Music Theory - Moved from Metro

[massplanck]

Maybe its some weird kind of spiral. PC music production => 10000s more people making music & churning out the mp3 releases.. I'd wonder if half the stuff has been through the hands of a mastering engineer (not some dude with wavelab) & of course we have the whole mp3 quality debate.

I dunno. Techno was born in one of the poorest & rundown shitholes (Detroit) by a group of black guys who I doubt were too flush with the cash. They were just determined to succeed. And they did.

I'm not into starting the whole mp3 vinyl debate but personally I dont have to compromise myself by use abelton or mp3s if i dont want to. Nor do I have to restrict myself to using software to make tunes if I dont want to (just because its too expensive to break my balls and save for a Virus or something). Suffer for your art... and if that means getting grief because I think vinyl cant be surpassed or that abelton doesnt have the funk then so be it. ;)

[RDR]

I dont have to compromise myself by use abelton or mp3s if i dont want to. Nor do I have to restrict myself to using software to make tunes if I dont want to

I think the debate has been covered already, We both have a position on this, at the end of the day the machine matters not.. the results stand for themselves - im sure we agree on this.

Its not just one person churning out vinyl though is it? Its many different people churning it out. And the ratio of crap to good is a constant in terms of all creativity i think, its the perception of what people deem to be quality that varies, this genre is out, this genre is in. What was yesterday's caviar is todays fish and chips.

By god i wish it was all still vinyl again, i genuinley do, it has so much going for it that the current situation is sad, not terminal but sad. If people can make a go of their music then so be it, vinyl is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

Musicially? It matters not. Democratically - it really does matter. But then the real power of the music lies in how many people like it. If a tune is played in a forest and no-one is there to hear it, is it really played? to coin a mis-used phrase.

Im just gonna keep on doing what i do and hope that it all works out.

PS- I think we hijakced cal's thread a little. perhaps I should move it.

[massplanck]

I think the debate has been covered already, We both have a position on this, at the end of the day the machine matters not.. the results stand for themselves - im sure we agree on this.
.

Yes. But what have been the results? The demise of techno & even more shitly produced music. 100 times more shit music than in the heady days of vinyl. A thowaway\substandard culture where a song gets listened for 10 secs and then its on to the next track...nevermind the comparison of mp3 vs vinyl. Mc Techno\No funk. Man i have been listening to techno for 10 years plus now. The days of a vinyl release being a dj tool are over. Abelton is the new dj tool. So for a vinyl to be suceesfull now It has to be a complete ****ing work of art to make it. And for that I'm very happy. I really really dont want to hear every second loop people make that gets put up on their myspace account, nor do I want to hear a digital release mastered by a random punter with a copy of soundforge & a SOS mastering article which has not had any quality control (ie the way record label owners used to vet music/artists). I'm making this a personal choice. There is a certain person I know (on this forum) who for certain regional economic circumstances has gone without lunch for weeks end just so he could afford to buy ONE vinyl. I want this guy to succeed. And you know what he will.

You can take a stand if you really want to. How about putting your heart and soul into just one ep for 12 months and getting it pressed to wax rather than making 60 in a year and throwing out 10 digital releases?

Look at Omar S (the grandson of detroit techno!). His vinyl albums & LPs all sell out. His stuff cant be bought in any record shop (online or in the highstreet). He sells them all himself through his own little website.

[RDR]

Yes. But what have been the results? The demise of techno & even more shitly produced music. 100 times more shit music than in the heady days of vinyl. A thowaway\substandard culture where a song gets listened for 10 secs and then its on to the next track...nevermind the comparison of mp3 vs vinyl. Mc Techno\No funk. Man i have been listening to techno for 10 years plus now. The days of a vinyl release being a dj tool are over. Abelton is the new dj tool. So for a vinyl to be suceesfull now It has to be a complete ****ing work of art to make it. And for that I'm very happy. I really really dont want to hear every second loop people make that gets put up on their myspace account, nor do I want to hear a digital release mastered by a random punter with a copy of soundforge & a SOS mastering article which has not had any quality control (ie the way record label owners used to vet music/artists). I'm making this a personal choice. There is a certain person I know (on this forum) who for certain regional economic circumstances has gone without lunch for weeks end just so he could afford to buy ONE vinyl. I want this guy to succeed. And you know what he will.

You can take a stand if you really want to. How about putting your heart and soul into just one ep for 12 months and getting it pressed to wax rather than making 60 in a year and throwing out 10 digital releases?

Look at Omar S (the grandson of detroit techno!). His vinyl albums & LPs all sell out. His stuff cant be bought in any record shop (online or in the highstreet). He sells them all himself through his own little website.

The demise of techno has very little to do with mp3. Your blaming a medium for the death of a genre? Vinyl was around long before techno ever was. And looking back onyl ended up containing vinyl because HOUSE djs started using it. Now house DJs dont use it much anymore (none of the house DJs i know buy vinyl anymore AT ALL - but there are obviously some who do still, in my experience anyway)

100 times more shit music than in the heady days of vinyl

Again this assumes that medium defines the quality of personal production. It doesnt, it just means like you said, that people put up shit tracks on their myspazz player, which is interesting from the perspective of listening to how people percieve a genre of music or where the 'Proles' of music making are heading as a semi-homogenous group - but it doesnt mean they are all making records to be put up on mp3 sites.

There are a lot of shit tracks out there, no quality control. But thats go F ALL to do with the makers, people will make music no matter what, thats life, nothing changed within people who have a dream of making it big, they were just given the opporunity to torture the rest of us with it. The propblem lies with....

The Aggregators (Distros NEW name.. lol ) They play the numbers game. Sure, put yourself out there mate, we'll take you on if you make a few sales its all good. Now this has massive down sides to it as we covered already - but it refused to see it all as a negative.

As for people selling vinyl from their own personal sites, cracking, i couldnt agree more, its something I want to do as well and im glad the distros have their fingers out of that pie it might mean vinyl actually makes money for people who need it. But then the process becomes nothing more than specialist vinyl sellers in bits and bats here and there.

IMO of course planky ;)