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Old 02-03-2013, 03:04 AM   #2231
northern
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Finland
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Thanks Yep for this amazing thread. I just read pdf. files from this thread (so I haven't read all latest posts) and this feels little like writing to bible or something This has been like kick in the ass in many things like "solve the problem of humming guitar, organize your studio, forget presets, organize your plugins..." things you kind of know but ignore until somebody says it. This thread also talked about acoustics thread, but I couldn't find it. Can somebody send link to it?

However there are some things I would criticize (because you wanted it :P)


1. You said: "Nobody ever falls in love to their music or is compelled to break down and weep or to jump up and dance, it's music for music nerds. And that's fine, in and of itself."

I'm sure that there are lot of people who haven't study any music theory, but they still love complex pieces of classical music. And if you go to gig of progressive metal band, audience is jumping around and headbangin to those 7/8 riffs. Even those songs will probably not be played in parties, it doesn't mean that people are not loving that music. You need to pay more attention to complex music, so that's why it's not best choose for noisy party with drunken people. When you have time to sit down and just listen... you may get much more out of "nerd music" than other people get from simple pop songs. And even if only nerds would love your "nerd music" I don't see any problem. If 10 000 000 nerds will buy your album because it's more complex than anything else, is that bad thing?


You also said: "If music is the product of a methodical series of chores and academic exercises, made by a glassy-eyed technician hunched over a computer, then it's going to show in the results."


You seem to be guy who understand at least something about music theory, but there are lot of people who thinks that music theory is created by scientists and computers and if you study theory, your music starts to sound academic, mathematical and boring (I would like to sometime hear their example of that kind of music).

Most of the music theory is lot older than computers and I believe it's made by people who have discovered that "hey, if I play this notes together, it sounds good!" instead of "I try to calculate ultimate theory that creates perfectly pure music".

So theory is after all stuff that people have noticed that sounds good. We copy things like "bass plays the lowest notes", "song starts with intro", "drummer plays ride in chorus and hi-hat in verse", "in metal band there is distortion in electric guitar", "song usually has one solo"... not because we are told to do so, or because they are the "correct academic way", but because those things SOUND good. So if we are copying all those things and lot more, why don't we want to use good sounding things from music theory too? Maybe C-major scale is invented because it sounds good, not because some math genius once calculated it?

And to my experience... those musicians who have studied theory can make music that makes me think "wow, amazing, how the hell she can invent something like that?" and music created by people who have not studied music makes me more often think like "oh, just another typical, and boring C Am F G chord progression in 4/4".

Those people who are most against theory, will usually make the most boring songs that follow theory. No key changes, no notes outside the scale, only 3/4 and 4/4 time measures... only the "right" notes in simple major or minor scale. They may think they are making original and genius music, but are actually doing some basic stuff that has been invented hundreds of years ago. "Rules are made to be broken" but if you don't know the rules, it's lot harder to broke them.

I know that your point wasn't "music theory sucks" but speaking about "glassy-eyed technicians" may give impression to somebody that music theory is evil and should be avoid any ways.

Of course we all are individuals, but to me theory can be source of inspiration, it helps communicating with other musicians, it makes me work faster, it makes me invent new stuff, it makes me understand stuff that other people make... "All you need is ears" but if you have now clue at all what you are doing, it's quite hard to compose two hour long symphony to live orchestra. I'm not saying that "composing under inspiration" is bad, I like to do basic structure of song without thinking much about theory, but it gets me just to one point. To get further and get the "next step" I need help of theory.

Btw. here is song composed by guy who studied in Sibelius academy. Doesn't sound too academic to me... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVifw7Atg2Y


2. One thing I think that is quite important, but not mentioned here is that "don't listen with your eyes". I have seen this specially when somebody is trying to find good guitar tone from plugins. "I choose this amp because it looks like Marshall. Then I choose this cabinet, because it is called xxxx. I use this mic simulation because my favorite guitar player uses that mic too...". Maybe that other crappy looking amp plugin actually sounds more Marshall than the one you use, maybe the programmer accidentally gave wrong name to that cabinet simulation, maybe some other mic simulation sounds closer to the sound your looking for...

I'm little surprised that you sent those frequency analyzer pictures, because it will easily lead to people staring those lines "oh, that's how my music should LOOK like!" and then they tweak their eq to get the look similar to their favorite album. There is danger that you start to "listen with your eyes" and forget your ears. It's good to remember that the audience won't see what you are seeing in your studio. They don't see what preset did you use, they don't see that your reverb is supposed to sound like church, they don't see how you adjusted your compressor, they don't see that you had huge condensator mic in front of singer like in professional studios... but they can HEAR what your recording sounds like and that is only thing that matters.
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