Colin OOOD

But why synthesise something when you can just as easily use the real thing?

IM-bashing threads aren't as good as they used to be.

I've always taken 'composing music' to mean the same as 'writing music', the act of writing, or creation, being separate from the subsequent act of production in which the music that has been composed is rendered into a form which we can actually hear. When Mozart played his sonatas on the piano, he was performing, perhaps even producing, the music he had composed. When he was improvising, the acts of composition and production occurred simultaneously. I reckon, anyway.

Personally I don't highpass my kick. Ever. I occasionally highpass the bass, but only if it contains low-frequency rubbish below the fundamental of the lowest note in the track. Remember, basslines in some keys have fundamentals below 40Hz. My thinking is that each soundsystem has a different low-frequency cutoff point, and they are generally all highpassed by the system controller unit. Even then, highpass filters (whether electronic in the controller unit or physical in the response of the sub-bass drivers themselves) are not brick walls; they have a slope, so frequencies below the cutoff point are still reproduced, albeit at a progressively lower level. I want my tracks to sound as good as they can on a given system, so I don't want to second-guess the PA engineer by removing frequencies in the kick or bass that the system will actually be able to reproduce. So far (as far as I can tell) we have had no issues with inaudible sub lowering system headroom, either. Also, if you're producing for a release, I would recommend leaving any hipassing of the kick/bass to the mastering engineer, as they are likely to use higher-quality processing than you have available. Bass is very sensitive to phase-shift because of the long wavelengths, and some EQs smear transients quite badly in this area. [EDIT] Not saying this is actually the 'right' way to go about it, it's just what I do.

There is an aspect of electronic music-making known as 'sound design' in which one samples, synthesises, or otherwise creates, shapes and designs the sounds one intends to use in a composition (aka 'a track'). When I'm doing this, yes, I feel like I'm 'designing' something as I am attempting to create a sound with a specific aim, or design, in mind. There is also the career of 'sound designer' which (as far as I know) involves the designing of sound effects or synthetic acoustic environments for use in broadcast media, film, or art installations. I don't ever feel like I'm doing this though, as I don't work in TV or film.

I don't like metal, but I can't deny Black Sabbath - Paranoid is a classic album. People who deny other people's appreciation of something need to take their heads out of their asses IMO. Also I think the darkscene is still too young for the true classics of the genre to be known, although I'm sure people will have their own personal classics already.

Surely how you describe yourself depends totally on the person you're talking to? I start off by saying "I do music" and then answer whatever questions the person has. You need to describe it in terms the other person will understand. 'Composer' is a perfectly adequate term for describing the creation of a piece of music from scratch, for those who think of things in those terms. As far as the 'Music Design' thing goes, to me there are three kinds of electronic music producers: musicians, technicians and those who combine the two areas to make the good shit.

Thankyou sir. You've made a happy man feel very old.

Sometimes Not always.

I prefer to write my own arpeggios Sometimes you find a preset with a cool arp though.

OOOD and Voice of Cod are certified 90% arpeggiator-free.

The intro sound to Hallu - LSD is a Kurzweil K2000 preset patch played in octaves. Shpongle have used whole chunks of demo songs from sample CDs as major parts of their tracks... they say 'talent borrows, genius steals'.

Fair enough. I guess I was confused by your description of your music on your Soundclick page as being "Pay/Goa trance", which (when spelled correctly ) is a form of dance music

Simultaneous :posford: :clapping: and

For the benefit of Nemo and other people who may not realise I was joking, that's not Simon in the photo I posted, it just looks like him.

Crono - thought I'd better listen to some of your tracks just in case you have a point that I missed... Through The Fractal - the kick here is obviously from a real bass drum, and is lacking in click and sub-frequencies. Also - you do realise the handclap you're using is synthesised, and not a recording of real handclaps? Musical Constant of the Universe - can't hear the kick well enough to tell anything about it but the rest of the real perc you're using sounds ok (although I'd suggest cutting around 100Hz on the toms as they're very boomy). Prog Demo - again, synthesised handclaps... was waiting for the kick to come in but it never did... might well be intentional though, it's obviously not the complete track. Automat Demo - the kick here is the weak point of the clip - very middy with no real bass or definition. I may not have chosen a selection of your tracks that accurately represents what you're talking about though, so if there's another tune of yours that proves your point please let me know. You've got some good ideas and many of the other sounds and riffs you're using are great, but what I've heard has been universally let down by the kickdrum. I stand by what I said... dance music stands or falls partly on the quality and qualities of the kick, and 99.999% of the time, kicks taken from real drum kits just won't do it on the dancefloor.

Please ignore the above post, it's wrong.

+1 Cronodevir - you don't half come out with some bullshit sometimes. :clapping: Try making a dance track of any genre purely with percussion sounds sampled from real life and see how far you get.

Dance music only exists the way it does because of synthesised percussion. The kickdrum and snare from the TR909 are both synthesised sounds, not samples, and are responsible (with the hihats from the same machine, which are admittedly samples) for much of the way dance music sounds today; not sure if you've noticed but dance music isn't exactly renowned for its reliance on 'authentic and real-sounding' percussion.

+1 ...although I think he may be winding us up...

I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding here on D's part...

Devious - Mixing /= mastering. Do some basic research before you spout off on topics like this. None of the mastering studios I've ever been in have used NS10s for mastering. Although they are excellent tools for mixing tracks on (as stated in your quote below), being as they are a kind of magnifying-glass for problems in the mids and highs, they are not accurate speakers - particularly in the low end - and that is needed in mastering. I check my masters (and mixes) on a fairly crappy hi-fi, just to make sure or certain aspects; I'm confident my mastering translates well both to large PA setups and shitty laptop speakers. But no way would I use them as my primary monitors.

Simon Posford is currently doing live sound for rock band in a small venue in Bristol:

Not always true I had a lot of good comments from people who really know their shit about the mastering I did for our Voice of Cod album. But yes - most often it really helps the sound for a different pair of ears to make the final overall adjustments.

I can do the odd track here and there for you but I'm doing a lot of free netlabel stuff at the moment and I need to keep my schedule somewhat free for paying jobs, so I'm not really interested in taking on a large free project at this time. Like I said though, ones and twos is possible.