Re: Effect as crutch

[Patrick Smith <patrick@his.com>]

On 11/26/99 rob Switzer wrote:

>
>>From reading the discourse on 'effects as crutch' it seems to me that 
>there
>are (at least) two major takes on this. The first is that music is
>something apart from sound -- sound is something you 'do to' music after
>the fact.  Along with this, 'effects' are something apart from a musical
>instrument, added after the fact.
>
>The second take -- and the one I support -- is that music and sound are 
>all
>of a piece, and everything you use to make sound/music constitutes a
>musical instrument.  Many stompboxes, fx, software packages, or what have
>you are strong and expressive musical instruments in their own right.
>
>Saying that an artist's use of effects constitutes a 'crutch' may just be
>another way of saying that an artist has a sonic/concrete focus where
>timbre and texture are dominant rather than pitch and duration.
>
>Not a thing wrong with that, IMHO -- in fact, adopting a sonic focus is a
>choice that has only recently become available for the majority of
>musicians, and offers considerably more unexplored territory to plumb.
>
>rob

This is very well said. The last couple years has seen my approach to music
shifting from a very intensive practice regimen to keep up an acoustic
guitar technique to the technology driven music that we do in FingerPaint.
I spent considerable time delving into the innards of various synths to
learn them and create my own sounds. Effects were generally addded on the
fly. Tweaking presets with the occasional save.

I have studied my synths, made numerous experiments with my mixer, delved
into the jam man and the Echoplex. The last two months has seen me really
devote time to understanding my effects boxes. I am fortunate to have two
high end processors, an Eventide H3000 D/SE and a recently acquired TC
Fireworx. Both of these units are very deep and offer much to the dedicated
explorer. Thank God for my day job that allows me these units. I have spent
hours with the manuals and " listening" to the outcomes of making changes
to the parameters in these boxes. I feel as if I am developing my "voice"
for the next round of sonic investigation.

At times this gets tedious and seems to be offering up nothing and then I
let the loops roll and return to this study later. As far as I am concerned
in the making of music everything is an instrument. My guitar (or whatever
controller I am using, my mixer(( which I could not looping without)), my
synths, and my effects. And let us not forget the other instrument. Our
bodies! Ever notice the difference in your sound when your relxed versus
tense? Or the direction your improvs take when your angry versus sad?


Keep making music!

Patrick


                     Fingerpaint's New Release:

                            IN THE LOOP

      ... an intelligent, stimulating mixture of mimimaist spacebeats and
           obscure samples layered upon a hypnotic illbient backdrop.

                       DIGITAL ARTIFACT # 12

                      http://www.fingerpaint.net