Intelligent beats or not
from intelligent electro to industrial to .. a little text about idm, electro, some older EBM stuff etc. and things to call "intelligent".. - Autechre, Front242, Squarepusher, The Klinik, Aphex Twin,Mouse on Mars,Skinny Puppy etc. As you read: This list is somewhat "§§%$%&..
how to do these things and beats? what gear you need?..
on the last tour 2005/April Autreche used Grooveboxes: Elektron Machinedrum and Monomachine and mpc1000 with uc33 , maybe along with a powerbook.. and: it changed their sound a bit but not less "complex".. with the tr-type of sequencer they are easy to edit on the fly, which my sound very obvious but the way you can change the rhythm by changing the BD or one instrumtent to an unusual place can sound strange but still "sort of straight".. it's more about the music then about gear, but as you might think: it's not much more in this article
only one thing: no, the gear isn't the thing you really need, ..
this is NOT a how to make intelligent sound - manual. first: this text is BAD english! even for me (!) just it did not even passed my brain before writing.. this is to those who start to make music of this kind. if you are advanced synth user you won't find any interesting hints here, keep reading about the synths and use the forum.. from how to work with FM to how to make those "crackling" sounds.. this is about some very first words and gear & about the music..
DO NOT TRUST THIS!! it is NOT about being RIGHT or maybe some artist do work with other gear I am telling you here .. because it simply doesn't matter. same for the language here. I am from germany,so simply let me use bad english anyway. here's a very very hmm.. first idea of making the noise.. this text is still under contruction.. so maybe you need to be patient,right?.. hmm.. I should better delete it since there have been some.. hmm.. "talks" on this on e-forums that do not really "recommend" this.. and they are right,still so just to keep "my face" I keep it online including the worst design/words/grammatics (choose yourself) ever! vee r zillee in germanee.
first: please forgive for all strange genre terms but,hm maybe you get what kind of style it is about .. let me call it "intelligent" here.. hmm,others are not that "intelligent? don't know..but now lets call that stuff intelligent electro beats.. or was it (your word here) ? means: lets think about what is "intelligent" and what isn't *harhar*.. maybe it is just abstract....maybe it is about finding beats that are abstract? what does abstract mean? new to you? unusual? noisy? hmm.. no.. there are lots of guitar band that are LOUD and noisy but not really abstract,huh? and.. hmm .. intelligent? harhar! ... ok,... just for the right brain conditioning for now. there is one thing to be sure: this text is old and there are lots of people saying: that guy sells old things as new.. because: you can not really write about making "innovative intelligent music".. and if you do: be sure you get punished for it see this: this & this discussion if you want it cool: ask THEM!! they know it..
this is about gear, not about an instant guide to do the perfect new ,hmm intelligent, track.. you do still know: it is not the right way to buy the gear listed here.. most of it can be done with other gear of course ..and you could do it just another way!! so this is for the very first ideas.. no more.
and now : does the jp8000 make the trance -sound really authentic? ok, no more words about that just one thing: there is a lot of saying about some instruments and their use for genre X or Y.. it does not always mean it is the only tool and it is HEARSAY! of course you can do the silly trance leads with almost any synthesizer but the "supersaw" in the j8000 seemed the only solution for some people same with the style I am talking about here
well, the gear is helpful.. if you want a fat bass, there are still nice mono lead synths like SCI pro one, arp odyssey or rolands SH series around. so yes: if you like basses, maybe try the category of analogue monophonic lead synthesizers like very expensive ones like moog voyager to simpler and newer analogue synthesizers like MFB synth II.. (please still make use of the forum to find out..)
the distortion on a TR808 makes "dive" / "the klinik" sound as they are..? well it may sound funny but its basically it! especially DIVE is "inspired of a distorted TR808" as dirk ivens said in an interview I did try to experiment with some hihats ,snares and toms. the trick here is: distortion makes the signal somewhat monophonic, but you can highlight and amplify the high harmonics of a sound. so try some accent and some beats. of course you can't use "normal" beats,especially those 80ies-type of beat. the sounds need some time to develop,so you should not add too many similar harmonics.. a distortion simply clips the signal to become more rectangular, means: it adds higher harmonics. the crunch comes from the decay of the sound being also clipped ,makes a wonderful "overload" sound. there are some nice distortions around like the "RAT".
THE RAT - SALAD - some RAT audio demos - from MEIC to show you the SOUND (not the style) :
3-original.mp3 http://www.sequencer.de/mp/rattensalat_the_RAT/3-original.mp3 3-half-distorted.mp3 http://www.sequencer.de/mp/rattensalat_the_RAT/3-half-distorted.mp3 2-original.mp3 http://www.sequencer.de/mp/rattensalat_the_RAT/2-original.mp3 2-distorted.mp3 http://www.sequencer.de/mp/rattensalat_the_RAT/2-distorted.mp3 1-original.mp3 http://www.sequencer.de/mp/rattensalat_the_RAT/1-original.mp3 1-distorted.mp3 http://www.sequencer.de/mp/rattensalat_the_RAT/1-distorted.mp3
just to let you know,what distortion does to the signal.. no more,no less
there are lots of those "warp"-style artists using their old ms20's (hmm, I stil have no idea how this kind of style like autechre,aphex twin etc.. is called.. maybe I find out some day)
the ms20 is one of those monophonic synthesizers, but it has a VERY INDUSTRIAL SOUND.. now it is a "feature" .. well,wenn I bought mine it was simply the only cheap synthesizer I could buy! now the price is about the same when it was new! used! so.. it's not of much "punk" spirit in it,huh? but why not use it if you still have it..??
in fact it IS a source if lots of very typical industrial sounds. some DNB tracks and not at least squarepusher ,aphex twin etc.. use it for their tracks..
I can not really tell you "THE" secret behind, but: well study how you can play on a synthesizer! it is not too much about keys! it is about sound AND sequences and patches..
the early electronics often just experiment with basics, now the musical experiment gets simply "the next level" - there are heavily modulated patches, feed in some short noises, use it as a real violinist uses his violin.. anyway.. it is cool for industrial sequencer and melofy lines! the filters are dirty sounding because it was a simple synthesizer..
MORE GEAR TALK HERE LATER.. like what band uses what gear..?? but be CAREFULL: using the same gear does not automatically make the sound but just in case you are interested...
well.. some ideas what this should be?
skinny puppy for example? they use a lot of TR808 based hard beats with FX..
you can use gated reverb to fatten up the sounds, use some delay to "double" the beats with short delays or make it sound like "robot" beats.. often used in older industrial times
the hard beat on very old albums like remission and bites is basically using analogue beats from the TR909 and TR808.. mind TPI is mostly TR707 based. the 707 sounds a bit boring maybe.. but with a certain amount of gated reverb you'll soon have the typical late 80ies sound of skinny puppy and frontline assembly..
early front 242 used lots of TR808 in their tracks (geography).. also old analogue synthesizers (well these were not that old when the music was new!!). the system 100, or system 100m is very typical sound along with a yamaha cs40m.. and a moog source to make geography. very analogue and "electronic".. later sampling and of course the FM sound of yamahas DX synthesizers came in and really defined the EBM sound: speech samples and dynamic FM sounds for the "hard" face of ebm there are some tools that may be typical for some genres? like lots of typical F242 tracks from no comment era use FM synthesizers like DX7, TG77 etc.. for those velocity-dynamic sounds.. also very authentic about early EBM stuff (set your FM synth to at least 2 or 3 OP moding each other and velocity modulate the output level / envelope intensity of the modulating OPs) try short envelopes!.. and yes. now they changed their drum sound to the emu drumulator. it has a quite "hard" sounding sample based sound, of course they added lots of samples to it..
klinik? yes the klinik 's older stuff is much TR707 (again) and TR808 also! they use the cold sound of the EMS AKS (the portable version of the VCS3). very "cold" and clinical sounding machine.. do lots of fm sounds with moding the VCOs by other VCOs! .. the typical one is raising the moding VCOs frequency and add some reverb (there is a spring reverb inside!).. quite obviously they also used the ms20 on older werks, and a roland.. I suppose something like juno60, jupiter 4 etc.. for the bass sounds .. almost analogue! all the way..
industrial in general? ok, first there is the discussion about what industrial is? I can'T do THAT meaning the more harsh noise things: there is a lot of cheaper mahcines in it. industrial came just off the street,so maybe a simple tape recorder and a microphone and some distortion is often the key. there are a lot of electronic toys that produce a lot of noise when you use low energy batteries so feel free to use everything that is available to you! .. in the 80ies we did not have standard things like computers and stuff.. so why not use dad's tape machine? translation to the times now: well.. it has never been so easy to get some "gear".. if you own a computer: thats it. if you found some electronics or radio or whatever: nice source or "treatment" !...
autechre? aphex twin?.. at least they are using gear like the nord modular, a nord lead and some algo composition software like symbolic composer. synthesizers like the ms20 also help here
the sample based older tracks: try samplers like ensoniq ASR10 or eps16+: .. now it is about digitally modulating.. not what synth you could use.. well, the eps and ASR allow lots of interesting loop modulation and so called transwaves that may have been used on older "sample"- type of tracks from autechre..
try modulating loop position, loop start and end , use different loop types..
and the DSP is one of the greatest source of interesting FX: there are 2 3rd party FX available: waveboy and prosoniq. well they were available ..
later prosoniq did "sonicworx" with lots of FX that have been available to the Ensoniq ASR/EPS16+ series in realtime!!.. one cool one is the digital stretch FX , define a "window" for calculation and use low or small rates to make cool digital monsters!! modulations can be done and there are some busses to put some FX on those samples up to 4 different FX can be used..
btw: Autechre used Kyma very early. those stuttering clicks and stuff in high quality is what is said "aphex twin went for a very expensive mac around XXXXX€.." imo it was kyma by symbolic sound (by Carla Scaletti + Kurt Hebel).. It's a very powerful engine, the Capybara 320 (well, 10 years ago it wasn't the 320, but the 66 or 33 (the speed of the DSPs and number.. was a bit smaller)
anyway, maybe they know what a cephlaphage is
so why this shit-guy does not tell us abouzt plugins? well, if you use kyma or ever used kyma: you don't need any of those since it is "the original" one.. you can morph in realtime, create clicks and grain clouds, change rhythms on a very high quality level etc. - the glitch stuff and lots of crackling sounds on earlier autechre seem to come from kyma .. trust me: there is almost no plugin that beats kyma in quality.. - btw, there is also a nice squarpusher patch on kyma: it's only one "jazz" sample (BD and ride) that is being played and looped but starting at random position, in fact it sounds like a wild jam session with squarpusher.. it's one of the ready instant patches in kyma (does not mean it is bad..) - no this is no call for you all to buy kyma but in fact you do not need to search for plugins or any "cubase"-level stuff.. find more on kyma on the symbolic sound page. kyma does a lot of FFT spectrum computation, hi end vocoding and grainalizing.. meanwhile reaktor catched up with some of those fx .. and a number of plugins may be able to do.. but the FFT stuff and the quality is still outstanding and unique with kyma, still..
also try some fast roll/flam of your sounds, means: you can accellerate your "hihats" (or something!! do not think of drum sounds but the "function/purpose" of the sound of hihats or snares.. etc..). on the electribes you can simply set them to trigger more than one hit of the instrument within that 16-TR-"grid". so if you set it to 1/32 (and faster of course) you can trigger a roll and get 1/64 or 1/64t (etc..). so you have 2 or three times faster grid at one fingertip. if you unserstand german there has been a thread in the forum about that (flam(sometimes called "roll"),stuttering beats, "freezing"..) and it is even harder to explain than simply to do it..
also there are some in the english section. . this is where delay , sample , freezing or retriggering or simply modulating PW or sample position with LFOs synched to BPM may come in..
next one is breaking up the sample into parts using "buffer overload" VST / AU plugins.. you want names? no.. but you can try:
- http://www.smartelectronix.com/~bram/ (supertriga)
- KTGRANULATOR or destroyFX (freeware)
- some FX on the Korg Kaoss pad (like preset 97-- you love presets with innovative music,huh?)
- or elastic audio "warping" (so they say) with slicers and elastic audio apps like Ableton live (3 or higher) or/and Roland VSynth etc.
how? you can granulate it and play it at lofi quality .. maybe just one PART of that sample and make some other parts MUCH longer.. try the "warp markers" to rearrange each segment in another rhythmical aspect...
or simply: a delay with feedback and SHORT delay time.. modulate it!! try to control delay and feedback time to get some FX that you might imagine when modulating the PW around its very short pulse duty cycle(s) .. means: very thing and crackling kind of sound.. like 2 marble "balls" that hit each other and bounce..
some things for §$§% voices:
- ROBOBEAR (http://www.tobybear.de/)
- Cyanid 2.0@ http://www.smartelectronix.com/~bram/
- even spectral FX could be interesting (multiple delays): spectral delay by NI or vokator (vocoding with 1000bands and special "granulating" samples)
- http://www.e-phonic.com/vstplugins/lofi.html ephonic..
or find some more like these here..
and for some loops,and stuff (repeat those slices within its "musical length" and put some filters and pitchmods on it.. with bitshift phatmatic pro.. very usefull try german version bitshift for audio demos. it's some kind of "ableton recylce mix"..
just to name very very few.. sometimes it really THAt simple: those logic FX (or cubase) "built in plugs".. I do not really like the distortions ,but sometimes a "bad" distortion could be useful for lofi stuff.. also: use bit reducing/ sample rate reducing plugs on beats!! sometimes thats cool enough -and always: modulate you audio! ring modulation, FM etc..
I know..
but lets try the synthesized way now:
since i don't know your skills, lets talk interactively (again the synthesizerforum.de !)... like bouncing the sound using 2 LFOS: one say saw or the random wave of (eg the nord g2) wave modulated by lfo2 at slow speed. so in fact you have one LFO moding the other , if you have bpm sync again: try it! - it is quite some Sample and hold effect, but less "random".. the second lfo is much faster.. now you can use this faster LFO as a trigger.. you could trigger sequencers (analogue ones) or programm a pattern on the Clavia nord modular/G2 or reaktor etc.. so you have sequences called at some sort of "random but synched" triggered rythms!.. works best in modular systems.. but is also available on "good" analogue and digital synthesizers.. (good synthesizers? huh? ok, it jsut means: there are not so many allowing to retrigger by lfo but some!)
on some older rolands you have a real S/h and can use it to "clock" the "beat" of your samples and give the next step a smoothing.. if you control these by CV or simply PLAY it by hand you can get interesting spectra if applied to the PW OSC mod, try softsync here and the "pulsing" of short duty cycle waves.. but: this is def'ly pulse waves! saw symmetry results in some sort of "filtering effect because the harmonic content is shaped from a "close to no overtone (sine/tri)" to "rich overtones! that is? a filter! sort of..
if you want some interesting "contiunously" effekt on any parameter .. like a "opening filter for ever" or "neverending glassando".. that can be done.. you need to use a so called sheppard generator and minimum SOME filters, VCOs etc.. the trick here is to use phase-sihftet multiple filters (or VCOs).. stockhausen used this effekt on his older works, so it is not "new", but still interesting..
for the pads: well the more organic sound: synthesizers like NI Absynth 2 have some interesting features about this: you may use delay again here! but these delays are used for comb filter effects (some nothes that "comb" out some frequencies) , or resonators to simulate an easy "tube" or "room" that can be modulated or "de_resonated" when moding the feedback.. the samples can be stopped at any postition. so try some noise digital sample like modem sounds or any other very "digital overload" sounds and slowly run though the sample.. youre result is some sort of wavescanning effect (wavetables like PPG/waldorf) but: you can still modulate it.. hardware? yes: there is such a thing: the roland vsynth or variOS can do.. if you do not like software
more to come..
this text is still under contruction.. so maybe you need to be patient,right?.. anyway I decided to post this text...
please give a feedback on the forum.. the idea is also to put in some sound tips also.. but also some basic talk ..
anyway.. there is nothing in common with the germany version of this section, discribing the making of some ebm,industrial and intelligent electro sound.. hmm.. a bit..
but there are some sounds,that are typical, and.. thinking of typical is already what is all wrong here you can not really tell some very cool tricks to make current inovations very cool tracks so this may not change your life .. find some tricks and gear stuff inside the site here! something like finding some strange "bugs" of synthesizers to use forsome special sounds?..
well, of course this doesn't make it all more cool.. but there are some things like the ESQ1 and SQ80 can be used as some sort of wavesequence "by accident".. sometimes a simple "kids first sampler" can be very cool, because it has lots of aliasing.. but guess what? reducing the bit rate is now one of thousands of sounds, some sort of standard "lofi" FX so it may not work every time you do it the idea is: simply try some things that may be a very silly idea.. but not as the basic idea behind new music
another one: .. the idea is to use computers to cut and paste some audiotracks to get those non-repeating rhythms and intelligent beats Also a delay (bpm synced) is also a good thing to add here..
so intelligent is creating rhythms,that do not sound the same? changes?.. hmm.. a bit of them.. but there are real cool tracks out there that do change only for a small amount .. but if you skip 1 minute you hear something completely different!.. hmm yes! there is no real concept behind what is intelligent and what is not.. --(exept gabba.. or does any1 now gabba for brain-cinemascope?? ..) ...right, this is not the manual for being super creative .. you will have questions in the end.. there is no "yes, thats how I do it".. but there are some tricks,that may help.. anyway.. here are some ways to go..
Analogue drum machines will not always be cool here.. But newer machines fit in well, like those that have roll and delay functions (electribe x-series and em1 and es1..)
Analogue sounds are often re-DSP'ed and re-edited.. That’s, what makes it "stuttering"..
Anyway. It's not the only way.. You CAN use delay with BPM synched to "double" (or more) "trigger" the sound faster than 1/32-1/64 etc.. notes to create "roll/flams (whats the word)?" on analogue machines, try retriggering by a fast lfo and trigger THAT lfo by another slower LFO to get a "rolling snare" type of result.. here is more and more gear,that has some on board delay / master delay. want a nice roll sound now? (try the korg electribes) set its scaling to 32 or 16 and bpm sync it. if you can set it to "snare" sounds (hmm,it is electronic music,huh? so there is no "BD,SD principle.." but there are some sounds doing the job of Hihats and snares, thats the ones you can route to the delay, others may stay unFX'ed
gear: Autechre and Aphex Twin are (were?) Mac users (that day), but on stage autechre also like to use the nord modular (Clavia nord modular) - for a time... you do know ,that the newer g2 has reverb and delay (2.6secs) on board? so you COULD do some sort of "cut mangling machine".. of course that may not autechre,but it helps to make just ONE PATTERN a real "song".. or to make it simply more interesting...: set up some switches that you can virtually "push into the signal path" and try ringmod, step sequencer that "patternize" the incoming signal.. from simple GATING to delayed things to ringmoded the stepps that you can set in the sequencer.. there are lots of quite easy things that might bring more living sound to your track.. back to autechre: autechre also do use symbolic composer for those "architechure"-rhythms, algorithmically generated. beside a computer it's still good to have some good analogue synth like an MS20 (aphex twin) or others.. and re-edit it with sample editors, or re-loop it with ableton live or phatmatic pro etc.. hmm, does this sound to basic? it is! .. but just in case it helps..
you want crackling and "zapping" sounds? try some fast-LFO synthesizers.. but first try this: use one OSC and set it to pulse! set the PW (pulse width) to minimum.. there are still some analogue synthesizers around where you hear alsmost "nothing" and now find the sweep spot till you hear a thin sound.. if you "randomly" but hmm.. muscially try to use this range as a basic pattern you can produce lots of "lofi" and "modern" Fx.. yes! thats also not a new idea, but: the ppl of the 80ies didn't use it for this, it was designed to make one OSC sound fat and meaty when modulated so if you can change the symmetry of the pulse: this is one interesting source..
another one can be the "sound of 2 balls made of stone or metall".. try the small pulses again but mod it using aftertouch or any controller to mod the range of those rich harmonics sound of short PW oscs. the idea is to mod a smaller amount ,not the whole range of pw.
more: try the random pattern module or impulse generators to be used as a background scape. it may sound "strange" but.. some asymmetric sounds could make it more interesting.. also try nothces and phase shifting on these!! so called all pass filters do not have NO effect on the sound! it is a phase changing effect! try also (as alsways) short feedback delays that can track to keyboard/note short delay times.. thats: resonators!! and a feedback delay tracked or moded is a comb filter! this has an organic sound.. use the random pattern crackling as a source!! use some noise or noise pulses!! maybe later add some more simple white noise! if you can arrange your track to not really realize there is a noise rising.. after some time you have the noise to some amount as a background.. now change the noise charakter with some slight changes like phasing, APF etc.. and slowly fade it out again..
the more you do not "hear" these the more effect it has on you in a song/ arrangement. of course this is only cool if you got enough sounds around.. we are still talking very very electronic music here,right?
back to the basic things again.. the thing here is: linear sequencing and repeating patterns is quite boring. if you bring in some simple "FX" like the delay feedback roll/flam , PWM mod LFOs or "stuttering" effects it can help to make even one silly pattern sound "complex"..
if you still believe in "tape machine" type of sequencers - that may be the one you could change more on sequencers check sequencer section!!..
the combination of sounds,synthesizers and sound generating: the algorithmic composing! like in super collider, MAX or symbolic composer you got the chance to let the computer generate musical parameters like notes,sounds,sound clusters etc.. this is basically interesting for granular synthesis etc. becasue it has lots of parameters that cannot be controlled live in "one go" or are dependent from the music (notes,length, dynamics,tempo etc..) there are lots of possibilities that electro and intelligent synth projects use like autechre etc..
ALGO COMPOSITION for pc,. linux, mac
you might try Max/MSP, Numerology (not sooo deep), Super Collider , ui software "Metasynth" , "M" or Symbolic Composer , PD, Patchwork , CSound, or freeware Keykit or some extension to it called GeoMaestro the g2 (clavia) can also generate midi data and do special things..! the IDEA BEHIND is what may be the key here! input some things , like using the G2 as a sequenced ringmodulating "shutter" and bit cruncher..- get some output.. use LFOs and stuff on note and other data.. and change the audio patch according to some midi standard midi data.. got the idea? of course you do.. the idea is simple: just use another way of thinking about audio or midi events coming from a sequencer in a linear "tape machine" manner.. thats all of course you can still use the old gear some bands still do it the classic way.. and nothing is more old than this so see the comments on other forums about this text and you know what I mean
check the forum for more.. also: you can make PATCHES that are part of the TRACK (oh, I know,, that is not new!).. but the idea is: think modular... this is not telling you all secrets , I know!! it is just a small package of words to "think a bit different".. it'S often just another way of using your gear or playing it another way (80ies? over..)
especially the delay thing (feeding back a delay is the source of physical modeling if you trigger it by some impulse short noise -> a string "emulator", a flanger, a comb filter (in fact a phaser "per voice".. ), editors , sequencer and synthesizers as one "unity", so you can use an ENV and an LFO to retrigger each other at high speed to make some metallic sounds or to make them more "dynamic"..
so maybe non-linear sequencers, algorithmic or interactive patches CAN be a key as long as this is not a trend..
hmm.. thats all for now.. there are some threads on the forum about roll/flam, "zapps" and crackling sounds used in a musical way. etc..
more to come.. hope this little thing helps a bit.. well sometimes the intelligence of music is the use of lfos, the use of some notes, the ose of ..hmm.. computers.. sometimes it's simply not using the habbits of current music now the synthesizer is not a new instrument .. same for samples, computers , even those things like max/msp etc.. maybe these "instruments" of the "newer electronics" or "intelligent" styles are someday the standard in some dance tracks .. you can think yourself if more music may sound "intelligent" if these crackling and changing rhythmic sounds are a standard.. well, DNB was new, now it is played on commercials on tv! so: one gets used to it.. maybe: try your refernce music now! maybe it has changed ,too!! ..
possibly this much more important then telling you 1000 tricks how to make "unusual sounds", buying CDs with "unusual" sounds maybe be not far from this
and: no! it's not using ocmputers only and throwing away all analogue synthesizers! you might use your synthesizers "weakness" as a strength! a goodie! well the SID chip in a C64 sounds??? dull?? innovative? lofi? hmm.. it sounds! in some tracks it can sound "intelligent" and cool in others it may sound very cheap and cheesy ... etc.. more to come.. ?? just give me some feedback in the forum... so I may add things you might find interesting here..
was this helpful or just silly talk?.. just give some feedback.. this may grow or better simply delete it? updates sometime later..
ministry of silly talk. moogulator speaking. MBC news, mars, the north. here's a nice one! they strongly , hmm, uhm.. recommend this article :) check this *eg* shows a lot about finding the right words for the real truth if you are intelligent n.off - follow the leader
and another forum joined the "intelligent" discussion..
well of course the idea of this awful text show.. hmm, nothing??.. and: the music I was talking about is not something you can put into words. if your language is english: I did not even read my bullshit above is it worth to trash now? yes!
finally they did what I wanted with this.. talking about music is simply useless. some day I should rewirte this BAD ENGLISH to something readable or at least let you know: it's all about equipment, what music you make ;) *g* right?
be sure: I (replace this be some friends if it sounds to much like "ego") did a lot of sounds on very cheap gear when quite well known seemed to have used something really expensive.. it's not the synthesis or the things I hear from people quite often "when I get XXX like YYY I can sound like ZZZ".. wrong lane? no! wrong direction! :) I am sure you got all tools needed (you are reading this text on it, possibly?)..
well, to be honest: I do not own the most gear shown on this site, I had the chance to come close and by coincidence I had a camera with me - anyway, most ppl still believe it is all my stuff and thats a good thing when they listen to the music and say that.. ;) If I'd tell the truth?..
so let me put it that way: please post in the forum for real tips and plugins etc.. it's not about being the IDM king now.. it's not finished and since I have seen lots of posts about this: I should never really write more :) it looks and feels like some forum posts and thats what it should be..
so let me close this "thread" here.. and I keep it ugly, as is today.. it's all wrong anway..
ah, I saw the chemical bros. - hell! nice ypander and jupiter 6 on stage, switched on.. but: maybe thats the thing for the "boys".. like depeche mode: dave and "dancing" for the girls, the gear for the boys.. do you think they really use it? maybe they have it all on tape and just like to play the reso-sound on their cat and thats it? .. ;)
update II: I read some comments: no!! this is not the whole story, they all still omprove and CHANGE... maybe mr d. james stopped using macs, kyma or making his own "circuit bending" hardware.. it's not about if they do or not, I do not know them all personally, I only listen to it and write it here (or better : I wrote and did not care about they words, the english etc..) most of the mentioned bands anbd people changed .. it's not about : buy kyma (It a very cool machine btw!!) but its true on autechre.. you can even hear it on their records if you ever worked with kyma.. possibly they had some access to one ,maybe they don't have it anymore? I don't know.. and it's not important.. you may do the same with a cheap sampler and a delay?.. it's about what YOU DO.. this is no information, this is no text , it's not even english.. it is just telling you: you can do the same..