overused techniques

**yeswehavetheright** · 09-06-2004, 10:31 AM

Imitate then innovate?

**DJZeMig_L** · 09-06-2004, 01:10 PM

reshape, reform, re-invent!

I tend 2 think of Electronic music as an elipse and not as a loop, meaning, u do go back for sources of inspiration, etc... but then u add/ shape into something new!

Z

**tracatak** · 10-06-2004, 12:33 AM

hopefully u do know that is what i am doing but i am such a worry wart i need to knwo if i am doing it correctly of am i making house...lol...damnit im posting my loops somewhere then linking it here so u can stop pickin on me the lil poor yankee..lol

**Komplex** · 10-06-2004, 04:08 AM

Don't worry about what u are doing.

As long as it sounds good I wouldnt worry.

It doesn't have to sound like what everyone else is doing.

**DJVirulent** · 15-06-2004, 10:48 AM

I think the only thing I really REALLY can't stand in tracks at this point is sampled phrases of the following things:

-Popular hip hop tracks (even though I've done it once, but at the VERY end of a track)
-Samba/salsa/latin vocal and music loops
-Straight up whole phrases from other tracks that are longer than 1/4th a bar and aren't messed with sonically.

There was this really huge track that everyone and their mother played about a year or two ago that violated the latter two. Think it was Thomaz vs. Filterheadz but it wasn't "Sunshine". Ripped an easily-identifiable loop off from SLS's Tribe Cutz Vol. 1 EP.

**180mph** · 19-06-2004, 01:13 AM

it had to happen... techno has finally caught up with rock!!!!
THERES ONLY SO MUCH WE CAN WRITE WITH A LIMITED AMOUNT OF NOTES!!! dont be scared of being pigeon holed, all it takes is one nice noize in your track for it to stand out... who can honestly say that all their stuff is 100% original... it just simply wouldn't be techno anymore... it would be some alien, abstract form of mush that nobody understands... and what section would the shop-keep put it into ;) techno is techno is techno... thats why we love it... there are formulaes in all music, so lets embrace them and try work with them... sometimes we need them to define our sound!

(i know i'm gonna get hammered for those comments!!!! :lol: )

**Basil Rush** · 19-06-2004, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by 180mph

it had to happen... techno has finally caught up with rock!!!!
THERES ONLY SO MUCH WE CAN WRITE WITH A LIMITED AMOUNT OF NOTES!!! dont be scared of being pigeon holed, all it takes is one nice noize in your track for it to stand out... who can honestly say that all their stuff is 100% original... it just simply wouldn't be techno anymore... it would be some alien, abstract form of mush that nobody understands... and what section would the shop-keep put it into ;) techno is techno is techno... thats why we love it... there are formulaes in all music, so lets embrace them and try work with them... sometimes we need them to define our sound!

(i know i'm gonna get hammered for those comments!!!! :lol: )

Well, yeah, sometimes I listen to music and think it's all been done already, you listen to MTV and get some plastic R&B rap act, or listen to a techno track that's a couple of loops and a subby rumbly thing. But then someone comes along and all of a sudden you're like why the **** didn't i think of that.

But it's hard work to innovate, and often comes out sounding a bit suspect on the first attempt. Strikes me there are people who innovate and then if it's good there are people who imatate, and some of the people who imatate actually do it better than the people who came up with the idea in the first place and then you have a new genre...

**180mph** · 19-06-2004, 03:45 PM

Well, yeah, sometimes I listen to music and think it's all been done already, you listen to MTV and get some plastic R&B rap act, or listen to a techno track that's a couple of loops and a subby rumbly thing. But then someone comes along and all of a sudden you're like why the **** didn't i think of that.

But it's hard work to innovate, and often comes out sounding a bit suspect on the first attempt. Strikes me there are people who innovate and then if it's good there are people who imatate, and some of the people who imatate actually do it better than the people who came up with the idea in the first place and then you have a new genre...[/quote]

don't get me wrong... i'm not saying dont innovate, i just disagree with people constantly moaning about techno being stale and derivitive. pop music has been around for eons... still basically the same principles.. (verse, bridge, verse, bridge, chorus, middle 8th... etc) and techno also seems to have a formulae.. admittadly its a lot more open to change than most music, but when was the last time you heard a techno track the really made you sit up and say "shit, thats differant" yet still sounded "techno"... i think for me it was a rmx on eukatek - some really disjointed tune, cant remember who it was but it had some serious off kilter breaks and blips, and a shooshing aeroplane noize over it.
but all that said i still enjoy formulaic techno. i love the feeling of knowing where a track is going and hearing it get there. the anticipation is unreal!

**Basil Rush** · 20-06-2004, 08:23 PM

blues is a fine example of something that's been the same for years. electronic music wants to try to be a bit more cutting edge sometimes for some reason...

**techno_smack** · 21-06-2004, 01:42 PM

I have been buying a few hardstyle tunes recently, and dont like to let them play to far into the tune because quite a few of them have this terrible screaching sound that comes in half way through which just sounds like shit.

does anyone know what im on about?

**DJVirulent** · 21-06-2004, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by techno_smack

I have been buying a few hardstyle tunes recently, and dont like to let them play to far into the tune because quite a few of them have this terrible screaching sound that comes in half way through which just sounds like shit.

does anyone know what im on about?

You mean some sort of really loud and irritating distorted high-pitched pad/string/lead type thing? Ew.

**techno_smack** · 21-06-2004, 02:40 PM

yep thats the one, works a treat at ruining an entire tune.

**The Divide** · 22-06-2004, 01:37 AM

Overused technique – The use of standard, dry drums and straight rhythms. Un-processed un-mangled bog standard sounds/samples.

Standard straight on/off beat rhythms without a groove which builds to a peak which usually features a ride cymbal instead of an expersion or feeling of resolve

Music that doesnt say anything

Something like that

**The Divide** · 22-06-2004, 01:48 AM

Originally Posted by Basil Rush

blues is a fine example of something that's been the same for years. electronic music wants to try to be a bit more cutting edge sometimes for some reason...

Actually you can make a connection between how Jazz and its subgenreas evolved to present techno/electronica

The experimental/wonkey version of Jazz was bebop, some of the Jazz people used to think "eh? what’s this all about, I cant dance to this". While the bebop artists looked down at the Jazz guys thinking they were so un-original. Bebop was mad, very surprising and un-formulated structures. Everything seems free and at times it sounds a bit chaotic. Bebop was more underground in a way bit like the wonkey stuff

I dunno, could be wrong with that tho :lol:

**Ritzi Lee** · 22-06-2004, 07:38 AM

Originally Posted by DJ Ze MigL

supa-fast bpm, heavy distortion & noises, percussion that sounds like a nordic cold "I wanna play funky samba" percutionist on a straight 16th .

Bring back the crazy synth sounds and the funky banging drums!

Z

working on it! ;)

**FILTERZ** · 22-06-2004, 03:50 PM

I just make the music i want to make and dont worry about whether somethings overused or not every single time i make some edits, if it fits i use it and who cares about whether or not some anorak or producer or dj notices and says oh not that old effect or edit or whatever, guess what NORMAL PEOPLE DONT JUDGE MUSIC THE WAY US WEIRDOS DO they just listen to it and like it or not.

**massplanck** · 22-06-2004, 05:25 PM

quantised drums

**Evil G** · 22-06-2004, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by FILTERZ

I just make the music i want to make and dont worry about whether somethings overused or not every single time i make some edits, if it fits i use it and who cares about whether or not some anorak or producer or dj notices and says oh not that old effect or edit or whatever, guess what NORMAL PEOPLE DONT JUDGE MUSIC THE WAY US WEIRDOS DO they just listen to it and like it or not.

you raise two really good points, and i don't have a good answer to either. i suppose you could fall back to the idealistic, "just make what's in your heart and if they like it they like it" position, but i think i'm not the only one who is too impatient for that. i'm trying, but what if i'm a scientist at heart?

**massplanck** · 22-06-2004, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by FILTERZ

guess what NORMAL PEOPLE DONT JUDGE MUSIC THE WAY US WEIRDOS DO they just listen to it and like it or not.

Normal people dont like techno.

**The Divide** · 22-06-2004, 11:00 PM

Whats normal? :lol:

I think you can get over analytical about it. I just sit down and **** about with sounds and enjoy myself. Someone will say "oh that sounds a bit like..." and I will say "oh well". Doesn’t matter to me as long as the mixdown is right and I feel I have expressed myself

Thread: overused techniques

Thread Tools

Display

Posting Permissions