RE: [microsound] MAX/MSP

[rob <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, I'm a bit new to this list, but not to the genre.  Some observations...  First, is this about open source code or music?  Not that I don't see some interesting parallels.  It's what you do with it.  What makes it work?  I've noticed that many people in the ambient scene seem to try and make up for (lack of) talent by spending more money on software and hardware.  DVOA is primarily made up with childrens toys, others use bizarre mathematical functions generated by computers, of data collected from stars.  Regardless, it's about what works.  Second.  Limiting possibilites is an essential part of making music.  We all do it.  You need to cut down your options before you can really work with them.  Take turntablism for example...  It's quite limited really, (I mean can't a computer generate a million more different sounds than a record scratching ?) but this has forced un-believable creativity to bring us artists like kid koala, and DJ spooky.  Necessity is the Mother of Invention 
now isn't it? (bad cliche)  People set and choose limits in their music for different reasons.  I'm trying to find something that works, a method, in my own music that doesn't include programming my own software, or using live instruments.  I also do use a lot of homebrew analog effects, something many choose not to do.  I've chosen the boundries, now I have a frame to work with.  Some of my stomp boxes do reinvent the wheel, or maybe reinvent the TB303 would be a better metaphor.  But I like it.  Sometimes I think you can do more with one knob on a stompbox than 3000 lines of code.  Then again, I've gotten an amazing amount of use from Hammerhead.  Othertimes I wish I could program my own.  But regardless, who cares about the software? or hardware for that matter.  Process is interesting, but really the only people who've ever walked up to me and said you need x piece of gear in your set-up were trying to sell me x piece of gear.  Making blanket criticism of someones musical process 
based on equipment choice is ridiculous really and has nothing to do with anything except the limited notions of people with a very fixed idea of what an artist does and does not do.  Gear chat is fun, but the more I spend thinking about gear the less time I have to make music.  I'm also a gearwhore who has been desperately trying to find balance between my love of the machines and my love of the music...

Rob
aka DOS beep