Use of Crackle in Music

[zerbaman]

The snare actually isn't off beat. And it's not really got anything to do with 4x4, it's more of a jig than a pulse. That creates creative space for shit like woppy LFOs.

The high hats are off kilter, swung up, slightly delayed in timing and enveloping.

[nowaysj]

Humans made computers -> Humans made music composition and arrangement software for computers -> Humans make music on these computers with the software -> All music has an inevitably "human element".
Objekt aint fucking sloppy.

This is exactly how to reason yourself into absolutely meaningless places.

[zerbaman]

Precisely.

[Genevieve]

The "human element" is as subjective as anything else. Terms like "warmth" or "human" or "emotional" are terms people use to legitemize their own music taste. But it's all just waves vibrating at a different frequency.

Music isn't any more emotional than a plastic bottle. It's all just bullshit we project on it.

[cloquet]

Music isn't any more emotional than a plastic bottle. It's all just bullshit we project on it.

currently imagining a plastic bottle caked in shit

[ketamine]

The "human element" is as subjective as anything else. Terms like "warmth" or "human" or "emotional" are terms people use to legitemize their own music taste. But it's all just waves vibrating at a different frequency.

Music isn't any more emotional than a plastic bottle. It's all just bullshit we project on it.

I find plastic bottles pretty emotional

[dickman69]

everything is waves vibrating at a different frequency you dolt

[hugh]

everything is waves vibrating at a different frequency you dolt

that should be the opening statement on your essay

[nowaysj]

everything is waves vibrating at a different frequency you dolt

Again...

This thread is shaping up.

[hugh]

"give me advice/opinions but also fuck you and fuck your advice"

[lovelydivot]

Anyone have shakey leg syndrome
- I find that lots of these "pink noises" are actually in time with the way the body tweeks...

It's all rhythmic...naturally rhythmic



We are spinning through the universe...

[Terpit]

everything is waves vibrating at a different frequency you dolt

that should be the opening statement on your essay

[Sonika]

it fills the frequency spectrum, creates an atmosphere in the tune, fills your ears with sound....

Idk why, but it makes it feel very warm and sort of cozy to me...maybe it's the imperfections that it creates in the sound, it takes away from the cold perfection of the mixdown and the technically intricate sound design that is almost robotic....

if you get me

[lovelydivot]

I'm not really sure if crackle makes me feel retro though...

In Archangel - the crackle is more of a texture - it's the gregorian chant that makes me feel "retro"
But - it's the percussion that locks it in it's own time...That song could not exist before uk garage/funky


and to challenge my own logic about the sounds of technologies colouring a track in time - I doubt this song could ever feel like anything prior to the 80's...
These types of greys and pinks flashing and cutting blue - just did not exist then...

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[leeany]

Thanks for your replies guys.

Listening to records, creating a mood. It's like people who use Rainmind.com.

Is this for an Extended Essay by any chance? I was doing music, but that shit is difficult to write 4000 words about.

Yeah sorta, in Holland we have to write an essay of about 30-40 pages when we're in our final year of high school, and it needs to have something to do with one of the subjects you follow (I picked arts).

everything is waves vibrating at a different frequency you dolt

that should be the opening statement on your essay

haha. defo.

[lovelydivot]

It's like saying - someones house was WAY AHEAD of their car...

[nowaysj]

u r so oldschool LD

[lovelydivot]

genre as a dating method...

popular aesthetic




Its all way too vague...and complex to boot

crackle - could be fire or dirt on a window; a branch on a window - not neccesarily a record player

[the wiggle baron]

Dunno if this was on page 2, but to me its simple reduction of dynamics. Of course dynamics is important in any art form, but again as with any art form, anything used too much becomes boring to the mind and it searches for something else. The way this feels to me is somewhat similar to how i viewed photography. Was always told to develop my pictures with a higher filter to increase the contrast, but it never felt right to my eyes. I liked the flat tonality of a muddier picture. With music, you hear perfectly produced electronic music every day. Incredibly punchy percussion and synths creating a hard hitting feel (especially with dubstep...). To then remove those intense dynamics with a layer of hiss, crackle or white noise or whatever in my opinion takes some of the stress off the ears.

Long story short, I think crackle etc. makes the tunes easier on the ear by reducing the dynamics

I also think white noise is a really good way of ADDING unnoticed dynamics to a tune. I find that unless im listening really intensely to a track, changes in the volume/type of noise being layered behind it dont consciously stand out to me unless im looking for them, as the ear is so used to ignoring static/noise/crackles. This means tracks can create/release tension with this noise without you noticing as obviously as a changing/building synth line for example. Best example of that for me is Wilhelms Scream by James Blake. Also some Airhead stuff (and im sure loads more).

Oh, and lastly. To quote burial himself, a surface layer of noise/crackle hides some lack of technical production skill behind a sound mask. Really good for someone like burial whose music comes from a genuinely musical, human place rather than a learned skill. The ideas speak for themselves rather than the actual execution of them.

[Genevieve]

everything is waves vibrating at a different frequency you dolt

OoOOh cognitive dissonance. Someone delegitemized your dumb illogical standards for music.

But yeah, everything is fucking vibrations, that's the fucking point you idiot. So projecting your stupid wittle emotions on those vibrations and saying that this one vibration is 'realer' than the others cuz of the way it makes u feeel :'0 is fucking stupid.