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Author Topic: Happy Accidents and Tone Standards  (Read 7687 times)

Offline sonicassault

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Happy Accidents and Tone Standards
« on: September 02, 2015, 04:32:20 PM »
Napaisip lang ako.

karamihan ng mga modern sounds and techniques natin nanggaling sa mga aksidente na kung hindi nangyari, obviously walang magagawang bago. pero ang tanong ko, paano nga ba natin nagagawan ng "standard" ang isang bagay na nagawa dahil sa aksidente?

For example: fuzz
fuzz was created because of accidental damages to amps, whether it was because of damaged speakers, dislodged tubes, or dimed volume knobs. eventually people started damaging amps and cabs on purpose to get that fuzz sound. after that, fuzzboxes came around.
my question now is, how the hell did we get to "wow dude that boutique fuzz box sounds so damn good" when at the advent of the fuzz, people were poking their speakers with damn pencils and the audience were RAVING about it. why aren't we dislodging the tubes from inexpensive amps and poking the speaker cones of ZT Lunchboxes? And why is a busted speaker now inferior to a fuzz pedal?

another example: drift
simply (or as I understand it) it is how the pitch of a note of an analog synth "drifts" away from the correct note because of temperature/electronic stuff change and aging. basically the damn thing is out of tune because it is analog.
so back then what engineers and musicians wanted to get was a steady pitch that played right and stayed there. these engineers were being paid tons of cash and burning their eyebrows with solder just to get each note to play one (or a set of frequencies) that don't drift.
Eventually digital game about and some people werent happy with the timbre. understandable. but now software engineers are getting palpitations just so they can emulate the drift. what the hell? in this case, how is it that an undesirable aspect at the advent of a technology is now wanted? don't get me wrong,it's okay to get things "period correct" and stuff, but ultimately that wasn't the goal of the pioneers who actually started the tech. they would have been happy as fck to have had digital oscillators or something.

eventually the point I'd be going to is this: these sounds are our tone reference because great songs were made (and got popular) with them. the more we sound like it, the better. but the thing is, does it also make us more myopic about tone searching? I mean let's face it, if you're not popular or influential, people will think your otherworldly tone sucks. I don't think my dimed q-tron distorted lead tone would ever be a "good tone" coz I'm just a bedroom guitarist. hell even Albert King got huge flak on his phaser sound. but look at T Swift's producer milking money off Linndrum snare samples which I think is absolute crap.

then the what if question: what if the great musicians and producers had all the tech and gear we have now, would they sound different? If Hendrix had access to 8 stringers and a Metal Zone pedal at the start of his career what would he sound like? If Stevie Wonder had access to NI Massive routed to a Korg Kaossilator, what would he sound like? and would those sounds be the standard tones we gun for?
https://soundcloud.com/sonicassault
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Offline jgmredor

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Re: Happy Accidents and Tone Standards
« Reply #1 on: September 02, 2015, 10:33:42 PM »
I think that's the beauty it... even some of the brightest and coolest inventions were brought about by accidents. We simply can't live without them now and they continue to evolve, be innovated and reinvented. The beauty is we can own an amp and get a good clean sound from it and make it sound fuzzy just by stepping on a pedal, no need to poke a hole on the speaker which basically ruins the equipment.

When I was younger and played on a Garage Band, I used our old Karaoke as my guitar amp. Cone of the speaker was a bit crumpled due to misuse and overuse. I couldn't get a good clean sound from it but when I turn on my Demio distortion pedal, oh Boy I was a happy kid :) that sound has been my tone preference since!


Offline sonicassault

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Re: Happy Accidents and Tone Standards
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2015, 09:04:05 AM »
I think that's the beauty it... even some of the brightest and coolest inventions were brought about by accidents. We simply can't live without them now and they continue to evolve, be innovated and reinvented. The beauty is we can own an amp and get a good clean sound from it and make it sound fuzzy just by stepping on a pedal, no need to poke a hole on the speaker which basically ruins the equipment.

When I was younger and played on a Garage Band, I used our old Karaoke as my guitar amp. Cone of the speaker was a bit crumpled due to misuse and overuse. I couldn't get a good clean sound from it but when I turn on my Demio distortion pedal, oh Boy I was a happy kid :) that sound has been my tone preference since!

see that's what I'm talking about. yung ano lang yung meron ka tapos nahanap mo yung sound mo dun.  :) at the same time, bakit kunwari halos walang naghahanap ng Demio + karaoke sound? dahil ang "universal" standard natin eh yung mga tunog ni hendrix, or slash, satch, whoever na sikat.
https://soundcloud.com/sonicassault
Quote
Turn up the sympathsizer and give me more waffle.
olive oil garlic tomatoes salt pepper basil oregano thyme chili