What kind of music do you want to make?

[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.

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.

I'm currently in the country, sitting in the conservatory of my girlfriends house, a more serene place you couldn't imagine, just saw two Magpies in the garden, good luck!
I'm not even thinking about music of any kind, but I'm longing to be back in London, for some reason all I can think of is organising my Triton sounds, and sorting out the patches in my Eventide.
I'm on Muff"s, so music must be lurking....

[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.

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

I can't find the Bandcamp link just now, but here's a Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/steeboo/sets/modular-album-paths

[neuroportal]

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.

I can't find the Bandcamp link just now, but here's a Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/steeboo/sets/modular-album-paths

Thanks for sharing this. This is just so damn awesome I want to cry.

[Dr. Sketch-n-Etch]

Thanks for sharing this. This is just so damn awesome I want to cry.

I know, right?

[radray]

What kind of music do I wish to make?
Why the music of the future...todaaaaaay!

[video][/video]

[phirewall]

I'm interested in doing some meditational soundscapes, binaural beats and such. I need to get a module with digital frequency counters though. Looking at the OTool Plus for this.

[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.

I can't find the Bandcamp link just now, but here's a Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/steeboo/sets/modular-album-paths

Thanks for the link. That is indeed very good!

[aokjoey0]

THis is a really good (and difficult, for me) question.

I started playing guitar and singing as an early teen.
Started to listen to classical music, but did not have the desire to actually work in that realm, though I have learned a few Bach miniatures and such over the years.
Keith Emerson and Wendy Carlos brought me into the world of keyboards.
Very much into progressive rock and played in several bands.
Built my own studio in the eighties and started writing and recording more pop-oriented music, though there was still progressive elements in it.

And then the bad times. I married someone who I allowed to almost destroy most aspects of my life, including my music. I stopped playing, sold almost everything and for 15 years tried to ignore that part of me.

Then I dumped the bitch. (And there was much rejoicing - LOL)

I've spent the last three years rebuilding my rig, writing and keyboard skills. I thought that I would play progressive type (well 2016 progressive type) instrumental music, but live (using an iPad for backing tracks) and record as well.

Except I did like it nearly as much as I used to. I had to get over the macho "chops are everything" concept from my earlier days.

I also was able to afford decent gear and started to think about modulars and because of places like Muff Wiggler, I discovered a whole range of music that people were making. I was very aware of Carlos, Tomita, Tangerine Dream, etc. And even some of the EDM/Techno stuff, but really was shocked at the wide range of music that synthesists create these days.

So. For now, the answer to the question is I'd like to create music that incorporates lush sounds, generative music and decent soloing, with a leaning towards an orchestral scope, if not sound.

I also will be acquiring a new space to build a studio next week, so hitting record is something I am really, really looking forward to do.

One thing that is great about this time is the obscenely large number of publishing options out there for sharing and maybe making a little (very little ) money.

Wish me luck and I hope to be posting stuff in the coming months.

[calaveras]

I kind of started off at a very young age being into the oddest shit I could find. I don't know why but I find mainstream top 40 music as unbearably tasteless and bland. I can derive no enjoyment from it at all. Possibly because I grew up in the 70's and 80's.
I was inspired by glimpses of something that is other. Beatles number 9 is the only Beatles song I like. Yeah fuck the whole Beatles discography and all that syrupy lovey dovey nonsense. Number 9 was scaring the shit out of me and giving me nightmares.
There were other examples but the artists and titles escape me now.

So I used to do stuff like make layered tapes of broken acoustic guitar, or record the sideband distortion on AM radio. (especially in southern Louisiana, you get some really fun stuff with distant Spanish language radio mixing in with illegal overmodulated ship to shore radios).
Eventually moving to tape loops, multiple reel to reels and guitar pedals, because back in the 80s synths were expensive, and I could buy a used open reel deck for $20.

I'm hugely influenced by bands such as Devo, Negativeland, Cabaret Voltaire, Einsturzende Neubauten, Kraftwerk, Throbbing Gristle and a bunch of others. Not because I want to sound like them. But I admire how they sharply deviate from the normal pop/rock status quo.

The stuff that I do, I am trying to always move away from genre and just make stuff that I'd want to listen to when driving a car or riding the train.
Of course, like any other monkey I fall into the trap of imitation from time to time. And I do still very much like certain clichè elements like crunchy guitars, sample manipulation and dorpy synth basses.

I got into modular synths because there are ideas that I try with soft synths or hardware synths that never work. Modular opens more possibility.
Honestly I'm still trying to bring my modular to heel. I spend a little time every day patching, and about equal time building new stuff.

But if you meet me at a party and ask me what kind of music do I make? Uh I dunno.

[phoric]

removed

[captjrab]

Everytime I set out to make a certain kind of music, I stumble upon a better idea, so I never get to where I thought. Also, it's hard for me to transpose music made on different instruments onto the modular. I am not a clocking wizard who can put lots of rests and syncopation into my patches (yet). The opposite however is true as I love writing riffs, progressions and melodies on the modular and transposing them into songs for my band.
Mostly though, it's sound collage. I always wanted to be a painter, but this ended up being a better way to go.
There were a few posts about it just being synth music and not modular synth music, which is funny to me because I dont really like synth music. I'm coming from this as a guitarist and I have always looked at modular as a highly versitile pedal/effects rack. I always associated synth music with keyboards, skinny ties, hair gel and moonpants.

[Ceres]

Probably a cross between Taco and Liberace with more woggle.

[hairychris]

I have no idea what music I want to make. I am mainly a guitarist/bassist who plays/has played in metal bands, but I've had an interest in electronic music since around 1990 when I went to study in Manchester and caught the end of the whole Manchester techno/rave scene. I quickly worked out that the guys producing that music had the same attitude as metalheads, but different instruments & different drugs!

The first box with wires I got was an MFB semi modular thing a few years ago to noodle with (alongside my pile-o-guitars & etc) but as a bit of a gear whore it opened a whole new area of expense so I now have a 6u skiff of goodies, Moog Sub 37 and other crap.

Now, the music. Currently mainly noodling on my own, tends towards the ambient. However some synth stuff is creeping into the album that my band (metal) are currently recording... mainly subtle reinforcement for bass but we have worked out some areas that some unpredictable wiggling can work for ambience.

Otherwise I think that I'm on the hunt for the Brown Note.

[tau_seti]

I want to live in a world like that of Fripp and Eno's No Pussyfooting; the other day I came close.

[rokmodular]

Who knows, every time its a surprise!

[arthurdent]

"I want to explore sound"

I'm a newbie. I'm 69 years old, for all intents and purposes, I have no musical background. I have no synth hardware yet, planning to buy something for Christmas to get started. I've always had an interest in music and, as I've grown older, my tastes have broadened tremendously. About the only stuff I don't like is pop and its variations (j,k, etc.) most rap and hip-hop (although there's a few things I've heard that I can get into, and a lot of "club/dj" stuff, although there's some industrial/techno that gets me going. We have a daughter that used to do a program on the local college radio station - noise, experimental, ambient, world, etc and she introduced me to a LOT of stuff that just grabbed me and wouldn't let go. So, back at the beginning of this year I took my first steps:

bought a digital piano (Yamaha P-115) and I'm teaching myself to play;

bought a bunch of apps for my iPad - Animoog, Moog Model 15, midi-Sequencer, Arturia's iSem, iProphet, & iMini and I've been noodlin' the CRAP out of them.

Right now, I'm looking at stuff ranging from around $500-700 (Mother 32, Pgh SV-1, O-Coast) to around $2,100 (Pgh Mod Foundation 3.1+) - although I'm REALLY intrigued by the Make Noise Shared System WITH the Erb-Verb. As I've been going through all of this stuff, my wife has asked me SEVERAL times what I'm planning to do with it and I honestly tell her that I'm not sure, I just want to play and see where it takes me. About the only thing I think I'm sure of is that, in the long run, I won't have a keyboard attached to my system - just seems like that's too structured for what modular should be. But who knows, we'll see what happens...

[Dr. Sketch-n-Etch]

I'm a newbie. I'm 69 years old

Wow, that's very inspiring!

[arthurdent]

I'm a newbie. I'm 69 years old

Wow, that's very inspiring!

Thanks. It wasn't meant to be inspirational, it just happens to be where I'm at. But THANKS anyway.

For me, it's not just a question of "what" do I want to do but "WHY" do it in the first place. I'm not a musician - DJ, composer, band member, entertainer, etc - so I'm not doing it for a paycheck. If I were, then I might be concerned about what will my "customers" like and work with that. As I said, I've always had an interest in music, found that, at times, it helped get through something - classical when I needed to relax, hard rock when I needed to unwind. I'm now retired, have time - and some money - to do things that I couldn't or never thought about doing before. About a year ago, I was reading an article for "old people" talking about ways to "slow" the aging process. All the typical things - stay active, take walks, read books, work puzzles, hang out with people - to keep the mind, body, and spirit active. But then it said that one of the best ways to keep the mind active and functional was, not puzzles or books, but learn a musical instrument. It talked about the coordination of the mind with the fingers to learn the new skill (of course, focused on traditional instruments, e.g., piano, etc.). I got a bunch of books out of the library - most of them For Dummies books - started reading about scales, notation, circle of fifths, etc, and said, YEAH, this could be challenging (FWIW, I was a process/project/plant engineer for 42 years so I have a tendency to like technical stuff). I started looking at keyboards at the manufacturers' websites and I stumbled across the Moog homepage - DAMN, this looks like this could really be fun. From there it was downhill/uphill !? Found out about keyboard synths, then modular, listened to a lot of SoundCloud and watched a lot of YouTube and I was hooked.

With all of that said, I know WHY I want to do it - in a nutshell, to explore sound. The WHAT and the HOW are still to be determined. If my investment counselor's actuary tables are any good, I figure I've got around 15 -20 years to see where it goes...

[calaveras]

I was kind of thinking about this last night, and I guess my original answer wasn't very modular specific. But more just about my stuff in general.
Like last night I was humping the modular with my pants aroun my ankles and I was thinking "Why did I spend so much money on this? A real girlfriend would be much cheaper"!

But it got me thinking why do I feel compelled to have a modular and keep piling more things on to it?

I'm thinking that my motivation was that I've been getting into a rut with my punk/electro inflected industrial. I'm not happy with my creative output, so I need better tools.
Now it is about 4 years since I got my first HEK and a couple Dark Energy synths. But I'm still not getting that rip your face off and feed it to you that I want. I guess I'm searching for something much more aggressive without going full Power Electronics.

http://nsv.doctorruss.com/?page_id=12

[arthurdent]

Well, I've made my leap and ordered my first synth "system". I'm getting a double Mother 32 unit - guess that makes it a mother 64 - and I'm also getting the Moog Etherwave Plus Theremin. I've ALWAYS that that theremins were way cool, figured I can use it by itself or use it as a control device for the Mothers.

Can't wait

[calaveras]

way to go dentarthurdent!

[The Fall People]

I already make Ethnic Fusion music blending synths and traditional Silk Road region acoustic instruments. I also make dark wave and old Berlin style electronic music.

Now with modular I want to explore some new areas. Primarily exploring more ambient and etherial experimentation. Space music, if you will, or at least altered consciousness inspiring music.

[mome rath]

[video][/video]

like this, basically

i'm not good at it

[Hossymandias]

I've been a synther for years, but never modular. I've used a 49-Key controller into a Microkorg and JU-06 for a while, but now I'm venturing into modular territory. This weekend I'll be picking up a Pittsburgh Modular Synth Box and a Microbrute.

My main goal is to integrate the modular system into my current polysynth setup to be used with a live band. I'm hoping to use the tap-tempo on my Akai MPK49 to sync the arpeggiator with a live drummer. The arpeggiator will be driving whatever modular setup I construct.

The band I've got going could be described as sad Beach Boys. Brush jazz kit, male and female harmonized vocals, reverby Jagmaster (w/tons of whammy bar), and dreamy synth pads with (hopefully) synced arp.

Honestly, the Youtube video series Modular on the Roof got me obsessed with this stuff. I love the music he makes. Reminds me of John Carpenter movies from the 80s. If anyone has recommendations of where I can find more like this, please let me know.

[NewAndImprov]

There's a sound in my head that is somewhere between Herbie Hancock's Sextant, Sun Ra's My Brother The Wind, Volume II, Magma's Kohntarkosz, and Lee Scratch Perry's Blackboard Jungle, and if I could somehow make this record, I'd finally be happy.

This is as close as I've come. so far:
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1982342217 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]