Kniferide wrote: 3 sweaty dudes drinking PBR and banging away at riffs in a tiny hot closet space in a warehouse somewhere doesn't seem to have the appeal that it used to. To each his own I guess.

It's not to say that click tracks and prerecorded material is awful and people shouldn't do it. It's just very hard to get real energy from something already frozen in time and it takes extra special talent to pull it off successfully in a way that it feels effortless and natural. It's the same kind of thing when doing multitrack recording. If you're going to piecemeal a song together track by track, you better be fucking talented musicians.

It's just more natural and easier to get that energy from being loose from a grid.

I recall a million years ago, an old band buddy went solo and did all his stuff through a laptop and just sang over it. It was fucking amazing. He did a great job on the sound and he had the talent and charisma to stand alone on stage next to a computer and get an entire full house lit.

Teacher's Pet wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2024 10:08 am

Kniferide wrote: 3 sweaty dudes drinking PBR and banging away at riffs in a tiny hot closet space in a warehouse somewhere doesn't seem to have the appeal that it used to. To each his own I guess.

hahaha

Kniferide wrote: If you think it's video game music, yeah.

Ding ding ding. This approach is for people who came to music through video games and not by going to shows and being part of a scene. It's virtual reality helmet rock.

TylerDeadPine wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2024 11:41 am

Teacher's Pet wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2024 10:08 am

Kniferide wrote: 3 sweaty dudes drinking PBR and banging away at riffs in a tiny hot closet space in a warehouse somewhere doesn't seem to have the appeal that it used to. To each his own I guess.

hahaha

Today, I am working on shit that I can't talk about to make cool stuff for future digital guitar processing and amp modeling products. Tonight, I will stand in a practice space* with two other dudes, a tube half stack, and a bunch of analog gear made by my friends and myself, and rehearse for our show in a dive bar in 8 days. Both of these things are delightful and enjoyable to me.

I could totally use a modeling-based live rig and be satisfied. I don't want to be simply satisfied. I want to experience the same emotional state and sense-memory that I know and love; built from playing live shows for the past 33 years. Right now, this is easiest by using the same basic rig that I had when I was 19 years old.

In other musical areas, I get a great joy from using/abusing the gear I develop for my day job, and pushing the gear to do new and unexpected things is part of the joy. So I get to build new sense-memories that I may want to recreate in 10 years.

I dunno. Every time I set up a structure or mode in which to work, I end up ditching it and trying something else rather quickly. If I just assemble gear to make music with my friends, I end up building the same guitar setup that I've used all my life. This is why I think young people are going to base their guitar setups on the bands they experience as a teenager, and their first five favorite guitar players. Those people probably won't be anyone in our peer group

*thank christ we have a mini-split A/C in the practice space.

I actually think it's a relief that youngsters are doing new, weird things.
Or, things that seem new and weird to this old rock dude (me).
Thank god.

Teacher's Pet wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2024 12:21 pm I actually think it's a relief that youngsters are doing new, weird things.
Or, things that seem new and weird to this old rock dude (me).

I can accept some of that, though it just seems like a lot of it is becoming removed from interacting with other people.

benadrian wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2024 12:08 pmBoth of these things are delightful and enjoyable to me.

I agree completely. I have only ever used real amps when I'm playing with other people but if I'm writing or just fucking around by myself, it is easier and faster and just as fun to plug into a HiZ input at my desk and just open an amp in Reaper and play guitar. Drag in a bunch of cool FX you cannot even get in a pedal, automate a knob with an LFO, quickly record and chop it up... etc. When I do that, I never really miss the "real" loud stuff in the other room, and if I want, I can reamp it later. I DO miss being able to cascade multiple Space Echos into Moog filters and other weird shit I can do in virtual land when I'm playing through my amp though, and I've thought about setting up a virtual rig in there next to my amp for being a goofball. It's all tools. I have as much respect for people doing weird shit in a closet as long as they are giving it their all and seem to have fun. There will also always be loud smelly rock bands to go watch too. There is room for all of it.

penningtron wrote: Tue Sep 10, 2024 1:15 pm I can accept some of that, though it just seems like a lot of it is becoming removed from interacting with other people.

None of the younger people I work with care for going to shows or playing shows in a traditional sense, They DO seem to love the, what I always considered ripoff, you sell tickets to secure you place on a bill shows. The thing where the band that sells the most tickets gets to open for Disturbed or fucking Alien Antfarm or something. They will all absolutely pay to play. They do not care about being in a "Scene" they just want exposure, and for people to be driven to their streams and Patreons and shit. Hard disagree there. This may be a difference from the Midwest to Portland too. Bands in the Midwest organize shit, put together shows, wherever/whenever they can. Here they seem to just wait for something to fall in their lap or they get a show at a bar by themselves. Portland Music scene is really closed and introverted compared to the other places I've lived. Could just be the people I know, and I'm old now.

Guys. When I was 20 years old I didn’t give a shit about what other 20 year olds were doing. I know that because I was here. There are still a bunch of bass/gtr/drum bands with actual 20 year olds playing regular guitars and amps. The laptops on stage thing has been going back a long time. Pods have been out for forever. People are now getting the same sound out of plugins that people used to get from racks. I know that because I am buying the racks for $150-$250 now. You just didn’t hear words like “workflow” and “user interface” used so much outside of work.

Not everything in the future is new, some stuff gets more the same.