What motivates you to program sounds?
 

When I program sounds I think of:

Colours
Atmosphere
Smells
Imagery
Emotion

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

DS

Re: What motivates you to program sounds?
 

can i program if im colour blind?

a whole lotta gas....

...and some more gas....

(pete waving his hand in front of his face)

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

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.

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.

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

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

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...

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

Re: What motivates you to program sounds?
 

Buahaha! Go DS, go!

I usually work in the same way as DS.

Yeeehaaaa....

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

DS

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

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

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

Force and form

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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