Vince Clarke's Analogue Cabin (gearporn video)

[beats me]

Yeah, but why not jam on a keyboard?

Perhaps it's not about Jamming chords and melodies, but rather because inflections and intonations are easier to access on a guitar. Moving from a damped "chucka-chucka" to on open "skrang" is easy on guitar. No need to open the chucka-skrang menu option, assign to midi cc, troubleshoot controller latency, etc. Just move the fingers.
Synths still have a long way to go before they can match the immediate expressiveness of guitar, but if its down to writing melody and chords I choose keys every time.

I'm not much of a keyboardist or guitarist but I do seem to come up with things a lot easier on guitar, or I should say that my fingers just naturally seem to go to chords that are right or interesting. On keyboard I hit all kinds of chords that aren't right or seem to be chords I've already done to death.

[Angstrom]

well, like I said, I just play the inversions and move a finger to change chord. It's called parsimonious voice leading if you want to (pretend to) be clever, but "lazy idiocy" if you are me.

consider the cheap horror of the basic Cmaj (C4,E4,G4) to Emin (E3, G3, B4)
Compared to the subtle difference of Cmaj (G3,C4,E4) to Emin (G3, B4, E4 )

in the second example I only have to move one finger and change the C to a B ... and I have myself a much nicer sounding Cmaj->Emin chord change with more harmonic complexity and less effort by me. Of course it's a whole other kind of animal now, but hell we can just pretend it was all intended and we are in fact dark and mysterious types who like to move through the inversions, saying "it's modal man, it's modal! " (knowing that very few will challenge us)

[beats me]

well, like I said, I just play the inversions and move a finger to change chord. It's called parsimonious voice leading if you want to (pretend to) be clever, but "lazy idiocy" if you are me.

consider the cheap horror of the basic Cmaj (C4,E4,G4) to Emin (E3, G3, B4)
Compared to the subtle difference of Cmaj (G3,C4,E4) to Emin (G3, B4, E4 )

in the second example I only have to move one finger and change the C to a B ... and I have myself a much nicer sounding Cmaj->Emin chord change with more harmonic complexity and less effort by me. Of course it's a whole other kind of animal now, but hell we can just pretend it was all intended and we are in fact dark and mysterious types who like to move through the inversions, saying "it's modal man, it's modal! " (knowing that very few will challenge us)

You're way more versed in music theory than myself. I'm more like the primitive freedom fighter of music writing, just lobbing my fingers in the vicinity and hoping for the best.

[nebulae]

The Schwarzonator eats your music theory for breakfast and shit it out by lunch.

Also, this video is outstanding on so many levels. But my favorite part is where he talks about how he still writes songs - with an acoustic guitar...because writing on synths is too distracting, and at the core, you gotto have a great song before you start using the electronics. Gold.

[leedsquietman]

He said he starts with guitar because messing with synths would be too much of a distraction and I can see why. A lot of us love messing with synths, even if it's just softsynths, and I think as a result the music comes out a little colder and less inspiring

The big difference here is that Vince Clarke is typically writing pure pop songs, where the vocals represent 90% of the priority of the track. So using acoustic guitar and piano to build up a track is a common writing process. Many groups do this, and then gradually replace the guitars or add to them with noodly little synth parts.

Many people on this forum make electronic, instrumental heavy, music. Little of what I've heard in the Link Your Music has any vocals except for the odd sample (with a few exceptions). Therefore writing with an acoustic guitar makes little sense.

[alex.the.forge]

The Schwarzonator eats your music theory for breakfast and shit it out by lunch.

Also, this video is outstanding on so many levels. But my favorite part is where he talks about how he still writes songs - with an acoustic guitar...because writing on synths is too distracting, and at the core, you gotto have a great song before you start using the electronics. Gold.

haha... which is what we've been talking about for the last two pages!

@Angstrom/Beatsme - My guess is it's more about his own personal preference for nutting out on a guitar so he can get the song solid before even going there on the synths because the temptation is just so great to stuff around...... I tend to agree, but I am also a guitarist first and my keyboard skills are pretty ordinary

The Cmaj-Emin example you gave could easily fall under the heading of production really, i.e. once it's established that it will be C-Em then you can work out the details later.....

[nebulae]

haha... which is what we've been talking about for the last two pages!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

I didn't read any of the last two pages :/

[beats me]

haha... which is what we've been talking about for the last two pages!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

I didn't read any of the last two pages :/

My boss does shit like this all day long. We'll get an email that he's copied on but instead of reading the chain of responses that would let him know it got handled, he'll respond to the original email asking what's going on with it.

[nebulae]

haha... which is what we've been talking about for the last two pages!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

I didn't read any of the last two pages :/

My boss does shit like this all day long. We'll get an email that he's copied on but instead of reading the chain of responses that would let him know it got handled, he'll respond to the original email asking what's going on with it.

Dude, why not just send him the Schwarzonator video and show him a glimpse of his obsolescence?

[Angstrom]

Personally I don't see any thrills in the Schwarzonator, it's just a "conform to scale" plugin, with some random factors.
It could be constructed with the basic live devices, if you really wanted to waste your life.

the video, it makes me groan .. wheee it doesn't use "musician's talk"
AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH

Hell, just load up those garageband loops and a conform to scale plugin and slam your forehead on the keybroad, or whatever it's called in "musicians talk" .

Voila : Instant "jazz" for idiots

[nebulae]

AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH

This is exactly what The Schwarz is trying to fix, dude...clearly, there are no Rs or Hs in the key of A or G. Not even in A minor or G minor even. You so need the Schwarzonator. You musical imbecile.