TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Music Discussion
-- Are older tracks better than newer tracks?
Are older tracks better than newer tracks?
I got this thread idea from SuperProgressive youtube channel, but it's an intriguing topic imo.
As someone who discovers older music like it's brand new, it just seems like older music set the bar so high in terms of writing and composition.
Do you actually look for new music, though?
No. I already made up my mind without looking for new music.
Not necessarily, but I do think there was more creativity and improvisation in older stuff. People were limited with the gear they had and probably spent more time learning their gear and getting the most out of it, whereas now a lot of stuff is done with software, which often leads to less "happy accidents" and improvisation.
It also depends on the genre. Oldschool acid is definitely more interesting than modern acid, although with electro it may be vice versa.
Jesus, this thread makes my head hurt. What are we defining as "old music"? Because within the confines of electronic music, "old music" from 2007 was complete dogshit. Old music was 1997 was great. Old music from 1987 was mostly too primitive to be particularly interesting today. Matt has probably never listened to any old electronic music from 1977 in his life. And so on.
Does this simple thought experiment help illustrate how thinking of every piece of recorded music not released in the past six months as some gestalt called "old music" is actually pretty fucking stupid?
Just as I bet half a dollar on Matt, he posts this. Can you at least post an old track and a newer track or something? Man.
It's 2023, so old music = pre-2013 tracks
new music = post-2013 tracks
I was thinking old = early to mid 90's.
The great thing about Newer Tracks is they eventually become Older Tracks, henceforth making them better over time!
Or simply forgotten because they were crap, relegating them to the dustbin of history, leaving only the best stuff to be remembered. Small wonder there's romanticism of the past.
/not exactly revelatory insights here
//but then, it is another Mattsanity thread
What is not particularly revelatory to you or I is a supernova of insight inside the cognitive biases of Matt's mind.
TA culture: Jack faults someone's thread and everyone follows suit.
Or maybe the thread actually sucks. oh well.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by AlphaStarred I was thinking old = early to mid 90's. |
Not sure why everyone is shitting on Matt. He's clearly correct - old music was just better, plain and simple. For example, who could ever forget these bangers? One can't, no matter how hard one tries 
This was just released, and it sounds straight up like early 00's Prog:
There is plenty of good modern stuff and it's all ultimately subjective. I think nostalgia plays a big role in why a lot of people prefer older stuff, as well.
I'd like to see ANY modern 'toytown' attempts top this ten-tonnes of tuneage!
I'll say older is still better any day. I havent thoroughly listened to the "new wave of old style tunes" I tried to give it a listen but I have not given it enough time to make a fair comparison. I consider late 80s - mid 00 to be "old school" although there was distinct different eras in between.
There is quite a bit of the older that only appears to sound better because of the way it was produced - the equipment used, production standards - and also because music producers in our fields of interest typically sampled loads of great sounds and plundered sound libraries (e.g. Eric Persing's Spectrasonics Distorted Reality libraries are *everywhere*).
The sample library aspect is interesting. I have a tendency to just stop listening to an artist if I notice they've used an unaltered sample, preset, or something I recognize from another track. Not entirely rational, I know, but it takes away a lot of "the magic of the art" when you know the production process has been something similar to a session on Dance eJay.
And here I am, dunking my field recorder in a remote lake after wrapping it in a plastic bag, wondering if I can later somehow mangle the underwater recording into nice background noise for a pad. If it wasn't so much fun, it would be depressing.
I wonder how much older music I could drop off of my lists if I knew that the magical sounding plucks came from a sample cd.
This is excluding hip-hop of course.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by JEO The sample library aspect is interesting. I have a tendency to just stop listening to an artist if I notice they've used an unaltered sample, preset, or something I recognize from another track. Not entirely rational, I know, but it takes away a lot of "the magic of the art" when you know the production process has been something similar to a session on Dance eJay. |
Hey, what's the source of that weird vocal howl sample that 95% of 90s trance tracks used?
It's safe to say that this thread shouldn't exist. It's all subjective.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Midlothian Cass & Slide - Opera is a nice one in that respect (or not so nice, for those of us emotionally involved). Browsing those Distorted Reality libraries can be a bit like finding out Santa isn't real. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Lews Hey, what's the source of that weird vocal howl sample that 95% of 90s trance tracks used? |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Lews Hey, what's the source of that weird vocal howl sample that 95% of 90s trance tracks used? |
Since we're turning Matt's thread into something educational, can any of you sample pack geeks source this very common sound effect used in a lot of millennium-era prog?
Audible at 3:00 in Breeder - Tyrantanic
Right at the start of 29 Palms - Touch The Sky
And at 01:40:32 in this Essential Mix by Circulation:
Plus loads of other places I can't recall right now.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Malcolm McLaren - Buffalo Gals Produced by the legendary Trevor Horn. That little bit at the start goes a long way when you pitch it and stretch it. |
Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.