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Re: [microsound] [.microsound] "sound" of max/msp



At 12:40 AM 7/27/01 +0000, nobo jackson wrote:
isn't max/msp supposed to be able to do *anything*, soundwise? please excuse my unintelligence, but from what i understand:
that to me would tend to lead to very diverse, "non-sourceable" sounds, which seems not to be the case (in the idm sector at least).

Yes. The guitar has nearly infinite possibilities as well, yet metal bands never get past the chunka-chunka output type. Much of the pop/dance digital music seems to fall into the same trap. When I first tried out the Bitcrusher plugin in Logic I thought: ah, that is how everyone is making That sound. But even the limited Bitcrusher is capable of so much more than That sound. Similarly a quick look around Reaktor's preprogrammed libraries let me to think: ah, this is how everyone is making These sorts of tracks. But my early fumblings on the tabula rasa of a new Reaktor ensemble have made very different sounds (perhaps because I have not yet advanced very far). I am sure MAX/MSP has a similar near-infinity of sonic possibilities. Music in its popular spheres is driven by trends, and within these trends gear is not sought so much for its possibilities as for its recognizable sound: the Roland X0X series, the Fairlight, the Linn Drum, and the DX-7 all come to mind here. Then again, sometimes a recognizable preset is just the thing for a piece. But I imagine in retrospect digi-music will be seen to have its own bestiary of dreaded sounds, as did the early samplers with their orchestra hits. And if Taco Bell could ruin the DX-7 bell forever, when will a softsynth share that fate?


np - The Human League "Travelogue" (speaking of the Linn Drum...)

Joshua Maremont / Thermal - mailto:thermal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Boxman Studies Label - http://www.boxmanstudies.com/