There’s a thread in another instrument forum where they post recommended reads, ranging from the academically technical to the thoughtful and reflective, relating to sound, music and the creative process. I don’t know if there would be interest here, but let’s see.
A New York Times article: “Dear Architects: Sound Matters.” It concerns the qualitative information and emotional sway architectural sound has on us all.
'Nearly half a century ago, the critic Reyner Banham wrote “Architecture of the Well-Tempered Environment,” in which he meditated on how heat, air, light and materials create habitats that variously influence our experience of buildings. He stressed the fact that such environmental considerations should be “naturally subsumed into the normal working methods of the architect.”
To Banham’s list can be added sound. We talk admiringly about green or energy-efficient buildings, with roof gardens, cross-ventilation and stairways that encourage residents to walk, because good design can aspire to improve public health. But we don’t talk nearly enough about how sound in these buildings, and in all the other spaces we design, make us feel.
Acoustics can act in deep, visceral ways, not unlike music (think of the sound of an empty house). And while it’s sometimes hard to pin down exactly how, there is often a correlation between the function of a place or an object and the sound we expect it to make.
So an expensive, solid wood door sounds better than an inexpensive hollow one, partly because its heavy clunk reassures us that the door is a true barrier, corresponding to the task it serves."
It’s also highly relevant to our instruments. Our sound makers also make sounds not separate from but in unison with those they’re intended to make. The sounds they make can reinforce qualitative merits and strengthen our affection for them: the satisfying muted click of the Push 2 buttons; the warm, muffled physicality of a piano’s wood, felt and tempered steel in an interplay hidden from view. The sounds they make can also further highlight unconsidered, poor design and mar our affection for them: the comically resonant (and cheap) buttons and keybed on Elektrons and the Moog Sub 37, respectively, turning them into a new sort of drum machine.
It’s worth contrasting how attentive to sound Apple is. When designing their mouse, they didn’t like the frictional sound it created when moved across the table. So they reconsidered materials and geometry to create a frictional timbre that embodied the qualitative traits and emotional meaning they desired.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the instrument makers most manifestly embracing and exalting design, Ableton and Teenage Engineering in particular, and Monome as well, also make instruments that sound palpably great for the player, not just the audience. These sounds don’t make it onto recordings, but they are an inherent part of our relationship with the instrument. We always hear it even if no one else does.
i like this article about how sounds are part of the user experience in cars. some sounds are artificial, especially in newer cars—for instance, a completely silent car would feel weird, as it wouldn’t give the user/driver any indication that the car is doing anything at all.
have you guys heard of neil harbisson ? he was born truly and fully colorblind (he can only see in black and white), so he had a camera attached to his skull that reads color frequencies in front of him and interprets them into different frequencies of sine waves! super cooooool
i like this article about how sounds are part of the user experience in cars. some sounds are artificial, especially in newer cars—for instance, a completely silent car would feel weird, as it wouldn't give the user/driver any indication that the car is doing anything at all.
That’s surprising how thorough they are in crafting the sounds of, seemingly, most every car part. I didn’t expect that, and certainly not from GM.
“FM Theory and Applications: By Musicians For Musicians” by John Chowning and Dave Bristol because I love FM Synths…I took to FM like a duck to water and still love all the DX Synths.
i like this article about how sounds are part of the user experience in cars. some sounds are artificial, especially in newer cars—for instance, a completely silent car would feel weird, as it wouldn't give the user/driver any indication that the car is doing anything at all.
That’s surprising how thorough they are in crafting the sounds of, seemingly, most every car part. I didn’t expect that, and certainly not from GM.
Interesting, I noticed and mentioned to my wife about the clicks and sounds of various everyday things. We went back to the UK for Xmas and I enjoyed the clunk of the doors and I especially enjoyed the pushing and sound of the plug sockets switch. Japan doesn’t have plug socket switches and if they did they would probably feel light and easy and sound effortless like there doors.
These sounds and the feel of them are very important. I’m looking forward to reading that article
On how disruption, frustration and the unfamiliar can be a powerful stimulus to creativity. It's obvious to some users of TE instruments; it's particularly at play for people who like to use the OP-1's Tape as a DAW-replacement.
The ableton published book is well worth a read, and not just for ableton users.
https://makingmusic.ableton.com/
I’ve heard great things about it before becoming an Ableton Live user recently. Now that I am one and have come to love it quite passionately, I plan on reading that after Live becomes more familiar.
@LibertineLush I’ve only just noticed this thread, another splendid idea! I’d heartily recommend the Ableton book. Its more about music and creativity in general than being directly tied with Ableton so can be read at any time regardless of what platform you are using.
A short design nerd note: the layout and font choices are excellent. Much like Ableton itself, presentation and content are on an equal footing.
A short design nerd note: the layout and font choices are excellent. Much like Ableton itself, presentation and content are on an equal footing.
Fellow design nerd confession: that book’s design is partly what got me interested. Then I perused the preview that’s on Ableton, and it seems a worthwhile read—thoughtful rather than merely technical.
Yea, Ableton’s total attentiveness to design engenders so much love from me. The software, the hardware, the packaging, the website, the promotional videos and now a book.
A short design nerd note: the layout and font choices are excellent. Much like Ableton itself, presentation and content are on an equal footing.
Fellow design nerd confession: that book’s design is partly what got me interested. Then I perused the preview that’s on Ableton, and it seems a worthwhile read—thoughtful rather than merely technical.
Yea, Ableton’s total attentiveness to design engenders so much love from me. The software, the hardware, the packaging, the website, the promotional videos and now a book.
I also had my head turned by the design of the book, clearly a weakness we share! You are quite correct that it is not a technical book in the strict sense. Very easy to dip in and out of and plenty for ideas and fresh approaches to be found in there.
I have a lot of admiration for Ableton’s aesthetics. They are not a playful as TE but certainly on an equal footing in my eyes. I had a few hours trying a friends Push 2 a few weeks ago and is a remarkable device. Best pads I’ve used by some distance and the display is on a par with the OP-1.
While the piece focuses primarily on creative droughts of writers, the findings appear relevant to all creative modes. Notably, the resolution to the drought is not more gear.
Some excerpts.
After conducting multiple interviews and spending years with writers suffering from creative problems, he discarded some of the theories that were popular at the time. Blocked writers didn’t “drain themselves dry” by exhausting their supply of inspiration. Nor did they suffer from a lack of external motivation (the “landlord” theory, according to which writing stops the moment the rent is paid). They didn’t lack talent, they weren’t “plain lazy,” and they weren’t simply bored.
…
There are some experiences that almost all blocked writers have in common… They were less likely to daydream in constructive fashion—or to dream, period.
…
The duo proposed a simple intervention: exercises in directed mental imagery. While some of the blocked writers met in groups to discuss their difficulties, Barrios and Singer asked others to participate in a systematic protocol designed to walk them through the production of colorful mental images. These writers would sit in a dim, quiet room and contemplate a series of ten prompts asking them to produce and then describe dream-like creations. They might, for example, “visualize” a piece of music, or a specific setting in nature. Afterward, they would visualize something from their current projects, and then generate a “dreamlike experience” based on that project…
It proved relatively successful… In multiple cases, the exercises led, over time, to the alleviation of writer’s block—even in the absence of therapy. Bergler, it seems, was partly right: emotional blockages did exist. But he was wrong to assume that, in order to move past them creatively, writers needed to address their emotional lives. In fact, the process could go the other way. Addressing the creative elements alone appeared to translate into an alleviation of the emotional symptoms that were thought to have caused the block in the first place, decreasing anxiety and increasing self-confidence and motivation. Therapy didn’t unblock creativity; creative training worked as a form of therapy.
…
That, in the end, seems to be the main message of research into writer’s block: It’s useful to escape from external and internal judgment—by writing, for instance, in a dream diary, which you know will never be read—even if it’s only for a brief period. Such escapes allow writers to find comfort in the face of uncertainty; they give writers’ minds the freedom to imagine, even if the things they imagine seem ludicrous, unimportant, and unrelated to any writing project.
I like that @LiberineLush ,all that you’ve picked up on there.
Dreams yes ,very important and you inspired me of an old memory of music dreamed, yet not yet realised to reality.
Also therapy and meditation is another favorite subject ,so yes I will try more dreamy visualisation about tunes already made.
The Manual is seriously outdated as there’s nothing about the Internet there. Where it remains as fresh as ever, is if you think of the concept of having someone in charge of plugging the content you’ve made as directly translatable to online; the concept of bending reality, especially financial reality, fake-it-till-you-make-it way of doing things. There’s no element of surprise to any of it today. I doubt a repeat experiment would work.
The KLF are famous for being artists rather than just for their music. The Manual is the secondary output of an art performance - making a fake number one hit. I last held a copy in my hands at a bookshop on Tottenham Court Road in London, and should have bought it for £10 it cost, but I didn’t. Indeed, the entire text is online. Bill Drummond has another book called “45” which might be worth reading for entertainment…
