ok mate this probably isnt the place to go into this stuff in detail, anyway these are purely my own techniques, i only mentioned it to illustrate that we dont all make music the same way, we dont all have to stick to the disciplines we mistakenly think we have to, we can experiment.oblioblioblio wrote:hello steevio, thanks for all the words you're added to this thread thus far, but could i possibly ask you to elaborate on this? It sounds interesting, but I can't quite get my head around it. What makes a node different to a non-node? And, for example, where are the nodes created by 5/4 against 4/4?steevio wrote: personally i use a system i call nodalism, i locate the points of polymeter confluence, or nodes and experiment in these areas, they are mathematically rich in possibilities, sometimes i will delete all the notes of a pattern other than those around nodes, then i might experiment with the phase of the cross-rhythms, which then creates new nodal patterns, conversely i might create space at some nodes and accent others, the possibilities are endless.
thanking you, mark.
i think that was the point of this post, it's the antithesis of the Minilogue VST joke. my nodal system came about through experimentation, as soon as i removed the strictures of 4/8/16 grid, i realised there was a whole other universe of possibilities, and so i needed a map, so i started looking for confluences, places where there was less noise and more order.
if you lay out three polyrhythmic loops they will come back to the 'one' in different places. so in your head you are trying to follow them, and its natural to feel the 'one' of the pattern, but your brain always follows the dominant loop, which may be the loudest, or the most pleasing or whatever, and ignores the rest or tries to integrate it within the scheme of the dominant. in the case of techno it will usually be the 4/4, because the track will have been mixed with the previous track which was 4/4, and you are following that scheme in your head.
now at places of confluence, where two patterns come to the 'one' together
your brain makes more sense of whats happening, and therefore sometimes you can almost ignore whats happening in between, your brain fills in the gaps. but of course you dont always want to fill in the gaps, you might want to take the listener along a thread thats juxtaposed to the dominant scheme for a while or whatever.
this really is a bit too complicated to explain, maybe a visual representation would be easier, but thats beyond me i'm afraid.
the simplest way to try it, is to run simple 4/4 and 3/4 loops together which is really common in music, at 12 beats (3 bars) you have a node if they start in phase. if you have three different loops starting out of phase, then it's infinitely more complex, you will have nodes between each pair of loops, and more important nodes where all three coincide etc.
this is why most of my tunes have major events happening at non-regular places like 15 or 21 bars or whatever.
this is why i cant work to a rigid 4/8/16 scheme. it totally depends on the tune for me, if a tune demands a strong 4/4 scheme, then so be it, i've got nothing against 4/4, i just dont want to be restricted by it thats all.
