Brian Eno once said: “It’s not more options that you want, it’s more useful options”. I think this is more true today than ever, and I might add: those few useful options will often come from the least obvious places. So you want to be different, express your individuality, your personal message, come up with original content? Think about how you could make your process simpler. Sometimes, even a computer virus can be a good thing.
Having too many options, lacking physical connections, and templates can make it hard to stay productive creatively – even if they might sound like efficient routines. They can become the enemies of creativity and originality. Read more…
Music technology served us well until is was enabling artists to generate new ideas. By now it has become a quick & cheap way to copy them. Do you think that the latest xyz plug-in that takes your sound closer to a popular track will open up your world of creativity and get your music launched into some brand new musical landscape and help you to get your name written into the music history books? Do you feel like updating the technology and adding more features is the way to improve the quality of your work? Or maybe, are you waiting for AI to help you get to the next step?
Don’t hold your breath… actually, you might be better off doing the exact opposite. Read more…
Analog, digital, virtual analog, software synths… which one is the best option? Which sounds the best? This is one of the most frequent question I get from my listeners, students and even friends from the music industry.
Lot of people (still) talk about the warmth of analog, the precisions of digital, the superiority of hardware over plugins. At the same time, few are talking about the user experience, as opposed to the “perfect synth”. Or the impact of a different interface can have on the music itself. So let’s examine some differences, starting with the most fundamental to some more recent concepts. Read more…
The words “art” and “artist” are used extremely lightly these days. The honesty behind art. What is true art and what is fake art, no-art or an artsy commercial dishonest product? Self-declared artists. Marketing vs Art. Marketing vs Industry.
I don’t pretend to know the answer, but here is how I think of “art”. Read more…
Should an orchestra sound real in electronic music? Should composers like Vangelis use better samples, or is the focus purposely on something else? Although the technical difference between them is significant, what really sets sampled orchestral music and electro-orchestral music apart is the idea behind the composition, and the type of sonic character and musical expressions the composer prefers to communicate these different ideas with.
Let’s take a look at these two approaches to music production, which can result in very diverse types of outcomes. Read more…
