electronic soul

[tone-def]

I've come to the conclusion that I have no soul. Both musically and literally. I must have sold mine to the devil at birth in exchange for a shitty life. The only soul that I know, is the arSOUL who lives next door.

Anyway, if you find out what it is ( or isn't ) bottle it and I'll have some.

You can buy inner souls for only a couple of quid. All you have to do is put them in your shoes.

[JonasEdenbrandt]

I find it intresting that alot of us chose acid tunes for examples of tracks with soul. Mostly cause I usually don't think of acid as the most soulful style. But when you think about it in the context of "machine-soul" as discussed above it is a style that makes this concept of a "resonating" system very obvious since it is often based on one simple sequence on one synth that is then morphed and evolved through out the track.

Before I started listening to more dancefloor oriented music I had a period were I was really into stuff like aphex twin and autechre (still love it). I remember my fasination with how every bar of music sounded different from the previous one and how it was constantly evolving. Without any insight in how electronic music was made I thought that they had composed every bar seperatly. Much later when listening to those tracks that I was so in awe of I understood that alot of what I found so complex is actual "simple tricks" and a smart way of using the "machine soul". It's intresting that something like a filter on hihats thats modulated by an LFO can sound really complex if you don't know whats doing it.

Also what techniques do you use to set up this "self resonating" system or machine soul in you'r studio?
I've recently started experimenting with live's MIDI fx together with the simple delay. With these I strive to create new melodys and patterns from simple sequences by just turning knobs and changing settings on the FX. What I'm missing from this setup is a "filter" something that omits certain MIDI notes from the sequence. I've tried to use scale for this but haven't succeded in more then transposing certain notes. Any tips and tricks on this would be great. And if you think it sounds interesting I can try and explain in more detail what I do (or just upload the insturment rack somewhere).

[oblioblioblio]

i think people mention the 303 because it is a very obvious example of a music tool having a life of it's own, where with a relationship with the user that supports it, it can really sing.

For me, I've got to mention my modular system. It's completely designed for this kind of complex interfacing... as you can interface directly with the heart of the machines, accessing the deepest parts with no restrictions.

not techno but soul machine music.

[eggnchips]

is my example of electronic music with soul, or machine soul as we call it now.

[Opuswerk]

so much, so much soul in that...
I listen to it every day i think. Just too much groove for my little brain to handle. You can really feel the man and the machine in there, and the MachineDrum all over the place.
I also very much liked the RAW series too in that electronic soul thing:

[Ingemar]

oblio; we are on page 4/5, you can say modular now without having to look over your shoulder... I think Jonas has been very much hitting the nail in his posts, but I feel that I have to say something to act as a counter weight to all the 303's; dont forget that today a 303 goes for like 1600€ and that much of the music that we love and look up used it in a totally different sense - they didn't have any certain reverence for it nor an economic respect (mind you that I wasn't kicking it back then, im young)

ive never had the luck to play a real tb-303 so I can't say how much of an instrument it is compaired to other gear. Today we have TT-303's and xoxboxes and whatnot - I think we have to decide here if it is the filter/slide/accent thing that gets our balls tingling with joy, or if it is a silver box with a certain type of sequencer (that you could pull the plug out of and get a new random pattern) that was the sh!t. Steevio please comment this.

Is it the sound or is it the box? Is it because we like the heroes from the 90's? Do we (because hell, who doesn't like the 303?) as electronic musicians like it because it has something trans-cultural soul reaching aspect of its sound, or is it because we are culturally accustomed to it? Again, please Steevio have a chip-in in regards to western tonality and rythm compaired to other cultures.

I for one love the sound of (my) Roland u-220, because no matter what I do it cuts through a mix and feels necessary in the spectral space it occupies. I feel that I can communicate my soul with it, but to others, it's probably just another wavetable synth that can do strings and has a nice e-piano. Again with my linguistic communication issues....

Anyhoo, OP if you mind, how about electronic soul in the sense of gear? what gear gets you going?

As for my part, I have to say clever use of the 16 step xox sequencer. All electronic music boils down to clever use of measures for me. Using the sequencer as a common denominator, I could name the 808, 909, 303 as gear that has soul for me. But really, a boss dr-550 could swing it.



(this is just the placenta of my ideas: that anything I can grasp the basics of and understand roughly how the composer thought when it was made is interesting, and therefor in my inquisitive mind soulful: 6/4, modular systems using bolian logic, pentatonic scales - I've heard reasonably interesting stuff on classical guitars too, but I've got no idea as to what the composer was thinking when he wrote that tune, because so many before him used those chords)

anyhoo, me drunk and I know that this post is a bit disorganised, but i think if you have the patience to sift through it you find stuff to comment on

[steevio]

haha ingemar, i'm a bit pissed too on red wine, staying in tonight !

so i need to comment on the 303.
i have to admit there was a time when my friends and myself were totally in awe of the TB303, there was even talk of it being extra-terrestial, no joking !!
to us at the time (1989 - 1995) we believed it was the machine to save the human race, that it had a message for us all, to come together and dance instead of killing and ripping each other off.
Ok we were doing lots of MDMA and psychedelics and there was a mood in the air, we were sick of the way the world was going. this new music would save us all.
my first techno releases were under the name 3000003, the first 12" i put out under that name had 3 actual TB303's and 2 overdubbed 303 tracks (hence the 5 '0's in the name)
it was banging acid techno, to dance to under the stars at raves in fields, the UK Free festival scene, and big illegal raves in warehouses in defiance of the UK government who were trying to crush our spirit. They were scared of our message because it didnt involve banks and corporations making profit out of the proletariat.

so you can see the TB303 is a sacred machine to me.
there was a time when i would sit for hours and listen to a simple loop on a 303 and be totally mesmerised, it has a magic that no other machine has or will ever have, it can hypnotise you in a way that is hard to explain. I'm not really talking about the squidgy noises, its the deep rumbling bass that moves in myterious ways, it shakes your soul, moves you body, trips out your mind.
ive owned several hardware and software clones, and you have to believe me when i say, they are not the same, ask any 303 freak, it has to be the actual silver box with the old electronic components - that machine has SOUL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but of course you cant go on forever using the same machine in the same way, so i moved on, i stopped using my last remaining 303 in about 1997, but brought it out of retirement for my last live gig at Freerotation 2011, and it was so amazing to hear it in action again, you absolutely cant do any wrong with the TB303 in a live environment- apart from too many squidgey noises of course

ive said too much

[Ingemar]

nice