Why is a synth so "alien?"

RVNOak · Post by **RVNOak** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:17 am

Ha!! Give them the mouse and see if they can paint by numbers any better!!!

...and with a little luck, a new musician might be born

RiotNrrd · Post by **RiotNrrd** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:19 am

The paint-by-numbers analogy is flawed.

When someone paints-by-numbers, they are coloring in sections of a pre-drawn picture, using the colors the artist told them to use. They make no choices at all.

When we compose music using software, we are, so to speak, determining the sections, numbers and colors ourselves. We have nothing but one choice after another from start to finish. Even if we are just building our own loops and piecing them together (a popular electronica compositional style); they are still our OWN loops.

I think that some of the disdain many people have for computer-done music is that, even at this late date, the general public still doesn't have a really good idea of the capabilities or limits of computers. I think that people still attribute more abilities to computers than computers really have. Some people really think that if you spend enough money, you can buy programs that can do ANYTHING, including think. And so if you say you did something "on a computer", they think that maybe the expensive computer program did the whole thing, with you maybe making a few radio-button choices in a dialog box here or there and that's about it.

This is also true for computer based visual art (ray-tracing, for example). You can produce a ray-trace which looks absolutely stunning, but the fact that it was made using a computer OBVIOUSLY means that the computer did the whole thing, and the fact that you had to conceptualize the piece out of whole cloth in the first place and then spend 50 hours of painstaking design and editing setting the thing up to render... doesn't play into it at all. "The computer did it." You didn't.

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:22 pm

I had this question asked by a person that knew that I play Synths/Keyboards: "Do You play any Live Instruments?"

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:29 pm

Vadim wrote:I had this question asked by a person that knew that I play Synths/Keyboards: "Do You play any Live Instruments?"

I guess the correct question should have been, "Do you play any acoustic instruments?"

It's amazing that after all the years synths have been incorporated into music, both recorded and live, most people still have no clue what they are.

Fatalmasterpiece · Post by **Fatalmasterpiece** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:03 pm

Vadim I think that may be due the that there are many bands now which incorporate samples to the point where a "musician" amongst the troupe only presses several buttons or holds the chords in play and the synth does the rest of the work, like running a drum machine or putting a keyboard through an arp sequence.

Theres a big difference between that and someone who actually is playing what is heard but is using synth sounds and new effects.

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:22 pm

Fatalmasterpiece wrote:Vadim I think that may be due the that there are many bands now which incorporate samples to the point where a "musician" amongst the troupe only presses several buttons or holds the chords in play and the synth does the rest of the work, like running a drum machine or putting a keyboard through an arp sequence.

Theres a big difference between that and someone who actually is playing what is heard but is using synth sounds and new effects.

i don't trigger samples. I use keyboard as an instrument to play live and record music in the studio.

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:23 pm

but anyways, Turntables aren't "live instruments" but they are as popular as guitars.

Fatalmasterpiece · Post by **Fatalmasterpiece** » Tue Jul 01, 2008 9:02 pm

Right, I know -you- don't. But there are so many people that do that it makes it seem like everyone does. There are plenty of "DJs" out there that have turn tables and mix tracks then call themselves musicians.

The scene is saturated with this. With a guitar, you can see the guy playing it. With a keyboard or turntable, all you see is someone standing there moving their hands. The public doesn't know how to recognize the difference between that or someone who is actually playing skillfully.

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 12:52 pm

Fatalmasterpiece wrote:The public doesn't know how to recognize the difference between that or someone who is actually playing skillfully.

And perhaps.....sad to say for us hopeless composers of electronic music, the public still has little interest in it or isn't ready for it (at least not in the good old USA).

I have great respect for accomplished piano and Hammond organ players, by the way. It's just unfortunate that the synthesizer, which allows us to create sounds yet unheard, may always remain "just a mysterious novelty."

Sigh.

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 2:26 pm

Synthoid wrote:(at least not in the good old USA).

USA is probably the only country that almost rejected all musical instruments, especially Electronic and Keyboard instruments.
Here They don't want to hear anything besides Guitars/Bass/Drums.

also Rock bands would rather have Turntables (which isn't even an instrument) added to their band rather than Synths/Keyboards.

We need more of these:

or will USA call this "Cheezy 80's" ?

Synthoid · Post by **Synthoid** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 8:52 pm

Vadim wrote:We need more of these:

or will USA call this "Cheezy 80's" ?

Of course! Ever notice that a guitar player can do a Jimi Hendrix or Led Zeppelin lick and everyone says how cool it is, then you do the solo from "Lucky Man" or some 80's synth riff and the response is, "Oh that's cheesy!"

Just a side note.......it's interesting what has been replaced with digital technology over time: film cameras to digital cameras; typewriters to computer WP programs; graphic design has gone from typesetting and paste-up to digital design; analog TV to HDTV......but--we still have all these acoustic instruments in our music. We don't want to let go of that, I guess, and that's OK, but wouldn't it be fun (and different) to go to a school recital and see a band of all digital instruments instead of trumpets, flutes, clarinets, and such?

How about an all-digital marching band!

JonSolo · Post by **JonSolo** » Wed Jul 02, 2008 9:50 pm

The keytar is the devil.

Do I need to quote from my own post? Keytars are exactly why a lot of people view keyboardists as "guitarist wannabes".

I am proud to stay put behind my stack. Standing, not sitting.

Solo

Vadim · Post by **Vadim** » Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:00 pm

JonSolo wrote:
Do I need to quote from my own post? Keytars are exactly why a lot of people view keyboardists as "guitarist wannabes".

Solo

"Guitarists wanna be synth players" more than "keyboardists wanna be guitarists" with all those Roland Guitar Synths.

i think if guitars would have never been invented, we would have been seeing lots of "keytars" today, as well as normal synths.

also, the public would probably appreciate a guitarist using roland guitar synth, that synth player using a synth.

mdh · Post by **mdh** » Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:02 pm

Guitarists just suffer from penis envy... they only have 6 strings while pianos have about 200.

My favourite stunt on my OASYS at the moment is to pull up the "Guitar Heaven" Combi (C-77) and play G'n'R's "Sweet Child O' Mine"...

JonSolo · Post by **JonSolo** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 2:07 am

Ok...I officially take back everything I said about keytars. They are oddly, and scarily sexy!

http://www.gigglesugar.com/2404249

Solo