"Playing the Synthesizer"

• Lolicon wrote on 2012-10-31 08:26
  Is it legit?
  
  My friend always brags about how he can play the synthesizer. I think its a little iffy. I asked him about basic music theory (that I would know because I'm Asian), and he couldn't answer any of my questions. He literally doesn't know anything about music theory.
  I feel like its like dubstep. I really don't like calling it music, but at the same time, I like the sound of it. Like mayonnaise, a MacBook Pro is not an instrument. Its used to make sounds that sound good together, but its not an instrument.
• Kanam wrote on 2012-10-31 14:09
  If Dubstep isn't music then what is it? A collection of sound with a beat? Sounds like music to me. (music that I don't like but music nonetheless)
  
  Sure your friend might not understand basic music theory but if he can produce beat/sound with a synthesizer than so be it. We're in an age where technology is a big thing so I believe it's fair to recognize a synthesizer as a kind of "instrument" but that's just my opinion.
  
  By the way unless you're keeping part of that convo, I don't recall any part of it where your friend said he knew music theory. So you asking him about music theory is silly. The only thing he's bragging about is being able to play synthesizer which happen to be true? So in this case it is legit.
• Kueh wrote on 2012-10-31 14:36
  So what if a musician doesn't know about music theory?
  
  Music isn't a theory, it's something you can hear and feel. People with a vast sum of knowledge on music theory can be unable to produce nice music just as people with little knowledge of music theory can produce beautiful symphonies.
  
  You think the classical composers knew about music theory?
• Ricewagon wrote on 2012-10-31 15:52
  Yes it's definitely legit!
  
  Synthesizers require a different set of knowledge from the world of music, but not the kind of music theory you're thinking of. To create music with synthesizers you'll need to know about the different types of sound wave types, oscillators, different forms of synthesis (additive and subtractive), and different types of filter envelopes. An example of this would be creating your own MIDI instrument sound. Getting a sine wave, choosing which type of form of synthesis you want and then manipulating the filter envelopes which are the Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release (ASDR).
  
  Oh and trust me, dubstep takes a lot of skill to create. Seriously. Who ever can make it without their brain exploding deserves a lot of respect.
  
  (or you can just skip everything and use pre made sounds and mess with with stuff randomly LOL.)
• TLCBonaparte wrote on 2012-10-31 16:43
  [video=youtube;cnsq9XtpmEk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnsq9XtpmEk[/video]
• Sumpfkraut wrote on 2012-10-31 22:25

  Quote from Kueh;972999:

  So what if a musician doesn't know about music theory?
  
  Music isn't a theory, it's something you can hear and feel. People with a vast sum of knowledge on music theory can be unable to produce nice music just as people with little knowledge of music theory can produce beautiful symphonies.
  
  You think the classical composers knew about music theory?

  
  I'm fairly sure pretty much all of those Classical composers who attained enough fame to still be heard knew about things like contrapunctus, diatonic scale, dynamics, major and minor scales, movement sequence, etc.
  
  Music creation is a highly technical craft, particularly Classical music. Instrumentalists or even singers may be easily able to come by without music theory of course, at least if they're folklorists or even pop musicians, but producing a sequence of tones that sounds sorta right to you is a bit easier than writing the Ring of the Nibelungs, the "Symphony of a Thousand" or The Art of The Fugue. Even seemingly nonsensical Modernist music such as some works by Arnold Schönberg submit to certain compositional rules.
  
  Ad yes, "playing the synth" is a legitimate musical skill. People such as Tangerine Dream, Pink Floyd and Kraftwerk use synthesizers in their music to great effect, though I think pretty much all modern music employs synthesizers to some extend.
  I mean look at this. That is not a toy guitar. It takes practise to master it.
  

  [Image: http://www.sequencer.de/pix/synton/synton_syrinx.jpg]

  
  
  Brostep is probably one of the lowliest ways to use it though.
• Lolicon wrote on 2012-11-11 01:36
  I guess I'll bump this now?
  
  Music Theory isn't the ground rules. Its what the big guys used that actually worked. Its definitely something that should be at least considered. Kueh, I know you're into music. We both know somes chords just don't go together. With that being said, its really debatable that dubstep is music, On one hand, yeah, its sounds and noises thrown together that people like. But what's the purpose of it? Money? Attention? Emotion? These are all things to consider.
  Also, I don't see why you would play the synthesizer, and deny playing the piano. Its a piano with buttons on it. You just need to know which chords go together while doing stuff on the knobs from the manual.
  Also, I don't feel like skill is required in dubstep, rather creativity. Really, as long as you know how to make noises X and Y, what's the point if you don't know what to do with them?
• Murasaki wrote on 2012-11-14 17:09
  I started drawing before I knew there was such a thing as color theory. Would the lack of knowledge not make me an artist? Sure, I lacked a certain knowledge, but that didn't mean I couldn't draw, at least a bit.
  
  Just because someone doesn't like a certain genre of something, doesn't mean that thing stops being what it is. There are a lot of things I wish weren't art, but they are, and that's not going to change just because I don't like a certain kind of art, or a certain person's art.