Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Books for understanding the basics of electronic music

roachboy · 02-17-2006, 07:28 AM

summoned from the aether i am.

if you are using fruity loops, i assume that you are oriented toward pop forms...and that you're probably interested in pushing into other types of laptop music and not moving into areas like circuit bending....and are not necessarily interested in doing this stuff live. (this last one tends to operate as the big divide between approaches---those who are oriented toward doing this stuff live have quite different requirements from those who see electronic music as a studio form.---i know much more about types of processing/electronic music that are geared toward performance than about the possibilities for studio/bedroom work)

btw: personally, i am interested in electronic stuff, but i dont do all that much processing. but i have been playing with folk who do various types of electronics for a few years and have learned an enormous amount from them, including lots and lots of deviant ways to think about what you can make an acoustic piano do.

books, then:

first off, on traditional music theory: it is not necessarily useful in this context. what i have found useful for thinking about composition in this context pretty much begins with john cage, and moves more into modes of organization rather than composition in any traditional sense---structuring situations rather than determining outcomes, as micheal nyman sez.

aiden evans' book "sound ideas: music machines and experience" is pretty good in that it will take you from processing into the basic language of synthesis---a primer in acoustics, basic old-school synth terminologies, etc.

curtis road's book "microsound" is really quite good--it is mostly on granular synthesis (workng with sound elements of around 1/10 second or less)--it is fairly obsessive (most are)--but upside of moving into a more granular approach is that you get to use the platforms you are used to but can build your own sounds from found/already existing materials. the downside is the amount of work it takes to make a minute.
road's book is entirely about computer processing, and uses the ways that an audio platform can let you magnify time intervals as a point of departure.

if you are looking to shift more than just your platform, maybe check out other ways of considering/doing electronic music and how the various types of music connect together (when they do) i think daniel warner and christoph cox's collection "audio culture" is a good place to start.

past that--i could recommend a ton of other books, but i would prefer to get a bt more information about what kind of music you are doing and where you would like to head.

o yes: listen to everything. get some musique concrete, get some morton subotnik, some tape music---track down releases from elaine radigue---or phill niblock or lamonte young----aki onda or boston sound collective---shalabi effect is doing qutie interesting stuff involving mixing live improvisation and layers of processing (they take a collective approach to processing, which is kinda cool)---raster-noton or mego records---christian marclay (a turntablist who will, i expect, blow your mind)---listen to everything....

edgar varese was right--this music is only secondarily about the technology--it is mostly about the person who is using it.

there are some good elists on electronic music:
microsound
phonography
etc. (there are others--i am on these lists)

advantage of lists: there are lots of folk donig newer types/variants that are not on the popradar, but which are often really cool...tons of interesting phonography out there, for example) downside: there is no agreement about how to think about/evaluate musc, whether what matters is the complexity of the processing or the coolness of outcomes. so you will tend to get mutually exclusive responses to whatever stuff you decide to posts to these lists of your own.

microsound has a wiki that is worth checking out--open source platforms/patches, links to lots of artists/netlabels, etc.

02-17-2006, 07:28 AM	#7 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	summoned from the aether i am. if you are using fruity loops, i assume that you are oriented toward pop forms...and that you're probably interested in pushing into other types of laptop music and not moving into areas like circuit bending....and are not necessarily interested in doing this stuff live. (this last one tends to operate as the big divide between approaches---those who are oriented toward doing this stuff live have quite different requirements from those who see electronic music as a studio form.---i know much more about types of processing/electronic music that are geared toward performance than about the possibilities for studio/bedroom work) btw: personally, i am interested in electronic stuff, but i dont do all that much processing. but i have been playing with folk who do various types of electronics for a few years and have learned an enormous amount from them, including lots and lots of deviant ways to think about what you can make an acoustic piano do. books, then: first off, on traditional music theory: it is not necessarily useful in this context. what i have found useful for thinking about composition in this context pretty much begins with john cage, and moves more into modes of organization rather than composition in any traditional sense---structuring situations rather than determining outcomes, as micheal nyman sez. aiden evans' book "sound ideas: music machines and experience" is pretty good in that it will take you from processing into the basic language of synthesis---a primer in acoustics, basic old-school synth terminologies, etc. curtis road's book "microsound" is really quite good--it is mostly on granular synthesis (workng with sound elements of around 1/10 second or less)--it is fairly obsessive (most are)--but upside of moving into a more granular approach is that you get to use the platforms you are used to but can build your own sounds from found/already existing materials. the downside is the amount of work it takes to make a minute. road's book is entirely about computer processing, and uses the ways that an audio platform can let you magnify time intervals as a point of departure. if you are looking to shift more than just your platform, maybe check out other ways of considering/doing electronic music and how the various types of music connect together (when they do) i think daniel warner and christoph cox's collection "audio culture" is a good place to start. past that--i could recommend a ton of other books, but i would prefer to get a bt more information about what kind of music you are doing and where you would like to head. o yes: listen to everything. get some musique concrete, get some morton subotnik, some tape music---track down releases from elaine radigue---or phill niblock or lamonte young----aki onda or boston sound collective---shalabi effect is doing qutie interesting stuff involving mixing live improvisation and layers of processing (they take a collective approach to processing, which is kinda cool)---raster-noton or mego records---christian marclay (a turntablist who will, i expect, blow your mind)---listen to everything.... edgar varese was right--this music is only secondarily about the technology--it is mostly about the person who is using it. there are some good elists on electronic music: microsound phonography etc. (there are others--i am on these lists) advantage of lists: there are lots of folk donig newer types/variants that are not on the popradar, but which are often really cool...tons of interesting phonography out there, for example) downside: there is no agreement about how to think about/evaluate musc, whether what matters is the complexity of the processing or the coolness of outcomes. so you will tend to get mutually exclusive responses to whatever stuff you decide to posts to these lists of your own. microsound has a wiki that is worth checking out--open source platforms/patches, links to lots of artists/netlabels, etc. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 02-17-2006 at 07:33 AM..