Productive things to do, when out of inspiration

[td3l]

But I'm absolutely not into what he has been doing for the last few years in general. It's the first time in his career where his music no longer sounds defined as his own.

But that is a curse that modular has brought many producers.

I don't see why modular can be blamed for that (and besides, most of Tony's recent stuff has been deliberately non-modular, using the Portabella, Quadrantid Swarm, SOMA stuff, etc). Modular is philosophically not very different from a DAW, it's a blank slate that you fill with tools of your choosing -- as many or as few as you desire -- and configure as you will. Obviously it has its limitations and pitfalls, like any other format. I do agree that a lot of techno artists got way into the weeds with it, which was probably a reactive response to having been suddenly given a new rabbit hole beyond DAWs and fixed-architecture hardware... but that's on the artist.

[Lost to the Void]

Modular is partly to blame along with the artists.
I really can't think of one artist that I like who switched to modular that makes music I like any more.
There are trends to a modular sound. There are production tendencies.
The problem as I see it, is that a lot of people who really only have a reasonably limited musical production skill are now basically trying to make their own instruments and then make music on those instruments.
Its a bit like a metal band trying to make all their own gear before they make a song.

One of the advantages of instruments over modules is that the performance features and so on have already been thought about and put together by people who know what they are doing.

A lot of people who make techno are barely competent producers as it is.
By that I mean they don't really fully understand how to work the synths they have let alone build their own.

Good results are good results, of course. And there are people doing good stuff that doesn't just sound like analog blips and bloops and drones. But a lot of it does.

I think overall eurorack has had a negative effect on techno, in terms of output. Its the drive into very analog and minimalist almost retro sounds with simplistic (and sometimes just bad and cheap sounding) production, that has essentially put the final nail in the coffin for techno for me. I've pretty much stopped listening to techno now, but that's a whole other discussion.

[td3l]

The problem as I see it, is that a lot of people who really only have a reasonably limited musical production skill are now basically trying to make their own instruments and then make music on those instruments.
Its a bit like a metal band trying to make all their own gear before they make a song.

One of the advantages of instruments over modules is that the performance features and so on have already been thought about and put together by people who know what they are doing.

A lot of people who make techno are barely competent producers as it is.

That's a fair problem. I think the other common pitfall is people feeling a need justify their entry into format by deliberately choosing configurations which are oddball or otherwise irregular to typical paradigms; for instance, one of the most common modular regrets I hear is "I spent $thousands and only ended up with a fancy monosynth." So they end up trying to make these really crazy, self-controlling systems without a deeper intuition of what they actually want to do with such a thing.

For me personally, the "fancy monosynth" thing is more or less what I want out of the format. I've owned lots of great fixed architecture synths but always found little niggles which bugged me enough to eventually sell them -- filter resonances not what I want, envelopes not hitting how I want, no control of accents, etc. But it did take me many years to reach the point of understanding, and then another ~6 months of swapping out modules to hit the right configuration.

[antiodromia]

Drinking beer and listening to stuff I haven't heard before usually does the trick for me!

[antiodromia]

I really can't think of one artist that I like who switched to modular that makes music I like any more.

How do you feel about Blawan's - Wet Will Always Dry album, or Bogdan Raczynski's new stuff?

[Lost to the Void]

I really can't think of one artist that I like who switched to modular that makes music I like any more.

How do you feel about Blawan's - Wet Will Always Dry album, or Bogdan Raczynski's new stuff?

I don`t really feel much at all, I found the Blawan album one note, monochromatic, tedious, retro analog tool tracks, more like a kit demo than an album. I`m really not into minimal doof doof, it`s not doing or saying anything new in techno that hasn`t been said and done in the last 2.5 decades.

I don`t know any of Bogdans new stuff. He was doing grungey breakcore kinda stuff last I listened, which is not my thing at all.

[subvers^v]

I really can't think of one artist that I like who switched to modular that makes music I like any more.

How do you feel about Blawan's - Wet Will Always Dry album, or Bogdan Raczynski's new stuff?

I don`t really feel much at all, I found the Blawan album one note, monochromatic, tedious, retro analog tool tracks, more like a kit demo than an album. I`m really not into minimal doof doof, it`s not doing or saying anything new in techno that hasn`t been said and done in the last 2.5 decades.

I don`t know any of Bogdans new stuff. He was doing grungey breakcore kinda stuff last I listened, which is not my thing at all.

Raczynski took me a minute to warm to but once I clicked with his stuff, I realised it's great fun. Very catchy, as far as techno can be catchy, in almost a pop kind of way, but without losing any edge. At times his tracks disintegrate into really trashy looped noise just for shits and giggles.

This is the angry batman telling you how we kick it.

Haven't heard any of his latest stuff at all so must look him up, a nice reminder ..

[Lost to the Void]

How do you feel about Blawan's - Wet Will Always Dry album, or Bogdan Raczynski's new stuff?

I don`t really feel much at all, I found the Blawan album one note, monochromatic, tedious, retro analog tool tracks, more like a kit demo than an album. I`m really not into minimal doof doof, it`s not doing or saying anything new in techno that hasn`t been said and done in the last 2.5 decades.

I don`t know any of Bogdans new stuff. He was doing grungey breakcore kinda stuff last I listened, which is not my thing at all.

Raczynski took me a minute to warm to but once I clicked with his stuff, I realised it's great fun. Very catchy, as far as techno can be catchy, in almost a pop kind of way, but without losing any edge. At times his tracks disintegrate into really trashy looped noise just for shits and giggles.

This is the angry batman telling you how we kick it.

Haven't heard any of his latest stuff at all so must look him up, a nice reminder ..

His name never stuck with me, but I realised there was a bunch of purely melodic stuff he did that I liked.
New stuff seems well made, just not my thing.
I do struggle to listen to techno these days, or anything too synth heavy. My taste has really veered off the last couple of years.