ahhhhhhh i miss slap bass..........

Keira-WitherKay · 2009-10-04T22:41:33+00:00

remember back in the 90's where many pop songs had slap bass ...... damn why has bass gone backwards in skill levels....... in top 40 radio hits......... ??????????? peace and light keira

chris77

I am shamelessly judgemental on this. If it sounds teck-ish, I instantly dont like it, no matter how well it might be done. Use technology as much as possible, thats what its for after all. (amps, effect pedals etc all enrich music, so if other technology exists why not use it) But if its not done properly and I can hear the techno in it, I think it sucks no matter what. Backtracks are the same. I just kinda label artists using them in my L.O.S.E.R file, whether they deserve it or not. (Lip syncers have their own file, but it will rude to spell it out in public..)

Bob-Dubery

Stratisfear wrote
Besides, not everyone can afford to bring in specialist musicians for parts (or even knows some); and if you have those extra skills to put into the song what you know it needs and it enhances the song, who's to say it's wrong, or say at what point it becomes "too much technology"? Instruments are technology. Is an orchestra too much technology? I'm labouring the point here, but skill with technology is skill with technology, whether it be an instrument or something connected to one, and good or bad use could result from it.

Sure, but it gets to the point where the skill that is on display is not the skill of the musician but the skill of some back room person somewhere. I'm not dising that skill, but it's NOT the performer's skill.

I think it's a question of where one draws the line. I'm not sure myself. Is using a loop station OK? I mean you can do some creative things with that. Is that better or worse, more or less artistic than what John Martyn got up to with an echoplex?

But I get bugged when I got to a restaurant and there's one singer yet all these harmonies. I guess it depends on what you want and what you're listening to. A lot of people in the audience just want a reasonable facsimile of the current hits and the golden oldies. So backing tracks and some help in the vocal department may work for them.

I am, of course, a rampant snob about such things. And a purist. Or am I? I have never ever questioned John Martyn's use of an echoplex, but surely the moment he put a pickup on his D-28 he was somewhere on the slippery slope?

I also don't expect the live performance to necessarily sound exactly like the record.

AlanRatcliffe

chris77 wrote I am shamelessly judgemental on this. If it sounds teck-ish, I instantly dont like it, no matter how well it might be done.

By "tech" I meant "technology", rather than "techno". But what about bands that blend elements of Techno with other music - RATM, Incubus, NIN? Hell, even ZZ Top on occasion.

X-rated Bob wrote I have never ever questioned John Martyn's use of an echoplex, but surely the moment he put a pickup on his D-28 he was...

A (Newport) Judas? ? Exactly! It's all notes and we should be judging the music by how it resonates with us, rather than how it was created or who created it.

Keira-WitherKay

ha alan you know......... i think it's part of music tradition to have the purists and the technological junkies ........ sure it's been around since 1800's i was reading how just using different design guitars was sacrilidge to some......... we talking the bracing now hehehh
so yeah think we have many schools of thought and yeah neither is wrong in my mind........ if i love pure 100% live music then i must spend my money supporting that ........ and if joe bloggs likes the sampled pop offering so be it........ cos there will always be a space for all these types of music to somehow co excist ..... and i think it's healthy........

Bob-Dubery

Alan Ratcliffe wrote
X-rated Bob wrote I have never ever questioned John Martyn's use of an echoplex, but surely the moment he put a pickup on his D-28 he was...
A (Newport) Judas? ? Exactly! It's all notes and we should be judging the music by how it resonates with us, rather than how it was created or who created it.

Good point. And thanks to all for an interesting debate. I don't know that my mind is made up either way. I think I'm confused on the issue but on a higher level ?

chris77

I get what you're saying. I also dont mean techno as a genre, but am rather refering to the use (missuse?) of technology to alter a song in such a way that it doesnt sound "natural", for lack of a better word. Its purely subjective and I dont know if theres a way to properly explain it without lending out my ears and frame of reference. Its really a matter of personal taste. Rock bands using samplers and crappy dr. Evil style rapping have never caught my fancy. Some modern metal with its overcompressed gain sounds k@k to me. Keyboard and 80's electro pop leaves me cold. Dont even get me started on disco and the BeeGees... Yet its not a band or artist thing, but a song thing. Some bands have a rep for the things I typically dont like, but might have a few songs I love (eg the BeeGees and Celine Dion) - and vice versa. Anybody remember Clapton doing a seriously techo beat song for a soundtrack or something in 95/96? Seriously rubbish song, but he's still my favourite solo artist by a mile. I reckon using technology in music should be like spicing your food - in the right recipes and dosages it will compliment your meal, but use too much and you will change the dish's natural taste too much and spoil it. Too little and the dish will be bland and boring. And even if its done well I might still not like it. Individual taste is a bitch that way...

Bob-Dubery

X-rated Bob wrote Good point. And thanks to all for an interesting debate. I don't know that my mind is made up either way. I think I'm confused on the issue but on a higher level ?

In fact it's lead me down the path of considering postmodernism - a term I previously knew but whose meaning I had never really thought about.

One of the ways in which I had come across the term was Loudon Wainwright IIIs song "Last Man On Earth" which seems quite fitting here ?

"I guess I'm old fashioned retro to a degree
You could say I'm a throw-back anachronistically
Air conditioning is here to stay and that makes me unhappy
Cause I'm the last man on Earth that's what the matter is with me"

It's not strictly autobiographical as regards me, but I can empathise with much of it...
"I don't have a portfolio I gotta plead guilty
The best things are the worthless now, that's just because they're free
And if your not a millionaire yet boy, you better be
I'm the last man on Earth that's what the matter is with me

I should be optimistic and go buy some bonds and stocks
They'll find a cure for Cancer soon, we may get trigger-locks
Existence is no picnic as statistics all have shown
We learn to live together and then we die alone"

And it has a real good ending...
"In the year 2000 my age was 53
I know that I'm grumpy, middle-aged crazy
But if you are a woman you might have to sleep with me
Since I'm the last man on Earth and I can guarantee
I'm the last man on Earth and there ain't nothing wrong with me"

Jack-Flash-Jr

Jack White is a notorious anti-techie, his Third Man Studios uses analogue only. For an interesting comparison of his belief system (I like to struggle) to someone like The Edge (I like as many effects as I can cram onto my mile wide stage) take a look at the trailer for It Might Get Loud (2009):
One of my most anticipated doccies of ALL TIME by the way...

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