[Radar]

Hey now, I wasn't trying to insinuate that Pink Floyd was the apex of all musical art. MusicallyDiscouraged was saying that dubstep is up there with the Beatles and Floyd, which I vehemently disagree with.

[Ronin]

Radar, on 12 June 2013 - 03:02 PM, said:

Hey now, I wasn't trying to insinuate that Pink Floyd was the apex of all musical art. MusicallyDiscouraged was saying that dubstep is up there with the Beatles and Floyd, which I vehemently disagree with.

I never got to see Pink Floyd in concert but I saw Rodger Waters Dark Side of the Moon in Dublin, holy crap that was amazing. For my tastes in the prog rock genre and music with lyrics in general they are by far the best, the hairs on the back of my neck had hairs on the back of their necks that stood up.

[MusicallyInspired]

Thanks for the insult. I totally deserved that.

Do you produce music, Radar? Have you any idea what goes into the production of a dubstep song? Have you any idea what goes into producing anything?

Again I'm not talking music theory here. Musically speaking, dubstep is a joke. There's nothing to it. But if you think anyone can just waltz into a studio and churn out something as elaborately engineered as dubstep you're simply wrong. Dubstep has some of the most intricately programmed automation of effects and settings I've ever heard. Anyone who can pull it off right with success will get a standing ovation from me. There are some extremely talented dubstep engineers out there. Whether the music and/or lyrics are inspired or anything special at all or not has nothing to do with it.

[Ronin]

The two of you are just looking at it for completely different perspectives, Radar can't stand it and you admire how it's made.

[MusicallyInspired]

Obviously.

[Ronin]

MusicallyInspired, on 12 June 2013 - 03:32 PM, said:

Obviously.

Then you are talking in circles, he is saying how shit it is and you are saying it's not because its difficult to do correctly. That doesn't make any sense. It's like me saying baseball is a shit sport then you trying to tell me how difficult it is to play well, it doesn't matter and is irrelevant. If something is difficult to do it doesn't mean it is any good.

[Radar]

MusicallyInspired, on 12 June 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

Thanks for the insult. I totally deserved that.

Do you produce music, Radar? Have you any idea what goes into the production of a dubstep song? Have you any idea what goes into producing anything?

Again I'm not talking music theory here. Musically speaking, dubstep is a joke. There's nothing to it. But if you think anyone can just waltz into a studio and churn out something as elaborately engineered as dubstep you're simply wrong. Dubstep has some of the most intricately programmed automation of effects and settings I've ever heard. Anyone who can pull it off right with success will get a standing ovation from me. There are some extremely talented dubstep engineers out there. Whether the music and/or lyrics are inspired or anything special at all or not has nothing to do with it.

Grab a good keyboard. Whether you want to go with an analog polyphonic synthesizer or a digital workstation, playback the right sound and rhythm and keep recording layers one by one, thus getting the thick melody down. Then, record your voice with a good mic. After that, get a good drum machine and make blast beats. Apply a ton of envelope filters wherever you want in the signal chain (especially the voice), maybe even flangers, phasers, delays, reverbs, chorus, etc for good measure. Make sure everything is hooked up to a good A/DA converter that is connected to a computer by FireWire into your favorite music recording program. Loop/cut/pan every track to your liking. Make it good enough for some people to waste their time listening to it.

If making dubstep is any more complex then that, please elaborate, as I asked previously.

[MusicallyInspired]

That's like saying you can just go in and play random strings on a guitar, bang notes on a keyboard, throw some drums across the room and come up with a decent song. There's simply more to it than that. There's nothing "random" about dubstep (other than that being the intended effect on the listener sometimes). There's far more work that goes into engineering electronic music in general than just selecting a series of synth presets, pushing record, and throwing random envelopes in random places on random effects. If you don't see that than you're just choosing not to out of personal bias.

Radar, on 12 June 2013 - 05:24 PM, said:

Make it good enough for some people to waste their time listening to it.

Right, because that's just so easy and anyone can do it without experience or education or anything. Like making Kraft Dinner.

Ronan, on 12 June 2013 - 04:28 PM, said:

Then you are talking in circles, he is saying how shit it is and you are saying it's not because its difficult to do correctly. That doesn't make any sense. It's like me saying baseball is a shit sport then you trying to tell me how difficult it is to play well, it doesn't matter and is irrelevant. If something is difficult to do it doesn't mean it is any good.

I never said dubstep was any good. Although I enjoy it, that was never the point of my post. Opinion is irrelevant in this issue. It takes skill to create even decent dubstep, that's my point. That's a fact. Whether you hate it or not you can't just berate things because you don't like it. That just makes you an ignorant bigot. I hate country, for instance. Despise it with a passion. Yet, there are some amazingly talented bluegrass guitar players out there that would put a lot of metal guitarists to shame. I respect that. I don't go screaming that it's just the same four chords and 1/2 time signatures in every song with no skill whatsoever. But if he wants to be a bigot about it then that's fine. I'll halt the conversation right here. There's no winning with a bigot.

[Jimmy]

Sangman, on 12 June 2013 - 02:29 PM, said:

I love Pink Floyd as much as the next guy but considering it the apex of all musical art without question kindof kills any chance of a serious discussion. Pink Floyd albums are technically impressive, sure, but I can think of a number of albums that are simpler but that I like better than Dark Side of the Moon.

Totally. I love Pink Floyd (I've said it before, The Final Cut is one of my all time favorite records because I have a personal attachment to it) but right now I'm listening to Agent Orange's first full-length record, Living in Darkness, not because it's technically impressive. It's not really, just kinda generic garage rock punk stuff with a nice surf flair to it. But what it lacks in technical skill and top notch production is an energy and heart that Pink Floyd just doesn't have, especially on Dark Side of the Moon (they got really close in their earlier records, but prog isn't really about energy and heart.)

[Forge]

Jimmy, on 12 June 2013 - 07:12 PM, said:

... kinda generic garage rock punk stuff with a nice surf flair to it. ...

no surf flair, but that statement made me think of this

[Kathy]

I hate how many times the sacred cow of music Pink Floyd is brought up in almost every music discussion here(and elsewhere). Over the years I began to despise PF's mention even more than the mention of a classic music.

[Radar]

MusicallyInspired, on 12 June 2013 - 06:55 PM, said:

That's like saying you can just go in and play random strings on a guitar, bang notes on a keyboard, throw some drums across the room and come up with a decent song. There's simply more to it than that. There's nothing "random" about dubstep (other than that being the intended effect on the listener sometimes). There's far more work that goes into engineering electronic music in general than just selecting a series of synth presets, pushing record, and throwing random envelopes in random places on random effects. If you don't see that than you're just choosing not to out of personal bias.

Right, because that's just so easy and anyone can do it without experience or education or anything. Like making Kraft Dinner.

I never said dubstep was any good. Although I enjoy it, that was never the point of my post. Opinion is irrelevant in this issue. It takes skill to create even decent dubstep, that's my point. That's a fact. Whether you hate it or not you can't just berate things because you don't like it. That just makes you an ignorant bigot. I hate country, for instance. Despise it with a passion. Yet, there are some amazingly talented bluegrass guitar players out there that would put a lot of metal guitarists to shame. I respect that. I don't go screaming that it's just the same four chords and 1/2 time signatures in every song with no skill whatsoever. But if he wants to be a bigot about it then that's fine. I'll halt the conversation right here. There's no winning with a bigot.

Where did I write in my post that dubstep artists don't have skill and that it requires no education or experience? Of course dubstep artists have skill. It takes skill to do anything. I didn't think I'd have to specify that. Skill + the steps I laid out = dubstep. It is still ten times simpler to make than any other form of music out there. Calling it a "musical masterpiece from a production point of view" is still making me queasy.

I don't listen to genres. I listen to artists. I don't listen to country. But Johnny Cash is awesome!

P.S.

Who the heck writes with a 1/2 time signature?

[----]

I admire the processes in my guts and stomach to produce a huge turd. It is a process established over million of years finetuned for balance by nature. It is awesome and almost unbelievable how complex that is,

[Jimmy]

Country is great beyond Johnny Cash, you just gotta know where to look (not the radio.)

[djdori11]

Skrillex got some secret skills too, check his new song out!:

[ReaperMan]

Radar, on 13 June 2013 - 08:29 AM, said:

I don't listen to country. But Johnny Cash is awesome!

Johnny Cash didn't just write country music though.... so yeah.... forgot where i was going with that.

[Outtagum]

NUKEMDAVE, on 11 June 2013 - 07:31 PM, said:

This doesn't sound too bad.

That's horrible.

[OpenMaw]

ravencoupe, on 23 July 2013 - 09:55 PM, said:

here's one I came up with myself

duke.mp3

Not bad, sir!

[Radar]

Comrade Major listens to Justin Bieber.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Ms. Radar, on 25 July 2013 - 03:46 PM, said:

Comrade Major listens to Justin Bieber.

Shamelessly.

[Komenja]

It seems appropriate to drop this here...