I consider myself an absolute beginner at electronic music composition. These are electronic recordings I worked on in the latter half of 2021. They feature some experimental sounds from Ableton's libraries and also sounds from Behringer's Crave modular synth.
I first became intrigued with electronic music about a decade ago. I guess it was a strange transition for me, as most of the music that I had listened to at this point had the guitar play a fundamental role. I do remember, that around the year 2006, I had started listening to some progressive rock music which was heavily using synth sounds. I think the first influences were bands like Rush, Porcupine Tree, Opeth etc.
I have always enjoyed the sounds of synthesisers. The reason I liked synths, is that they seemed to act as the perfect glue for atmospheric sound. They are texturally dense and fit perfectly in a mix if used correctly. I explored a lot of different genres, with the synth pad sounds serving as a bed or a foundation which was harmonically very rich and flexible. Unfortunately, other than a keyboard, I did not have the resources to explore any of this aspect of sound. At that time, digital instruments were not something I was familiar with either. And I remember, that a few times I did try understanding computer driven sound synthesis, it bored me to death. The whole thing was contrary to the way I approach music making. The idea of sitting and working on a screen to make sound was strange and alien to me. So surely, I returned to playing the guitar, exploring instead a wide variety of guitar effects with my Korg 1500G guitar FX pedal. In hindsight, this helped a lot at a later stage with understanding the dynamics, filtering and modulation aspects, that are so essential to electronic music.
It is almost impossible to listen to electronic music without exploring electronic dance music. I remember that there was a time, where, I was not really playing my electric guitar anymore. I think there were a good 3-4 years in which the only thing I used to play was a Yamaha F-210 acoustic guitar.
I was never really drawn to electronic music the way I was drawn to rock and roll music. But there was something else, that always bought me back to electronic music from time to time. It was probably related to this strange hypnotic quality that synths have. I think back and it was probably the closest resemblance that I had found to a highly distorted guitar sound. Both sounds are textural in nature and have deep harmonic content which just had the right appeal for my hearing at the time.
Also, another aspect of electronic dance music that I appreciated was the quality of the sound was so inherently good. The balance of the instruments, the clarity of the individual elements like the kick and snare drums and just the general mix of the tracks sounded so precise and solid. Of course, this was always something I wondered about and still do.
Electronic sounds are much cleaner and specific, and have none of the analog intricacies, which comes from the character that is added by the analog circuits. Of course, analog synths were around for a long time in the early 2000's but they had almost never been used in modern music production.
Electronic music grew on me over the last decade, but it was not a smooth process. I had a natural aversion for it initially, because of my obvious preference to analog sounds and instruments. But I was fascinated with analog synths and, let’s just say , stranger sound possibilities. It can take a while to appreciate that, making a sound is as much fun as morphing it. But I swung back and forth between the two and I still do. Sometimes it brings endless joy, other times not so much.
I believe that interacting with an instrument deeply is essential to music making. It's that tactile aspect that I regard as a primary driver of this process. The friction of strings, the pressure feedback on the fingers, the way the drum sticks leap out from the skin of a tom and how its a different kind of leap if its a snare, the way bass strings feel different from guitar strings, and the way its a challenge to make any of it sound like music; These are the things I cannot do without. When I work with electronic music I subconsciously feel the lack of these aspects.
I try to be flexible about how I approach electronic music composition and arrangement and I am learning new things everyday. Things I had never had to know while playing an instrument. The beauty of electronic music, is that it allows for something much more precise and accurate, and it does this with immediate ease, and this as a domino effect , as it pulls the hearing in different and strange ways.
Its that specificity and flexibility together of being able to control just about anything about the sound you want to hear, which lets complex structural layering happen, sometimes harmonically and melodically but more often purely texturally, sonically and dimensionally. This is what is the most attractive part of electronic music for me but also the most challenging because I have had to re-train my approach to music making every time. Some of it even means, that I have to unlearn things, adapt and then re-build everything.
Electronic music is a huge world of its own and easy to get lost in. Of course, I am slowly trying to figure out what works in the context of my own creative process.
The only thing I know for certain, is that I am drawn to the place which is the meeting point of the acoustic and electronic worlds and to be more specific, a world which is not exclusive to either. For me, it’s a collision of sorts which leads to unpredictability and surprise. It can be agonisingly difficult to navigate but also lead to subtle and sublime discoveries.
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