The difference between music - Hardcore Techno, to be more specific - that is listened to at home, or experienced at a party.
Hardsequencer - Bass Experience
It is often forgotten that when you look at the human history of music, "recorded music" has only existed for a fleeting moment so far. When Beethoven, Bach, or Mozart composed their pieces, they were not uploaded on social media or video sites for "easy playback" - if someone, or rather, an audience wanted to hear these, they had to go to a performance at a concert or opera house, or similar occasions.
These compositions existed as *performances*, not as frozen, recorded things that would always sound the same and that you could rewind any time.
Juggernaut - Beat Go Booooom
But even when gramophone and vinyl recordings existed, the focus still stayed on performed, "live" music, in a jazz club, and later in rock venues.
Bands like the Rolling Stones stated that their main focus was on performing music, not recording music. It was not unusual that famous rock and pop bands spent all the year on touring or preparing the next tour, and only rarely, sometimes, in between they used a few weeks in the studio to record the songs they played on these tours, for an album or single releases, only to get quickly back onto the circuit.
According to Julee Cruise (of "Twin Peaks" fame), most of the singers she met in her life disliked recording in the studio, as opposed to vocalizing live at a club or concert.
Delta 9 - Speaker Worship
Now let's fast forward to the transitional time between the 80s and 90s decade, when the techno and hardcore sounds had their formative phase.
Because this divide played an important role in this period, too.
To be more exact, the early techno, house, acid, breakbeat, hardcore and gabber records were produced with the club and squat experience in mind - and the main focus was not on the "listeners at home".
This has been stated and confirmed by some very well known producers of techno, rave, and hardcore, and by people who were around "back in the days", too.
Even in 1995, before I went fully into the Hardcore scene, the more "softy" Rave and Trance fans that I knew usually had the same response when I inquired about Gabber and Hardcore sounds: "very good in a club, not so good to listen to at home".
T-Bone Castro - Base DJ
But what exactly *is* the difference between the "live / club" sound and the sound "at home"?
There are *plenty* of differences.
Let's get first into the "purely sonic" ones:
1. On a loud sound system in a club, squat, or elsewhere, you not merely *hear* the music, you *feel* it. I'd say at a party, your ears play only a 10% role or less when it comes to experiencing the sound. The rest is "heard", or rather, felt, by the whole of your body, from your toes to the uppermost hairs on your head.
Evil Force - It Started With A Bass (live)
People who never experienced it might underestimate how powerful sound-waves can get. There's the 'story' that before "early hardcore techno" DJ Tanith performed in Berlin in the early 90s, he made sure to set up the sound system to such a volume that each bass hit would "swipe the foam off the top of a glass of beer" (probably a typically German thing?).
Either way, I experienced bass speakers where each beat created a literal (small) gust of wind in the squat basement.
The vibrations can move objects from tables, rattle windows, or literally "drop the lime" from the ceiling - this can actually hinder the performance of the DJ when things on the stage suddenly start to move around on their own.
As mentioned, this is also felt in various parts of the body. A gabber track at max volume creates a strange sensation in your stomach and intestines that I sometimes describe as a "raising column of fire". I don't know if it's the same for everybody, but the frequencies also highly resonated in my throat area. This made me feel like I was choked by the music, which added to the darkness and brutality of the tracks.
Your skull vibrates too, of course.
And there are other parts that... well, like a guy I knew once said: "Damn, these bass frequencies kept shaking my balls around, it was really unreal." (I assume it can be felt in the counter-parts of various other genders, too).
Hardsequencer - Sound Vibrations
2. Because of this, the frequency ranges, the spectral landscape, completely changes. As it's mostly the bass, the low ends, that effect the body, these suddenly become much more important than during a "home session".
And frequencies that are below the audible range, that are literally invisible (or inaudible) at "home listening", are suddenly very prominent on the dancefloor.
Q-Tex - Get On The Floor
3. A friend remarked "so, in a sense, the speakers in a club add to the *distortion chain* of the track".
True, but it is even more complex.
Most speakers do distort the sound, but this analogue, "club" distortion sounds different to plugins you can use on your laptop.
Plus, not just distortion is added, but also "reverberation" (due to the size and shape of the location) and other complicated "effects".
This is the reason early techno records often sound quite "dry" and minimal in their instrumentation; Because the producers were aware that the "club experience" fills up the track with distortion, reverb, and other things.
Superpower - S.T.R.O.B.E.
Things *feel* different in a club or squat.
Bass-lines of Acid, Trance (or Acidcore and Trancecore) feel quite hypnotic and en-trancing, right?
But hearing these at a party multiplies this effect by a thousand times!
It's like they are of a whole different matter suddenly.
Generally, "monotony" and slow changes can do miracles in an event setting.
People have complained that "drums-only" tracks such as Pitch-hiker would be a bit dull.
Well, I tell you, listen to them at a party, and you will feel their true magic.
8 A.M. - The Fog Track
There are also other factors that add into this transfigured sound experience. Fog, darkness, strobes, the size of the room (squat basements are best in my opinion), the size of the crowd, their 'entranced' state... and so on.
So, let's come to a conclusion.
a) Techno and Hardcore tracks can sound *completely* changed when "dropped" at a happening.
b) The experience is totally different.
c) If you never felt this, you are missing out.
d) The majority of Gabber producers in the 90s produced for the club experience, not for your home.
e) Take that into account when listening to older records
f) And you might take this into account when aiming to produce new banger hardcore sounds!
And with this, I leave you into the night... a night at a rave, with blasting beats, until 10 am and beyond.
Temper Tantrum - Darkness Eternal
