Ableton Forum

learning to know the difference between loving electronic music and the need to make electronic music. I should have stuck with guitars and put the synth stuff second when it was time to play with Live. years and years of starting sessions with VST plug in wankery was the wrong approach.

Tone Deft wrote:should have stuck with guitars and put the synth stuff second when it was time to play with Live. years and years of starting sessions with VST plug in wankery was the wrong approach.

i'm on the same dark path friend. amen

Jekblad wrote:@Pitch Black what's the 'real' music industry? are you talking in terms of covers vs orginal or small venue vs big venue vs festival or what?

Yeah, I was talking covers vs originals, rather than the size of venue.

Jekblad wrote:what was the turning point for you of knowing "i don't want to do THIS anymore, i'm going to do THIS instead"

Heh, it was doing a 6 week album session as a programmer for Killing Joke in '93. Their music is so intense, and these guys worked themselves up into a such a frenzy over the course of each day, and happened to record the results. Call me naive, but it dawned upon me that music, which I'd previously regarded as being about performance, was really all about self-expression. Also one of their engineers spiked my tea with LSD (my first time)...
In the middle of the session, I had to take a night off to go out of town and play a wedding for a super-square military family, while that night everyone else involved with the session had a party of legendary proportions. The really threw the contrast into high relief, and made me realise what I'd really rather be doing. It was like BC and AD for me as far as music was concerned.

pissing about like a twat in music classes at school

blowing 800 quid on a roland vs840 around 1998 when i knew pretty much nothing about how things like that worked, thinking 'now that i have this i'll be able to make music really easily'. pah

what would i do different? i wouldnt have spent 800 smackers on that roland thing. jesus

i still need to know the ins and outs of midi as well

Pitch Black wrote:

Jekblad wrote:@Pitch Black what's the 'real' music industry? are you talking in terms of covers vs orginal or small venue vs big venue vs festival or what?

Yeah, I was talking covers vs originals, rather than the size of venue.

Jekblad wrote:what was the turning point for you of knowing "i don't want to do THIS anymore, i'm going to do THIS instead"

Heh, it was doing a 6 week album session as a programmer for Killing Joke in '93. Their music is so intense, and these guys worked themselves up into a such a frenzy over the course of each day, and happened to record the results. Call me naive, but it dawned upon me that music, which I'd previously regarded as being about performance, was really all about self-expression. Also one of their engineers spiked my tea with LSD (my first time)...
In the middle of the session, I had to take a night off to go out of town and play a wedding for a super-square military family, while that night everyone else involved with the session had a party of legendary proportions. The really threw the contrast into high relief, and made me realise what I'd really rather be doing. It was like BC and AD for me as far as music was concerned.

When you have a minute please tell us more about Killing Joke in the Studio.
How did you get on the session? What were your duties? How important were psychedelics to the recording process or was it just for a bit of a laugh? Were people just tweaking a bit or wwere they F*@ked up? Did they write as they produced or did they arrive with almost full blown ideas for tracks?

1. thinking playing piano was my dream - it wasn't, it was someone elses. I should've realized earlier that because I didn't fancy practising jazz-piano and spent all my practising time composing and arranging, I wasn't maybe in the right school...

2. spending my time envying others instead of doing what I actually wanted - learning by composing, producing and recording music

3. being arrogant on someone elses music

4. music is audible art, not in theory books - you can only get so far by talking about it and analyzing it. instead, use your time creating it and learn that way. it's much more fun.

Pitch Black wrote: Also one of their engineers spiked my tea with LSD (my first time)...

Spiked as in - without your knowledge?

Putting Pussy before Music

Caring too much about what other people think

Overthinking

Believing more Gear is the answer

Not saving all my old band videos and midi files