When your partner

 

Disquiet Junto 0679 Ice Age

It's a new year, and we start it just like we have every year since the very start of the Disquiet Junto, back in January 2012: "Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something of it."

This year I've mixed together tracks from the previous years and it was surprising the variety of styles and instruments.

Can a recording contract

naviarhaiku573 – Year’s end

This haiku shared by Naviar Records led me to revisit a process from previous years.

I sampled my daily writing practise, then quickly recorded a reading to go with a piece of music.

The words are below, since you can't really hear them:

Clear a space for truth

put demons on the table 

we all have monsters
The familiar

our lived experiences 

we never escape
Preoccupation

knowing unmentionables 

hiding maligned forms
In these descriptions

old paraphernalia 

wrestling for new life
Anchored ideas

peppered onto bathroom walls 

I read the comments
My steps unbalanced

finding a new way forward 

these steep learning curves
Personal essays

images that resonate 

using metaphors
It leaves me beaten

along branches of wisdom 

stick with what I know
Dulled by the moment

anything is possible 

love profound boredom
Title on the door

master procrastinator 

holds me to account
I don’t play tennis  

when the ball is in my court 

I’m hitting it back
The role I’ve taken

allowed to fully occupy 

where I’m meant to be
Sometimes giving up

letting loose parts of myself 

and it’s positive
I’ve backed myself in

wet paint around the corners 

I’ll spend some time here
A love of the thing

not really a career 

expert of nothing
Enjoy the journey 

it’s different for everyone
like so much guidance



interpretations vary 

so I guess words will travel
Robust narratives

explaining our lives away 

it’s not magical
Without little words

sensibly made into thoughts 

would I know myself
Finding small spaces

unused outlooks on the day 

to make a window
My opacity

hiding in the everyday 

beliefs are porous
We can save those gifts

people don't want those insights

lies are easier
We hold opinions

underestimate vastly 

how truths destroy us
That crushing feeling

to hold a sensitive heart

wishing it weren’t mine
Something in my chest
resonates with emotion
reciting your words 
It’s the easy thing

seeing only what I know 

can you really blame me?
A slippery slope
I can go down a wormhole
lose myself a while 
These are summaries
so when revisiting them
I'll find my own words 
Thinking of my poems
as conversation partners
go let them mingle 
We sometimes struggle
as our own brand of magic
fails to charm ourselves 
Sometimes I’ll look back

some will say I’m different 

but it’s just I’ve grown
Through a world of sound

the only filter I have 

my discerning ear
Scanning the dial

your radio call signal 

I’m the antenna 

It seems obvious

that lozenge rhymes with orange 

but maybe that’s me

Synthetic synthesisers

Readers will know that I'm predisposed to write about musical instruments, so I want to share a few thoughts that draw trends in consumer culture by looking at a product category that I like.

In this case, synthesisers.

There are three broad ideas to identify: cloud-based products, cheap knock-offs and declining quality among established brands.

The first concerns those subscription-based services one can access online and you might be surprised that synthesisers are a thing to rent in your internet browser.

My favourite recent commentator about synthesisers is Florian Pilz and he says that cloud instruments are a bad idea, so that's good enough for me because I love buying good musical gear.

 

A benefit of having physical hardware is having something to sell when the good gear is not as good as you hoped it to be.

It's getting harder to find the good stuff among all the Bad Gear that Florian reviews among the jokes he doesn't make about Uli Behringer, whose company has been making cheap versions of classic and contemporary synthesisers and drum machines.

Behringer is notoriously litigious but has been successful in making new models of popular secondhand gear, some of which is stuff like the synths that a company like Roland rents in their cloud subscription.

For many consumers Behringer is the answer to the question why Roland aren't selling versions of the classic TR-909 and TB-303 machines.

 

Critics have quoted the weirdly translated words of Roland's CEO that the company "doesn't chase ghosts" as a way of explaining that they've moved on, but others point out that the engineers who designed analogue intruments have probably all retired.

I have Roland's "Boutique" range and also Behringer's colourful copies of these XOX-boxes that gave rise to genres like Acid and Techno, as well as all the subgenres that emerged under them.

Given how those musical styles developed beyond the scope of Roland imagining these little machines to play basslines and drums, it shouldn't be a surprise that the company hasn't been able to read the marketplace.

It's said that the 909 drum machine was discontinued before it found a role in the rave revolution.

However, what surprises me is how often I reach for the Behringer models, despite them being cheaper and sounding rougher.

So I think Behringer is providing a great service for people who want to make electronic music and who doesn't? I think it was Uwe Schmidt who described techno as modern folk music.

One of the key observations that Pilz makes in the Bad Gear episode above is that Roland probably doesn't care too much about these products.

He estimates they might be less than 10% of Roland's business, but it was Florian's comparison with Nestle that really drove home an analogy for those who aren't analogue synth lovers.

This showed Roland's synths and drum machines are about as significant to their corporate reporting as chocolate is to Nestle.

The company that makes Cadbury is clearly making a different product to the confectionery that I ate in previous decades, which goes some way to explain why I still have my TR-707 as it hasn't had a reissue or imitation yet.

In conclusion I realise the declining brands are a factor in the decision of Roland to make software imitations for the cloud and watch as other companies make the products that consumers want to buy.

It leads me to wonder what other celebrated brands are letting their legacy and IP go to waste?

The desire is strong to have those celebrated sounds in one's home studio, although perhaps it's better for musical innovation if one has to search further afield for the potency they once showed.