What motivates you to program sounds?

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

When I program sounds I think of:

Colours
Atmosphere
Smells
Imagery
Emotion

Thats why I find it hard to program dance sounds....muhahahah

DS

[blay]

Colours

can i program if im colour blind?

Atmosphere

a whole lotta gas....

Smells

...and some more gas....

Imagery

(pete waving his hand in front of his face)

Emotion

whoa that fart was thick :oops:


just kidding mate :wink:

honestly - what better way is there to spend your days than creating you own soundscapes?

i program in anticipation of how those sounds will eventuate in the final mix of my next track :D

what i create is generaly a direct result of my current mood :evil: :D 8O

[Tomer=Trance]

trying to recreat clasic analog sounds is what leads me to programing 80% of the time.
brass
syncs
warm pads
mono leads
fx
etc...

the other 20 is when i need a spacific sound for a track im working on.

[Timo]

I try not to think about 80s sounds. ;)

[Edit] Ok, I like resonance, grit, power, texture.... Crystal purity and spatiality are great in contrast, too.

[Hollowcell]

I think about playability when programming sounds. Gotta enjoy playing the sounds with heaps of control.

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Yep...thats important HC. Its important to make sounds that are playable in some compacity. I must admit...ive made some wicked sounds on the Pro-One/Mono-Poly....that were just not playable.....but boy did it sound good!

On the Pro-One I made this amzing sound scape.once....tanks firing rounds in the distant mountins...a helicopter coming from the distance and flying overhead....and then the wind sound of corn fields moving in the breeze. i multitracked all these sounds and the imagery I got was amazing. Like something you see from a vietnam war clip. Alas i lost the recording....I would love to have shown you guys....

DS

[Panopticon]

In my stuff, the synth stuff never even gets considered until after everything else is mostly in place, so I'm probably coming at it from a different angle than a lot of you. When I get everything else done, I will listen to the song and figure out where the gaps are in the frequency spectrum, and then I'll fill in from there with whatever patches I feel are appropriate for the piece...

[jasedee]

Im seriously lacking motivation at the moment, so for me it is simply boredom......

[Juho L]

Thats why I find it hard to program dance sounds....muhahahah

Buahaha! Go DS, go!

I usually work in the same way as DS.

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

Yeeehaaaa....

Out of interest is there anyone here who thinks synths sound best when only doing dance type sounds?

DS

[Onkel Dunkel]

Synth sound best with almost all sort of music. I listened to a jazz-koncert in the radio the other day with a solist on synth 8) Sounded awesome :D

[DIGITAL SCREAMS]

I can imagine m8. Actually I really like the sound of synth with pianos and other accoustic instruments. Sometimes I find 100% synth sounds too much. But I think synth used moderatley is da best!

DS

[Blank]

The only thing i think about when i am creating a sound is:

if i was making a song then what kind of sounds would i like to have in the song...

Then i skip genre from genre and thats how i make sounds...I hardly ever run out of ideas for sounds...and when i do its maybe for a day only because i have been working 7 days straight without a true breaks


peace
Blank

[Smag]

Force and form

[Timo]

Yeeehaaaa....

Out of interest is there anyone here who thinks synths sound best when only doing dance type sounds?

DS

Synths are best at doing non-real sounds. ;)

[Dovdimus Prime]

Most of the time these days when I'm programming sounds I'm trying to emulate the expression of classical performances. I go to a lot of concerts and think 'DAMN how can I get that range of expression from a part?'

I haven't got that far with it so far though. :(

The rest of the time, I'm trying to make sounds that are strange, funny or squidgy. Oh yes!

[if-it]

I know it sounds a little new age-y, but for me, my synths are a doorway to the Divine. It's what happens when I paint also. I disappear into something much greater and let it happen. Feelings, images, timelessness.

[Wandering Kid]

im on a low ebb at the moment like some other people here so inspiration is low at the moment. but it picks up eventually. always does. its a bit like a continuous sine wave of cant be arsed. whoa! moment of inspiration! must design sounds! and pretty mocu everything in between.

but hmmm. motivation to design sounds? emotion is definitely one. i tend not to visualize sounds and i find it difficult to think of auditory sensation in terms of images. i definitely go on what feels right. i do write mostly dance oriented music and when everything comes together and works i get this really uplifting feeling. very odd.

for instance, the first time i hear a life changing type of song i get this shiver that travels all the way down my spine. thats always a sign of a great sound. so when im sound designing and i stumble across something that really works, the good ol tingling sensation is always a good pointer.

the other good pointer is the zone.

im not sure if ive explained the zone before. but i always describe it terms of mario kart.

i used to be pretty damn good at mario kart (if i dont say so myself :O ). the zone is a weird phenomenon that i experience most evidently in racing games. if you are racing and the pressure is really on. you are racing your own ghost, which is at this point practically unstoppable. i noticed that sometimes i would literally zone into the game. sometimes i could take corners and just swing round cleanly and i would capitalise on this momentum. other times i would just fuck up and its hard to capitalise on the momentum of a great race when you havent even got the kart up to top speed. when you are taking corner after corner and you are gliding round them perfectly - and you are on for a record time. racing mario kart at this kind of level puts you into a sort of trance like state. thats the zone. basically when im playing mario kart in the zone im barely in control - im not even really thinking about what im doing and what buttons im pressing. im just racing. i often perform very well in the zone. however. i can very easily fall out of the zone. if i start thinking about it. see. the zone isnt about thinking. its about doing. as soon as i start realising 'holy damn! im having the race of my life!' i invariably spiral out of the zone and screw up because my concentration is no longer on the race - its on what i great lap ive just done.

hold that thought.

now think of that in songwriting/sound designing terms.

i get ebbs. sometimes i get really fired up and ideas are going off all over the place and designing a patch with a drum track going in the background and you just lose yourself in the rhythym. hence why i like trance type music. i dont mean this cheesy euro shit. i mean music which induces a kind of hypnotic, zone like consciousness. typically i find this in goa trance, certain psychedellic trance, hardcore and old school trance. typically the best patches are the ones i design on the fly in this frame of mind. other times im too aware of a specific part of the sound or im overdoing something and im aware of it. and i flog a dead horse until i just need to take a break. times like this im trying too hard to get into that state of mind. sometimes it just happens. other times not. i notice that you can get into the zone about everything. atheletes i imagine mentally prepare themselves for races and so forth in a similar way. anything that demands focus and attention i suppose could eventually induce that kind of state of consciousness. i think this is why trance based music has a very spiritual connection with eastern ethnic music - especially goa trance.

so yea. what motivates me to make sounds? a moment of zen like clarity probably.

I know it sounds a little new age-y, but for me, my synths are a doorway to the Divine. It's what happens when I paint also. I disappear into something much greater and let it happen. Feelings, images, timelessness.

this is kind of what i would describe as the zone ;) its a wonderful feeling when you are there. things just happen. i also produce my best paintings when i am in this frame of mind. i dont paint much now - music has displaced that unfortunately. but yea. not so much thinking about what im doing or doing wrong. not really hesitating to apply colour and so forth. i just let things happen. and very often it works out. not necessarily in the way i intended. but it works. my greatest difficulty in painting and writing music is overcoming this hesitation. when im in the zone it is a very productive and exhilirating experience. i can see certain similarities with religious experiences and inner peace. when you literally zone in something everything else kind of just receeds. its just you. the sound. and nothing else. i think alot of people in any creative activity get this feeling although they may describe it/analogize it in different ways...its my way of articulating total concentration - beyond even thinking about it - hence why i love trance and trying to find trance like states.

[subosc1]

I can sum it up in one word a.t.m. KEMAL