Marco Carola production techiques?

[Bogdan]

there is no problem wanting to learn!!
but i think this is not the way to do it.. asking people what is the technique of x or y artist. No big artist has a well writen technique that he uses in all of his tracks, things change every time, things evolves.. What that artist should answer? that he uses X program and Y synth etc? maybe that app or synth doesn't match your ideas in music.. and? what did you do?
The best way to do things is to get the apps that you feel confortable making music and start discovering. About other artists.. there is no problem if you like an artist.. he can be your influence.. and starting from that you can make your own interpretation in that direction. Learning things these days isn't that hard at all!

[mlexicon]

i dunno if this is repeating whatever anyone is saying, but...im on the side of whatever helps you helps you

[oblioblioblio]

i dunno if this is repeating whatever anyone is saying, but...im on the side of whatever helps you helps you

so true.

I find all these posts with people blabbering on about how wrong imitation is quite amusing. But then I think about all the people from the "don't learn from others, the only way to learn is to do it all yourself" camp possibly having children and just sitting there with their little kids looking up at them with eager eyes, but they're looking back at them with arms folded and an expression that says "well, your not copying my use of language, learn your own style you little retards". And then many years later with these little rubbish children running around dribbling and barking and stuff, and them being all proud thinking "yep, it's definitely their own style, thank god they didn't imitate a single person".

[skept]

I find all these posts with people blabbering on about how wrong imitation is quite amusing. But then I think about all the people from the "don't learn from others, the only way to learn is to do it all yourself" camp possibly having children and just sitting there with their little kids looking up at them with eager eyes, but they're looking back at them with arms folded and an expression that says "well, your not copying my use of language, learn your own style you little retards". And then many years later with these little rubbish children running around dribbling and barking and stuff, and them being all proud thinking "yep, it's definitely their own style, thank god they didn't imitate a single person".

it's not like it is a black and white issue though. of course when you are learning anything you go and sit in class. you imitate the teacher. once you have a handle on what the teacher does you go and do your own thing. nothing wrong with that. but there is definitely something a little silly about posts that ask "how can i make a bassline like magda's? how can i make minimal drums like so and so?" because you certainly don't learn how to make a bass sound like magda's by posting a question on here and hoping for someone to hold your hand through the process. i would assume one would do so by grabbing a synth and learning the ins and outs until you hear a sound and know how to make it.

I find all these posts with people blabbering on about how wrong imitation is quite amusing.

i am sure we could all create a very large list about what and whom we find to be amusing. here is one from me: i find it amusing when people say "this thread is laughable". if it is so laughable then why are you wasting your time posting? i am not saying this is you. it is definitely not (in this situation atleast). i am just joining in on your fun of stating amusing things.

[oblioblioblio]

I find all these posts with people blabbering on about how wrong imitation is quite amusing. But then I think about all the people from the "don't learn from others, the only way to learn is to do it all yourself" camp possibly having children and just sitting there with their little kids looking up at them with eager eyes, but they're looking back at them with arms folded and an expression that says "well, your not copying my use of language, learn your own style you little retards". And then many years later with these little rubbish children running around dribbling and barking and stuff, and them being all proud thinking "yep, it's definitely their own style, thank god they didn't imitate a single person".

it's not like it is a black and white issue though. of course when you are learning anything you go and sit in class. you imitate the teacher. once you have a handle on what the teacher does you go and do your own thing. nothing wrong with that. but there is definitely something a little silly about posts that ask "how can i make a bassline like magda's? how can i make minimal drums like so and so?" because you certainly don't learn how to make a bass sound like magda's by posting a question on here and hoping for someone to hold your hand through the process. i would assume one would do so by grabbing a synth and learning the ins and outs until you hear a sound and know how to make it.

I find all these posts with people blabbering on about how wrong imitation is quite amusing.

i am sure we could all create a very large list about what and whom we find to be amusing. here is one from me: i find it amusing when people say "this thread is laughable". if it is so laughable then why are you wasting your time posting? i am not saying this is you. it is definitely not (in this situation atleast). i am just joining in on your fun of stating amusing things.

You are right though it is not a black and white issue at all, and as you say there is a major difference between painstakingly reconstructing sounds you like, and simply asking someone else to do it for you. Though you cannot deny there are more people getting angsty about people asking questions than there are people prepared to help, and more often than not people asking for helpto fill in a couple of blanks, not the whole process from start to finish.

The reason I get pissed off about it is because imitation and learning from others is so key to progress. And there are so many people who would rather selfishly withhold information in order to keep a monopoly on particular sound than let their knowledge be more of a public resource. This not only benefits producers around the world to push their sound, but also the producers who innovated to help make the sound in the first place therefore have to push their own sound further, to keep themselves fresh, rather than relying on a staple becuase no-one else has worked out how to do it themselves.

Obviously this isn;t a black and white issue either, as another of the problems with electronic (and many other kinds) of music is when someone innovates there are planty of people ready to just copy that sound full stop, without adding anything original. But this is always inevitable in prety much every form of art, and indeed is pretty much the nature of life itself. Artists push boundaries forward and others sweep up behind them to make some profit. and thus is something you just have to accept.

I dunno, maybe I'd have a different opinion if I was a famous producer and had spent long and hard working on a sound of my own. But one of the things I found so refreshing about the electronic music scene is the disolving of boundaries between 'artist' and 'audience'. When I first started dancing to djs I felt like I was helping make something special, dancing with others, and being expressive and creative and helping to make magic. Which was a massive world away from the music I was listening to before, where there was pretty much contempt for the audience from the artists, and definietely no kind of respect. And if it wasn't for the great attitude of many electronic producers (like Mr J. Holden and many others, who made it perfectly clear that they weren't magicians, and that using some cheap equipment with some serious dedication was all that was needed to make magic), I would still just be occasionally pissing around on a guitar and singing in the shower. And therefore it makes me angry when people (some famous producers inlcuded) act against this wonderful trend for petty selfish reasons.

Hope this is a dignified and reasonable reply, and isn;t just a pile of self obsessed, unreadable toss (quite likely).

[skept]

Though you cannot deny there are more people getting angsty about people asking questions than there are people prepared to help

so true! maybe this is their (my) defense mechanism for not knowing the answer.

The reason I get pissed off about it is because imitation and learning from others is so key to progress. And there are so many people who would rather selfishly withhold information in order to keep a monopoly on particular sound than let their knowledge be more of a public resource. This not only benefits producers around the world to push their sound, but also the producers who innovated to help make the sound in the first place therefore have to push their own sound further, to keep themselves fresh, rather than relying on a staple becuase no-one else has worked out how to do it themselves.

hrm... if you relate this to the classroom comparison i made then big artists should be on here schooling us with their wisdom! that would be great. i agree with you regarding the selfishly withholding info. so many times have i asked "wow! what did you use to make that?" and got snubbed.

when someone innovates there are planty of people ready to just copy that sound full stop, without adding anything original.

no doubt!

But one of the things I found so refreshing about the electronic music scene is the disolving of boundaries between 'artist' and 'audience'.

thank (gawd? punk? french new wave cinema?) for DIY art!

[ri]

there is no problem wanting to learn!!
but i think this is not the way to do it.. asking people what is the technique of x or y artist. No big artist has a well writen technique that he uses in all of his tracks, things change every time, things evolves.. What that artist should answer? that he uses X program and Y synth etc?

Well, yeah... Artists who are safe in their own style and skill set adn ability to push things into the future have no problem helping others share. As someone close to me once said, the real skills you can't learn, all the rest is a combination of experience and absorbing information. Everyone here is obviously wanting to learn something from others, otherwise we wouldn't be on this message forum!!

I would be interested to find out who in the above camp who is saying that learning these ideas to further your understanding of music is bad (wether it be immitation, or a stepping stone) are you releasing music? and has your music been described as 'cutting edge' or found to have been described as 'sounding like such and such'?

I for one was obsessed with a couple of artists when I first made music, mainly because their production was amazing. I sat there and wondered why I couldn't produce like that (had a $3k setup compared to a $3million setup after learning about things more!!) so, even though I wasn't trying to bite their style, I was trying to see where I was going wrong. It helped, my production shoot off in great and new directions (and incendently, releasing a record that all my heros loved, and had a hell of a time classifing).

SO maybe we all need to take a chill pill and allow everyone to ask the questions they need and want - nobody is going to answer if they don't need to, but it makes people feel slightly bitter about such an obviously angsty scene. We need more love, less getting our backs up.

All the great scenes throughout techno/minimal history have shared knowledge (Detroit, Berlin, Cologne, London....) and now with the internet, there's online communities who are helping each other.

There's no way you're going to sound like Marco Carola if you knew his production techniques, you'd simply do something different. Look at all his production buddies, they obviously have sat in with him making music, but do it their way. Moritz Von Oswald doesn't sound like Juan Atkins, yet they learnt a lot from each other, and helped cross pollinate the continents of electronic dance.

Nobody is saying that they want to make tracks LIKE Carola, but that they'd like to know what he's doing...maybe to get ideas on how to make a crunchy hihat sound, or nice reverb, or really compressed bass, or warm synths...

[steevio]

SO maybe we all need to take a chill pill and allow everyone to ask the questions they need and want - nobody is going to answer if they don't need to, but it makes people feel slightly bitter about such an obviously angsty scene. We need more love, less getting our backs up.

well said !!!

this isnt probably much help, but i used to be a fan of marco carola's a few years back, and all of his records i have, have the same characteristics of sounding very analogue, and like they were heavily pumped through an analogue compressor. dirty warm and phat !
ive no idea about what he's doing these days. if you want to get that sound, you dont necessarily need a room full of analogue gear, but a good quality analogue compressor and or EQ at the end of the chain will go a long way.