Do you think that using loops/presets/sample packs is 'lazy'

[deadly_habit]

2009...What resurrected this thread? lol

I agree with the idea that loops/sample packs/etc are fine. I think as long as you make them your own in at least some way, whether it be processing or rearrangment then you are not being truly lazy...you are just doing intelligent selection of elements in your work. That being said, there are no real rules here...are you making music for people who enjoy music or for other producers? Normal people will never care or know.

I consider the extreme example of this is that Steve Angello track "Knas" which I believe is primarily just a vengeance loop with nothing special really done to it which achieved mainstream popularity. I consider that lazy...but regular people don't give a shit so good for him.

It's called people actually using the search function instead of just hitting the new topic button aka proper forum etiquette

[Artie_Fufkin]

Nothing wrong with necromancy on decent threads. No reason to make a separate thread just because it's 2013. All of this is still relevant.

[Electric_Head]

^Normal people don't care

What if the oscillators in my soft synth are actually just single cycles from samples?

aka massive and absynth.

They're just fancy samplers.
How do soft synth oscillators work, actually? Do they all just use looped samples? What about noise oscillators?

That is pretty much how they work.
Single cycle waveforms.
Noise is the same, single cycle white, pink, brown noise.

[Genevieve]

I use samples a lot.
Nothing wrong with it.
It's about how you wield the sword.

Some vasline and a box of tissues!

I'm not following you here.
Do you want to lather my naked body in Vaseline and cover me with tissues?

That would make me wield my sword, alright :0

[Electric_Head]

En gaurde.

[kreutzbube]

That is pretty much how they work.
Single cycle waveforms.
Noise is the same, single cycle white, pink, brown noise.

i know for sure that absynth has no true noise generator. but i always considered massives one to be real noise?

[Genevieve]

Are there really any real ones left? Really doubt it tbh. I think there's a way to "crack" Massive and make it play any wav you throw at it.

Which is why I think it's lame that importing wavs isn't a standard feature on most synths. They probably do it to get people to buy samplers to do the same thing.

[kreutzbube]

is it even possible for software to create "real" non-sampled waveforms from nothing? would'nt it be nessecary to have some kind of hardware (ur soundcard for example) source to do this? really makes me wonder how absynths waveform-painting-tool works...

[Electric_Head]

Even noise would begin with a sine.

[Genevieve]

is it even possible for software to create "real" non-sampled waveforms from nothing? would'nt it be nessecary to have some kind of hardware (ur soundcard for example) source to do this? really makes me wonder how absynths waveform-painting-tool works...

Easily. Sound is just like light, it's just frequencies vibrating in a certain spectrum. So just like a computer can generate color, it can generate sound. In Renoise's sampler, you can draw any waveform you want and use it.

[nameless133]

I don't understand why people bitching about using samples loaded into samplers. "If you don't turn out anything from synths you aren't original" many people said that. But many people uses same softsynths with they produce almost indetical sounds (you know brostep and modern talking wavetable stuff ) so what now?

[royalB]

it's not lazy if it facilitates creative flow and productivity.....however, arranging/creating your own loops and patterns is a fundamental skill in this game.

[erratech]

I absolutely love recontextualising something, i think the worse a record the more i enjoy sampling it, if i cant make it better then i wont use it. If you enjoy the process involved with creating music does it matter if the sound comes from a samplepack? I dont really own many samples except drum or multisamples because i enjoy the process of creating and refining sounds, but if that element isnt the one that draws you in then why should you be judged because melody or harmony is more interesting/important to your approach? People seem to be so protective of the 'right way' to do things but noone in the real world gives a fuck, and music should be about expression of self - if you lack the technical abilities to do something 'properly' should you just go back to your cubicle and stare at the walls?

[Ldizzy]

loops can be modified. chopped. warped.

/thread.

[vault]

No offence to anyone, but making a song using someones bass/synths and turning into an original without knowing how it's made, it's completely wrong, and lame, even thought it's proccessed/resampled or whatever you call it. (I'm talking about basslines here.)

[Ldizzy]

No offence to anyone, but making a song using someones bass/synths and turning into an original without knowing how it's made, it's completely wrong, and lame, even thought it's proccessed/resampled or whatever you call it. (I'm talking about basslines here.)

oh sorry god. i didnt know i was a sinner. am i still a sinner???

should i record everything i play with myself?

should i build me a daw and a mic with rudimentary materials and stuff?

Well... i guess rap shouldnt exist at all... oh wait? was that about sampling within a same, sample-based, style? even within a style... i still see pertinence in sampling other's work. j dilla used to sample rap songs and redo classic beats. i think hes one of the most influential musicians of his era, hipsterism apart.

Wait... where does the whole hip hop thing comes from... mcing over beats that dont belong to you and call it a song... wasnt that a jamaican custom. How did they call it already!?!? ....

dub. i guess you should go to london and tell DMZ to shut they mouths and unplug everything, and forget about where they came from.

People sample, reuse, create over and careless about rights, ever since music started existing. the whole intellectual property came along with the inventions of sophisticated ego and money. im pretty sure art came along earlier, as a more primitive intellectual/cultural byproduct. Tell moms around the world to write original lullabies...

No offence to you.. but what background are you from again? not being rude... just wish i understood ur point, and gletting u know that i REALLY think that music is a CREATIVE process, and that one can be creative with anything, even someone else's music.

and what do u mean with not knowing how its made? some people can be skilled at one thing, not at another. im pretty sure the justice dudes couldn't play a note of that patrice rushen bassline and they made a style out of one song. i find them skilled. just at something else.

i do agree that sampling long cuts is extremely lame. its boring. Unless your thrill is that u simply want to produce a final product that can be played to please a crowd and get a party started. i dont do it anymore for the reason you mentionned, it doesnt amuse me as much as creating "from scratch".. however i can totally respect a sampling artist. i still think great music can come out of it.. no matter the sample source.

if ur talking plagiarism... i say u dont even have to copy/reuse/sample a sound to do it. you wouldnt imagine how many things we take for granted and follow as rules in this art/music thing... just because someone did it in the first place and got love out of it.

what do u think ?

[JBE]

No offence to anyone, but making a song using someones bass/synths and turning into an original without knowing how it's made, it's completely wrong, and lame, even thought it's proccessed/resampled or whatever you call it. (I'm talking about basslines here.)

No. You can't just say that this applies to basslines. There's no difference between bassline sampling and pad or drum loop sampling. That's hypocritical thinking. If it's lame and wrong and you don't support it then you myswell throw out 65% of all EDM as well.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I think its lazy unless you can make something very unique from the source sample. eg fucked up amens in breakcore and that.

[Ldizzy]

i think its lazy to make music with a home computer...

[charles1]

i think it's lazy and lame to make music. if you're a true artist, you'll find your own original form of art.