There are some amazingly complex and sophisticated synthesisers which allow powerful in-depth synthesis which other synths simply cannot do
But the more the years go on, the more I’m of the opinion that the more complicated synths simply don’t afford the making of better music, and in many cases they fight against good sound and good music because the more complex detailed heroically-synthesised sounds become either the focus, or have too much importance attached, or worse, they have too much importance attached as far as the person making the sound is concerned, but nobody else really gives a crap or even notices that it’s such a complex and deliciously synthesised sound, they just don’t notice, but in the meantime, all the hard work in the composition has gone into these complex wonderfully created sounds that no other synthesiser could do
I know, you’re saying that as I own a Korg Opsix, isn’t that one of the most complex synths out there? Well, yes it is, but for one thing I’m completely at home with FM synthesis (having started on the Yamaha CX5M as my first actual synth that wasn’t a modular that I’d built myself (Digisound 80)) but that’s how I’m spotting this tendency – I’m now starting to not want to spend time on my own patches, which up to now was where most of the fun was, and starting to explore the much less capable and far simpler and more direct synths which are ‘just’ synthesisers, and not be afraid to put forward just basic synth sounds which almost any synth and any synthesist could have done #Synths
@u0421793 I get your perspective, I think, but I always feel that the making of any art is mostly for the benefit of the person making it. In that sense, if someone gets more fulfillment out of noodling around with patches and creates something gnarly, if they like it, it’s a success. Depends whether you’re making music for others, or for yourself. Everyone’s goals are their own.
at art college my fellow Product Design students and I would endlessly discuss the question of what is art and what is design – where’s the boundary, what’s the difference, are we doing design or are we doing art?
Decades later I now realise that if it’s art, nobody will say you’ve done some aspect of it incorrectly, nobody says you made a mistake here, nobody is likely say it’s not done properly because as an artist, you justify everything by saying that it was supposed to be like that, that it follows your intention, that the end result purely 100% matches your artistic expression, etc
If it’s design, don’t worry – everyone will tell you you’ve done it incorrectly, all day
Similarly with music, which bits of it are art, which is design – I think it must start with art, certainly – the lyrics, the mood, the tune, the motif, the feeling, the thing you want to say, the tempo, the weight, etc. But as it progresses through composition to production it also progresses from art to design, and at the mastering stage there’s just production decisions, design decisions, the onset of audience decisions, and having spent 90% of the time on a fancy synth sound might now be regarded as a mistake, in favour of relevant lyrics, suitable pacing, appropriate feel, etc and swapping the fancy synth sound with a more direct straightforward one which took seconds to do (or is even a preset) is functionally equivalent because the audience didn’t want the fancy sound anyway they want an overall attachment to the whole of it
@u0421793 ha, that's probably true as well. The art versus design discussion would be endless, but really interesting. 😀
I think you can go through mixing and mastering and keep it as art if you want, if that's your goal. That's always my goal (which is good, cuz no one likes my stuff).
I think if you change your art with the goal of making more people like it, you've taken off your artist's hat and replaced it with your marketing exec hat.
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