Re: LESSISMORE

[Matthias Grob <matilists@atarde.com.br>]

Bill said:
>> At Y2K7 I
>> essentially used this rig, but I also dragged my big stomp box pedal
>> board, that I use on conventional gigs, along. I realized at the  
>> end of my set
>> I had barely touched any of my stomp boxes, and I had a bit of a
>> revelation that, Ah this has happened before... wasting energy  
>> setting up a mountain
>> of gear only to not use half of it.  The other revelation that is  
>> somewhat
>> obvious is that in pairing back the gear I end up playing more  
>> music and
>> spending less time tweaking and thinking about sound design.

fabio replied:
> This topic sounds similar to the recent "computer suck creative  
> energy",
> but on the hardware side, funny !

I came up with that title and missed the "?" at the end of it
because my point was that creating sounds is part of the musical  
creation
and as you say, doing that with analog stuff may take even more time,  
just that we dont feel it so much because we have done it over years  
in the past - which is different for the next generation of musicians!

we have to find out how much technology we need to find the sound that  
speak strong enough and are understandable for the listener.
As musicians we have the tendency to "re-discover" that playing a lot  
improves our musical capacity - "the real thing".
(I am in a phase like that since last year. I play mostly acoustic  
trying to play more at once, using several strings, getting further  
away from the limitation of playing either solo or rhythm. Obviously  
this has also to do with my programming work which was totally loop  
concentrated until 2004 and then switched totally to the polyphonic  
guitar. So now I am fascinated by polyphonic playing...)
But for the listener, or better for the effect of the music, the sound  
may be even more important than the musical construction. To touch the  
soul, the sound quality and richness seems to be fundamental. Of  
course there is a balance that depends a lot on what we want to  
achieve with music, what style we play and so on...

I was amazed when I recently saw the interviews on Pink Floyd's Pompei  
video again: the guys talk a lot about their gear which is bigger than  
any ones and that the gear alone does not create good music but since  
they studied it a lot, they found their music - and hardly anyone  
doubts that they discovered one of the deepest and broadest spread  
music of the last century...

So yes, to use good gear smartly is good! If we dont use all of it at  
a show is not so significant, since we improvise and want to have all  
the sounds ready to express what comes up. It would be ridiculous to  
use an effect just because we brought it.
But sure, sometimes we can get rid of a box we only need rarely...

> Before the Y2K7, i just heard some clips of you playing at the Y2K6,  
> but
> seeing you play live was very different, because i perceived that  
> "magic
> touch" on your fingers...

yeah, Bill is great!
I wonder though, whether this magic touch comes from playing a lot
or is a given talent
possibly it comes from the personality
as I observe with voices: you cannot learn to have a  
tender,powerfull,,, voice if you are not tender, powerfull,,,
and can we learn to be that? Yes, but not easily, and not by just  
playing, I guess...
>
>
> In the past i had complex setting rigs, but in the last year i'm
> "minimizing" it (quoting Kris  ;-), because me too has discovered
> that,reducing the available options, you could concentrate more on  
> Music (i
> would intend: touch, colors, phrasing, etc...).
> I think that another example, in the same direction,  was Randolff.  
> For
> what i remember, his set rig wasn't complex (RC50, FCB 1010 and an fx
> processor ?), but his act was musically warm and captured the audience
> attention.
> Other example like Zoe and others could be done.
>
> Simple is better ! i'm with you.

careful with that statement! Simplicity is a kind of quality,  
Complexity another!
Nature is not simple at all!
Just see how your body works, is it bad because its complex?

evolution is going toards complexity in general, but sometimes there  
are phases of simplification (like a ice age ;-) that can be a  
releave, at least for the ones who need to understand that part...

In case of rack size, I was always very carefull so that I could still  
carry it an minimize the bad contacts and such.
I did not even use two EDPs (although I had several of them...)
now that I am on the computer, criteria changed a bit, but when  
getting close to the point where the processor is overloaded or I dont  
dominate the setup any more, yes: simpler becomes better...

Matthias