TDs use of sequencers: past and present

Post Reply
owen
Posts: 29
https://mapa.targeo.pl/kuchnie-na-wymiar-warszawa-ladna-41-97-500-radomsko~20490206/meble-wyposazenie-domu-sklep/adres
Joined: Sat Nov 27, 2010 4:45 pm

TDs use of sequencers: past and present

Post by owen »

I was listening to Chris Franke's London concert this morning and a thought came to me about TDs use of sequencers.

In Franke's days in the band, the sequencers were often used to provide not just a bass line but also melody, harmony, "pulse" (beat) and formed a basis for the music all by themselves, without the need for percussion or additional instruments.

Since the 80s, though, TD tend to use sequencers just like any electro-pop band (the depeche modes of this world) to provide a single repeating bass line to accompany a drum beat and conventional musical instruments. The old idea of using multiple sequencer lines to provide harmonies, and lots else beside (almost like a perfectly constructed Bach composition), seems to have gone out the window.

Is this the essential difference between old and later TD?
Goseba
Posts: 21
Joined: Sun Dec 24, 2006 3:36 pm
Location: Rayleigh, UK

Post by Goseba »

Slightly off topic but if you listen to some of the early 80's pieces backwards, you here the basis of other tracks. So reversing the sequencers gave inspiration for new tracks.

Unfortunately I can't remember the specific tracks that were good examples of this.
User avatar
Jon
Posts: 1708
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 11:54 pm
Location: Kristiansand, Norway
Contact:

Post by Jon »

I guess you have a point, owen.
User avatar
Erik
Posts: 484
Joined: Sun Jun 06, 2010 8:05 pm

Post by Erik »

they kinda made a comeback. they are a lot less about rock these days
"I actually prefer RPGs and fantasise about massacring the morons at my school as Final Fantasy 7's Sephiroth. "
User avatar
Axel
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:48 am
Location: Bielefeld, Germany

Post by Axel »

Hi to all, this question was so interesting to me, that I decided to take part on this forum. I was an only-reader for years.
I think, that not only Christoph Franke was responsible for the early sequencer work and technique during the productions since „Phaedra“, but also Peter Baumann introduced some very interesting ideas and actings on sequencers.
On one hand it was a question of the possibilities of the used equipment (Moog 960, Synthanorma, Projekt Elektronik, ARP Sequencer , to name only a few), on the other hand the kind of musical use, comparing "Stratosfear"/"Romance '76"/"Transharmonic Nights" (Baumann) to "Force Majeure"/"Thief" or the "London Concert" (Franke) for example, which are sounding and sequenced in some unusual ways in reference to this early days.
Franke and Baumann caused different works (rhythmical and melodical), both methods I'm a little bit or better more missing on newer TD works, since the last of both left the band.
User avatar
redziller
Posts: 2028
Joined: Sun Dec 24, 2006 1:59 am
Location: staying home getting stiff
Contact:

Post by redziller »

I wonder if we can get to hung up on the sequences. Obviously an important technique earlier on but if you want rhythm and ain't got a drummer and your kit can hold a few bars and repeat them it sounds a natural way for the music to develop - eay to say with hindsight of course, not so easy to use that and come up with something like Phaedra or Rubycon. I often think of early TD like the Apolo programme - really basic kit pushed to the limit taking us to another world whereas the sophistication of modern music stations and synths is hard to take in yet we pootle around in orbit (that's not a reference to modern TD, rather the vast quantity of quite ordinary synth music that is produced).

I wonder if it's just an artefact of the process of composition. I know when I'm dicking around on cubase how relatively easy it is to set up some progressions and riffs and experiment until something sounds right - if all the kit can do is play eight notes while you do that, then that will surely influence the final product. Or is EF someone who gets an idea and then works at presenting it in sound. Probably both?

Maybe it's not the sequences maybe it's just the development of MIDI, or PCs/Macs.

Whatever - I'm just glad the common thread remains
imho

TD

/ did \
- does - ROCK!
\ will /

https://shiningpyramid.bandcamp.com/releases

http://www.redziller.co.uk/ffp/ TD video game
User avatar
Axel
Posts: 9
Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2012 7:48 am
Location: Bielefeld, Germany

Post by Axel »

Yes, you're probably right, but I don't think on composition, I think more on intuition remembering the old days of Phaedra/Rubycon or Moog sequencers.
Today it is really easy to translate your thoughts into MIDI-commands (if you know what you do, of course).
As EF told in some interviws, TD was the best-paid rehearsal band on stage at that time.
On many more or less official published recordings you hear what exactly EF told us in his kind words.
Improvisations with no or less composed parts.
I suppose, Phaedra and Rubycon as examples are recordings where many parts were born out of the moments intuition and the options the machines offered to our guys.
Later it wasn't easy to create the atmosphere while sitting before a computer with Cubase or some similar tool.
Too many options, more and more ideas, what is really the best of it and so on, it doesn't make the choice easier.
I can speak for myself, that I've more fun with my CotK synths and the Memotrons than with the Cubase options, when I only
will do some music for the moment.
Maybe Maccu Picchu is a recording with some moments of the old feeling, some parts sound more played than composed.
I like it. It seems to be very emotional. Like In the old days.
User avatar
redziller
Posts: 2028
Joined: Sun Dec 24, 2006 1:59 am
Location: staying home getting stiff
Contact:

Post by redziller »

Maybe that's a product of this music being EF's personal project, maybe more relaxed, until his wife coaxed him into production - good on 'er :mrgreen: :D
imho

TD

/ did \
- does - ROCK!
\ will /

https://shiningpyramid.bandcamp.com/releases

http://www.redziller.co.uk/ffp/ TD video game
Post Reply