[linux-audio-user] More Homemade Music --

[Steve D]

On Sat, Jul 02, 2005 at 10:25:41AM +0200, Thorsten Wilms wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 02, 2005 at 12:38:36AM -0600, Steve D wrote:
> > 
> > http://www.xscd.com/pub/music/ogg/lonesome_butte.ogg
> 
> I love it, brought a smile on my face.
> Except for this saw lead sound, it's a bit cheesy, imho, 
> and takes away from the feeling. Not sure ... maybe try 
> some organ or flute-like sound.
> Snare and bassdrum could be a little more prominent, 
> but not much.
>
> Thorsten Wilms
--- --- ---

Cheesy Sounds
-------------

Thank you Thorsten-- Believe it or not, I chose the old fat saw-wave
synthesizer sound *because* it sounded cheesy. ;-) It's a way of poking
fun at my own music and at production in general. Having the same
thought as you, I tried several jazz organ and a variety of great flute
sounds before choosing the cheesy current lead voice. The other lead
voice is cheesy too, a stratocaster guitar sound with *way* overdone
delay, phaser, chorus and equalization (so 80s).

I even tried a version with only drums and simple piano accompaniment,
with a Parisian street accordion sound for the melody (what there is of
a melody) and improvised lead, and although it sounded way
underproduced, I liked that version too.

Part of my choices stems from a rebellion against overproduced audio and
music (been there, done that back in my pro and studio musician days).
As Dave Phillips recently wrote (note to Dave: I've jammed a lot to your
lazy-moon.ogg--I love it), although this is not an exact quote, good
production can make any music, including bad music, sound better. But it
can't make bad music into good music.

That said, I believe "music" is in the ear of the creator and listener,
to convert the "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" quote to a
different purpose. I personally feel that music is *any* sound that its
creator likes or enjoys, from clicking sticks together while walking
through the woods in cadence to them, to the most elaborately
structured, harmonically or melodically or rhythmically complex sounds
he or she can come up with. And good music should be able to stand on
its own, *apart* from any production that may give it a superficial
polish and gleam. The beauty and impressive nature of Rachmaninov's
harmonies and melodies would remain even if they were played on toy
pianos, steel drums, etc.  (although they sound better with piano and
orchestra ;-)

I guess what I mean is that the music itself, to me, matters more than
the production of that music. If I can be pleased with my music
*despite* cheesy sounds, bad production and inexpert mixing, then that
means (to me) that the music itself is OK. ;-)

All that said, I'll probably try to make this little piece sound
a little better anyway, because it's fun tinkering with it.

Sorry for the "philosophical digression." ;-)

-sd
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