

If someone doesn’t like the answer, “Well what kind of music do you want to make?” then perhaps they didn’t ask the right question.

[asteraster]

Zodanga
maybe we need to develop a checklist/guide for newbies

like
#1: drums or nah?

#2: structure or chaos?
(do you want to control everything or be a little more hands off)

#3: Eno or Moroder?
(Vangelis or Carpenter)

[Zodanga]

asteraster

That is not a bad idea! Even the exercise of creating the list might be enlightening!

[MarcelP]

Agree with Zodanga completely. If someone asks for advice it is useful to establish some kind of frame of reference otherwise the advice is meaningless.

If someone stops you in the street and asks you for directions it REALLY helps if they tell you where they want to go. And if they don't initially tell you - it is perfectly polite, sensible and constructive to ask. They don't need to give the precise post code and the greater the distance the more vague they can be yet still get useful information. If someone is trying to get from London to Manchester a simple "go North" could be useful and informative.

Of course one could suggest Liverpool or Leeds might be nicer as an alternative, but that would only be useful if they didn't have a specific reason for going to Manchester. Discussing alternative methods of getting there is certainly informative: take a bus? does the questioner have car? is flying too expensive? Not in a hurry and on a budget one could hitch-hike? Walk? Do they need to be there next week or next year...

Telling them that "these days you can go anywhere by whatever means and you should not limit your travelling by defining destinations" then stalking off in a huff in some vague undefined direction yourself... seems a little perverse.

[Dr. Sketch-n-Etch]

I'd make music more or less exactly like SB-SIX does on his brilliant album Paths, if I had a fucking clue how to even get started.

[MindMachine]

Slow motion industrial...or machine shop ambient. I'd say either phrase captures it well.

http://www.noisetheorem.com if you're interested in finding it.

Machine Shop Ambient. You are a genius.

[M6live]

Redacted.

[pieter]

I'd make music more or less exactly like SB-SIX does on his brilliant album Paths, if I had a fucking clue how to even get started.

Do you have a link to that? I'm keen to check it out.

[mousegarden]

Robot farts. But really good robot farts. The kind that stoners love, and gets 300K views on youtube.

Is there any money to be had in that?

If there is money to be made in farting, then I want to know why I'm not a billionaire!