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--- goddard.duncan@mtvne.com wrote:
>once you
> appreciate where the imperfections are, it's a lot
> of fun to introduce them deliberately by messing
> about with microtuning & modulation, aswell as
> unusual signal paths.
Yeah, I think there's something about lo-fi electronic
instruments that ISN'T true for things like stereos;
the imperfections of the instrument grow on you as you
learn to incorporate them into the voice of the
instrument, whereas a piece of 'home entertainment'
electronics that has audibly obvious shortcomings
never really inspires fondness, unless it's a case
where enough time has passed that a retro vibe is
involved, like vinyl crackle or the midrangey sound of
an old Victrola. I recently recorded a piece that
included some of that heterodyne squeal from a
shortwave radio; high fidelity wasn't the objective so
much as mood, texture and all the associations one has
with that type of sound.
Even with instruments, the quirks can take a while to
sink in. I remember when guitar synthesis first
started getting widespread in the late 70's/early 80's
and people would hear, say, a trumpet patch and gripe
that it didn't sound anything like a trumpet. Fast
forward a couple of decades, and that same patch CAN
(but not always) evoke nostalgic associations. Or take
the Ensoniq Mirage: at first, the complaint was that
it didn't sound enough like the instrument it was
imitating. But after a while, people started looking
for them on eBay because they LIKED the way its low
sampling rate mangled the sound; it just took a little
while for people to realize its musical usefulness.
> ART? :-)
You guessed it. (An old ProVerb 200 that I've had
since the 80's; for certain things it's still very
useful, but it sure doesn't stand up too well to
today's more transparent recording technology.)
-t-
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