[sdiy] Taking a Step towards - - --((FUTURE-PREDICTIONS))-- - -

[jbv]

Paul,

> >   how can we apply whats new and hot to analog synths??
>
> I'll ask again, Why LIMIT yourself to just analogue?

Good question...

> Don't write off DSPs without trying some 'original' ideas.

But I have another one : why should the discussion always
focus on analogue versus digital ?

What about hybrid systems ?
I mean : not only digital programing & control of modulars,
but REAL (and innovative) hybrid systems :
- analogue tweaking of FFT
- NN in vocoders and freq analyzers
- granular freq shifters
- etc etc

I might get a load of (more or less) shocked answers to the
following, but anyway, here we go :
After reading (parts of) the recent "essential
listening" thread, I must confessed that I've been rather
depressed by the kind of music you guys listen to (and
recommend), and mostly by the (almost complete) lack of
"musical thinking" (sorry, can't find a better word), about
synth / electronic musics and/or the place of synths in music
prod, except for "my favourite recording" or "really cool"...
Honnestly I'm not sure that the ideas for new electronic
instruments will arise while listening to TD's "Ricochet"...

As I'm aging, I'm wondering more & more if the problem
of our time (at least in the music domain) isn't the lack of
great and challenging musical thought... As years go by,
I'm really thinking that such a musical thought could build
a solid backbone for more musical adventures & innovations,
and thus new engineering challenges in instrument design...

But I'm afraid that the only backbone in today's electronic
music is only "boom boom boom"... Did anyone notice that
on the web, or at 2nd hand records fairs, or in mags about
techno, "electronic music" refers ONLY to techno these days ?
When I was student at IRCAM in the early 80's, I remember
attending a couple of lectures / meetings during which Boulez
kept repeating that electronic / synth / computer sounds without
a strong musical thought / theory are just empty gimmicks...
And some of you probably also remember that around the mid
80's, P. Schaeffer did repudiate all his work & theories from
the 60's about "musique concrete", because he was getting
tired of all those "composers" who used to call "compositions"
what was just babbling studies...

Just a personal opinion and a few ramblings by an old monkey
who saw Pierre Henry improvising live with the Corticalart in
the early 70's... Sure, the music wasn't terrific, but hell, the
concept was so challenging !!!

Speaking of P. Henry, there is an interview with him in a
french mag from 1997 in which he is invited to a kind of
"blind test" about recent techno releases, and he has this
killer opinion about a piece by Aphex Twin :
"this is a technique that I tried 50 years ago, but quickly I
realized that it wouldn't go anywhere"...

JB

PS : did I drive this thread totally OT ?