I’ve thought about recording my own samples since I started, what kind of tools do I need? A recorder of some sorts ofc, but would my phone do? bear in mind it’s a £50 phone.
Yeah I have other creative pursuits (art/poetry etc) but IDK nothing is quite like making music
No, an iPhone with an external mic would work but probably not a 50 quid one.
Digital recorders are probably the best in terms of getting clean sounds - there’s a Tascam out there that sells for $100 US.
After that, MiniDiscs are actually really good for this and you can probably get a decent used one cheap these days.
Tape is v noisy but can still work if it’s a decent model.
I’m not that desperate.
Just would’ve liked to have done it (maybe the studio I’ve started a might have something?)
listen to the sound design when the train goes by here, sampling from this movie from a bluray rip, its fucking fantastic (also one of my fav movies of all time, extremely underrated imo)
(I also have no clue what the point of this youtube upload is lol, just the only one I could find with this moment in it)
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TBH you could easily adopt the overall structure of the scene - approach, imminence, blurred passage, departure, and even end chatter maybe, and then recombinants of those phases, employing cut-up or collage or whatever - as a readymade blueprint for a song structure. If you plug various samples from that scene into this adopted framework it becomes recursive and more resonant I think.
Tbf maybe samples recorded on a 50 quid phone would sound grainy and cool
I made some cool recordings with my old Nokia I had a much better mic than my smartphone…
Those sounds were off that shitty phone
1 BigUp
hmm, that sounds like a very very fun experiment, I feel a good vibe from the idea. Will have to think that over a little more, im intrigued though.
for now im just relishing in sampling heaven and the overall soundtrack for this movie is fuckin ridiculous. Have you seen Runaway Train before?
found another shoddy youtube ting showcasing some other moments, fuck this move is good.
peep those lion roar sound fx put to good use, I use those myself pretty often haha
dont watch this if you’ve not seen the flick, but damn
movie so dense with sound samples and vocals as well
1 BigUp
Have not seen Runaway Train yet. Only available as an $8 rental on iTunes - you have a copy?
PS: been playing around with that Backmask plug. Could see it coming in handy - like so many other effects, probably “less is more” works best.
Yeah I’ll hook ya up next time youre over
Still got my Tascam DA-30 MKII 
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Haha, nice one!
I don’t really miss those days of mixing down to DAT. I do miss the days of the live hardware mixdowns with the mixing board Dub style.
I’m trying to recreate that with MIDI controllers that I’m using with my DAW. I am eyeing this mainly for 60mm faders but also for all of the knobs and buttons.
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You know when you write a melody and you’re like 99% sure you’ve already heard it somewhere before but have no clue where?
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Every melody i do lol
Copped this from a nerdy music book I’m reading:
“Resist the teleological appropriation of sound…”
Meaning:
Not every sound has to “mean” something.
Obv at first but it can get deep if you ponder…
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What does that mean tho haha
In the context of Western traditional music mainly, where a lot of music is construed to be “symbolic” of ideas, principles, forces, feelings/moods, etc.
In a semiotic sense the sounds many choose are also “symbolic” of vibes, tropes, archetypes, signifiers. We gravitate toward certain themes like outlaws and badmen in general so their signifiers (trap houses and 808s, samples of violence and gunplay) get picked up - like with trap houses, Trap was originally drug den beats in the South - some of the worst places in America tbh. How to explain some guy in Sweden who makes trap and calls his white homies “My n***a” and shit lol?
So: if we consciously avoid associations, even tenuous ones, between sounds and meanings of any sort - social, visual, linguistic, anything - and let sounds be sounds on their own… a deeper appreciation and originality might result.
[/pretentious wordwank]
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I thought this interview was pretty good. I have some of his records.
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Is this being considered as an actual thing to do, or more of a thought experiment? Seems like it’d be impossible in a way since our brains are so good at making connections. It does kinda of remind me when I first started producing though. Wasn’t very knowledgeable about my music history esp with electronic music. No clue about classic sounds (808, acid etc). Was just doing was felt right.
dropping this here:
1 BigUp