[microsound] Re: Getting started

[midimanx <midimanx@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

"David Powers" <cyborgk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> lol ... i was thinking more along the lines of a microsound group
project ... ;-)
>
>using presets would only be interesting in a context of trying to do
>something unusual/challanging with them: ie. not just playing a piano
>part with a piano preset.
>
>a related challenge is making micro-sounds on ROMplers.

A lot of presets, 'specially on older ROMplers, only sound "good" or  
"normal" in certain pitch-ranges, and for shorter durations. They can  
be a lot of fun when approached like you might approach everyday  
objects (for found sounds) ... or speak'n'spell.

A fun "for example" is boxes that have a limited number of samples  
that get grainy and funky when you play really low or really high  
pitches. E.g. "Oooo" or "Aaaaah" patches played 3 octaves up, or  
down ... sometimes with really obvious aliasing or looping.

Other presets are only "good/normal" when the whole sound is  
heard ... but not when you hear only the attack transient (maybe  
repeated rapidly).

Some of the antipathy towards presets is probably a residue of an era  
(DX7ish) when there weren't hundreds of thousands of them. Today  
there are so many boxen ... almost all with some presets that are  
unusable in a mainstream context. Even mainstream presets can  
instantly (or with diabolical slowness) be twisted into  
unrecognizable with a couple of FX plug tweaks.

It's set and setting isn't it? Who knows, a piano preset -- with a  
dog-biscuit filter -- might be perfect to accompany the sound of a  
canyon collapsing into a gorge ... or of a $150 million jet burning.


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