For those interested, here is another entry in our series of features on the topic of music production.
This one was supplied to us by Low Entropy.
It is about a "Doomcore" tracks with a rather strange production technique... but read about it for yourselves...
Hello,
A new vinyl by me has been released by a label out of the UK (right in time for x-mas) and, continuing with my producer's diary, I want to talk a bit about the production process.
It's two tracks (one for each side ;-) and track A - "Enter Dimension" - uses a production technique I call "strange loops".
I didn't invent this one, far from it.
It goes back to a segment I saw on TV, a feature about Jean Michel Jarre on the french-german "arte" program.
Jarre made a very interesting statement, and used a metaphor:
People like to sit at the beach, and watch the ocean waves roll by, and they can do this for hours.
Yet if you put a human in a room, record one wave and one wave only with a camera, and then loop this recording back for hours, this human for sure would not enjoy this experience at all.
So why is it unbearable to watch a recorded video of an ocean wave on a loop - but pleasurable to watch ocean waves at the beach for a long time?
In both cases, you are looking at waves roll by, for hours. Where is the difference?
Jarre explained that, obviously, with the ocean waves, there is always a slight variation in the wave, and in what you see.
So, it is possible, even enjoyable, for a human to watch 100s (or 1000s) of waves pass by - as long as there is a variation, slight changes in what you see and behold.
Jarre then explained that's what made the sound of his early recordings special - good sequencers were not around for him to use in the 70s, so he played all loops by hand. The same notes, over and over (and over) again.
And because he is a human, and not a machine, and the synths probably were not as advanced either, these loops were not perfect, or even "faulty" in the eye (or rather ear) of today's engineers.
He never hit the same notes exactly right and like those of the loop that preceded the one he was playing.
But to him, these "imperfect loops" are better than the technical perfection of today.
So let's leave Jarre for now (good-bye!) and let's get back to "my" strange loops.
The statement inspired me, and I thought if this technique could be used for more things than "imperfect timings".
I tried to build on the following concept:
To have a looped melody, sound, rhythm, whatever...
And to let it loop for a long time.
But using ways to slightly modulate, change, morph, twist that loop.
So that no loop ever sounds *quite* like the one before, or the one after, or any other loop in this... loop of loops.
And I did not want to use "technical imperfection" for this.
So in the first track, the main melody is a loop. And it runs for a long time.
But. It constantly changes throughout the track.
And not just the cut-off frequency. The waveform itself changes from a sawtooth to... other things.
The melody gets modulated, too. And lots of other changes.
These changes are subtle, most of the time. But also harsh.
So, yeah. That is the "strange loop" technique. I did not invent this, that's for sure, I don't want to claim it. I just want to talk about it because I think.... it's a *quite* interesting technique.
Applying it to melodies is one thing. But it could also be applied to drum loops, vocals, any other sounds.
And remember: the special ingredience is to not just modulate *one* thing (like the frequency). But to apply several modulations on the same loop.
And that the loop is never quite the same.
Enjoy, and bon appétit!
You can listen to the tracks here: https://demonicwavs.bandcamp.com/album/low-entropy-enter-dimension
Or read my other "producer's diary" entries here
We will try to bring you more production diary entries by various producers in the future.
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