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Randomness In Music?
 

offline billabongbill from Dublin (Ireland) on 2003-04-06 11:35 [#00635079]
Points: 151 Status: Regular



I was wondering how you guys felt about the idea of putting
random elements into your tracks.

I personally love the idea of it. I don't just mean "set
everything to random, press play" but just having maybe one
instrument going off in its own little world :)


 

offline Ophecks from Nova Scotia (Canada) on 2003-04-06 11:47 [#00635096]
Points: 19190 Status: Moderator | Show recordbag



Captain Beefheart- Trout Mask Replica

So random and nonsensical, that it makes perfect sense.


 

offline titsworth from Washington, DC (United States) on 2003-04-06 11:47 [#00635098]
Points: 14550 Status: Lurker



pastiche is hardly random... don't bomb when you're a bong


 

offline billabongbill from Dublin (Ireland) on 2003-04-06 11:48 [#00635099]
Points: 151 Status: Regular



eh?



 

offline TonePu5her from lincoln !UK! (United Kingdom) on 2003-04-06 11:51 [#00635108]
Points: 3640 Status: Regular



Yeah I offten just record randommess.

Some of it makes sense...


 

offline xigoo from United Kingdom on 2003-04-06 11:52 [#00635110]
Points: 128 Status: Lurker | Followup to billabongbill: #00635079



autechre seem to make a good living by using this technique


 

offline billabongbill from Dublin (Ireland) on 2003-04-06 11:53 [#00635114]
Points: 151 Status: Regular



Dont let them hear ya say that :)

I remember an interview in which one of the lads from AE
gets well pissed of with a journalist who implied that they
used randomness in their tracks.... or something


 

offline steve mcqueen from caerdydd (United Kingdom) on 2003-04-06 12:06 [#00635133]
Points: 6563 Status: Regular



yeah they get on their high horses about the fact that
nothing really is random, just chaotic, or summink.


 

offline w M w from London (United Kingdom) on 2003-04-06 13:25 [#00635285]
Points: 21452 Status: Lurker



I love random stuff. Often the correct word is pseudorandom,
because nothing is really RANDOM. I like stuff that is like
nature.


 

offline Hapie from Edmonton (Canada) on 2003-04-06 13:28 [#00635292]
Points: 67 Status: Regular



random is fun, and it can sound really good, but, at the
same time, it can make u wanna rip ur eyes out, but either
way, its all good!


 

offline jenf from Toronto (Canada) on 2003-04-06 13:39 [#00635324]
Points: 1062 Status: Lurker



randomness as in 'seemingly unpredictable' by the untrained
ear of the listener makes sense i guess - but arguably
anyone can make 'sense' and 'order' out of something that
sounds random. once you get used to a song, or a noise, or
anything, it becomes familiar, and then how can anyone tell
you that it is random anymore, especially if you know what
it will do? :) then it becomes predictable, right? and if
it's predictable, it can't be random!


 

offline Bob Mcbob on 2003-04-06 14:01 [#00635361]
Points: 9939 Status: Regular | Followup to jenf: #00635324



a random sequence of events repeated is not random,
repeating totally negates the randomness!


 

offline kybernetik from neo-ume (Sweden) on 2003-04-06 14:24 [#00635397]
Points: 31 Status: Lurker



i like to, for example, find interesting lines in fractals,
loop them, use as a rhytm or to control something or
whatever.



 

offline ifkardo from 785.8 mb of radio babylon (Equatorial Guinea) on 2003-04-06 14:30 [#00635408]
Points: 1135 Status: Lurker



ummm, yeah this is great, and of coursed perfected (so to
speak) by john cage... i.e. "fourteen"


 

offline jenf from Toronto (Canada) on 2003-04-06 14:33 [#00635414]
Points: 1062 Status: Lurker | Followup to Bob Mcbob: #00635361



i think you misunderstood what i said - the supposed random
sequence of events you present, let's say, in a song, is
kept in that structure, right?
so if you were to listen to that song over and over, then
the random aspect within the song becomes predictable.
therefore, yes, i agree with you that repeating negates the
randomness, and that is why i suggested that the 'random
elements' in someone's track isn't really random at all,
after more than 1 play.


 

offline jenf from Toronto (Canada) on 2003-04-06 14:34 [#00635418]
Points: 1062 Status: Lurker



and to add to that, the only way a song could be perceived
as random to the listener, is if it is only played once and
no more, or if the song somehow changes itself each time.


 

offline kybernetik from neo-ume (Sweden) on 2003-04-06 14:35 [#00635421]
Points: 31 Status: Lurker



it's easy to make a song that's different every time, too
bad you can't do it on cd :)


 

offline ifkardo from 785.8 mb of radio babylon (Equatorial Guinea) on 2003-04-06 14:37 [#00635426]
Points: 1135 Status: Lurker



oohhk, umm i don't think that was directed to me, but i
agree... brain eno did this too, but with like fifty
different cd players for a gallery exhibition.... sick, no
play would ever be the same... in "fourteen" the musicians
were given shhet music with "notes" and a variable amount of
time in which to play the notes for (duration) and a broad
time in which to play the notes...


 

offline ifkardo from 785.8 mb of radio babylon (Equatorial Guinea) on 2003-04-06 14:40 [#00635432]
Points: 1135 Status: Lurker



i believe however that the term cage used was "chance", not
random... in accrodance with the zen buddhist philosophy of
life


 

offline Junktion from Northern Jutland (Denmark) on 2003-04-06 14:46 [#00635447]
Points: 9713 Status: Lurker



"I wouldn't mind if everyone had to use the same three
tools to make music because ultimately it's down to your
imagination"
- Sean Booth, Autechre

I think this also speaks for randomness


 

offline sadist from the dark side of the moon on 2003-04-06 14:49 [#00635454]
Points: 8670 Status: Lurker | Followup to w M w: #00635285



randomness in computer software will never be nature.
i like randomness, i use fruity but i use the random option
only because i'm to lazy to make the stuff for myselfs


 

offline Junktion from Northern Jutland (Denmark) on 2003-04-06 14:52 [#00635458]
Points: 9713 Status: Lurker | Followup to sadist: #00635454



it doesnt matter. If you hear something in random sounds you
want to use, if definately has a reason. Every reason is
your own choice, so what you end up with is still created
from your minds work.


 

offline Bob Mcbob on 2003-04-06 14:56 [#00635463]
Points: 9939 Status: Regular



i thought some ae is kinda random...


 

offline uzim on 2004-06-10 08:17 [#01232808]
Points: 17716 Status: Lurker



what about this "CD"?

(it is made out of logarithms but since it claims to be
"always different", it must have random elements in it...)


 

offline uzim on 2004-06-10 08:20 [#01232816]
Points: 17716 Status: Lurker



and this, from the liner notes of a Nerve Net Noise CD,
"Meteor Circuit" (i don't have it yet but i'm thinking of
getting it!):

"At first, Nerve Net Noise enjoyed pure sound. These
days, we try to think about music. We aspire to create music
that is between played and not-played, between controlled
and uncontrolled. We feel that consciously performed music
can have too much evidence of human planning. But we also
dislike random music that displays no evidence of human
planning at all. We try to find a satisfying middle area
with our albums."


(they make their own synthesizers, set them up to make the
sounds they want and let them play, only twiddling a bit
from to time... from what i understood at least)


 

offline Komakino from Tan-giers USSR (Russia) on 2004-06-10 10:59 [#01233088]
Points: 682 Status: Lurker



"Captain Beefheart- Trout Mask Replica"

Trout Mask isn't random.. everything you hear on that has
been perfectly put together, rehearsed and synched over a
six month period.


 

offline clint from Silencio... (United Kingdom) on 2004-06-10 15:14 [#01233518]
Points: 3447 Status: Lurker



Hmm music can't really be truly random... as music is the
organisation of noise. :)


 

offline ecnadniarb on 2004-06-10 16:34 [#01233660]
Points: 24805 Status: Lurker | Show recordbag



People type some mad nonsense on this board. :)


 

offline mappatazee from ¨y¨z¨| (Burkina Faso) on 2004-06-10 16:39 [#01233667]
Points: 14294 Status: Lurker



The only randomness in music is white noise.

Just because a beat is skewed doesn't make it random. Just
because there are many dissonant things going on at once
doesn't make it random. Chaotic, but not random.


 

offline hevquip from megagram dusk sect (United States) on 2004-06-10 17:10 [#01233724]
Points: 3379 Status: Regular



randomness is only achieved through the concept of infinity.


 


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