“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit - all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.” -Brian Eno, A Year With Swollen Apendices
Don't be dissin' my Casios! :-) (I actually have 2 of their keyboards - cool to just turn on and bang on w/out an amp, even if they are in no way, shape or form real synths)
@@thekathal Wittgenstein was certainly determined and gifted, but he also had a reputation for being extremely difficult to work with. This also extended to the commissioned pieces he had composed for him...he demanded exclusive rights!
"You're free to choose whatever it is that you want, and you become kind of depressed because you don't really know what you want." Get out of my head man.
8-bit Music Theory is a neat channel talking about music theory in games and has a video on Mega Man 2: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JknOdnEtwxs.html
Ah wow, my older brother got one of these for his 9th birthday but he wasn't really interested in music so I played it more than him. Being poor as a kid, this was basically my first instrument and it helped to spark my passion for playing and creating music. Years later my parents bought a video game called 'Music 2000' for my older brother, and that was seriously fun! I guess I never really knew it but I've probably been creating music for 20 years or so haha. Great video as usual!
It's easy to slag off the cheap toy keyboards and software, but they can act as "gateway drugs" for generations of musicians. Everyone has to start somewhere and it's often the case that people have more actual fun with their first instrument than anything they subsequently get into.
William Wordsworth describes Adam’s point as “the weight of too much liberty” in this sonnet. Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room; And hermits are contented with their cells; And students with their pensive citadels; Maids at the wheel, the weaver at his loom, Sit blithe and happy; bees that soar for bloom, High as the highest Peak of Furness-fells, Will murmur by the hour in foxglove bells: In truth the prison, into which we doom Ourselves, no prison is: and hence for me, In sundry moods, ’twas pastime to be bound Within the Sonnet’s scanty plot of ground; Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find brief solace there, as I have found.
Brian Eno has said the first thing he does before starting a project is, is to set parameters for himself. Then creation is much easier, Limitation is Creation
He said something like writing the 5 second Windows 95 opening sound was amazing for his creativity because he had such a short amount of time for the "piece" as it were.
In order to create his debut solo album "Here Come the Warm Jets", he brought in a bunch ch of musicians that he felt wouldn't play well together. The result is one of the most unique and original pop albums ever made!
@@howardanderson3061 No problem. I think he also led the musicians by stomping, dancing a certain qss at, and singing nonsense lyrics to specific melodies. It's insane ho1e someone with such unorthodox methods and very little prior musical training could make music with such catchy melodies, even with how bizarre they were texturally. My favorite Eno stuff has alqay ben his experimental pop stuff.
Yeah. Not wanting to sound like an Adam Neely fanboy here--I'm an old guy who is irrelevant but has an arguably unhealthy obsession with music--but Adam, dude, you are super talented, not only as a musician but also as a content creator. That gig looked super fun! Moreover, I find your content intellectually stimulating and inspiring. Hmm. Yep, fanboi. Here, let me see if I can balance things out a bit, lest you become too full of yourself. You suck. ;-) Anyway, wish you all the best.
Actually, Ravel wrote the concerto only for the left hand because he was paid for it, by the Wittgensteins. One famous pianist member of the family lost his right hand from WWI, but he loved piano and wanted to continue playing...
Glenn Gould was paid by Kurt Godel to have no ego thereby enabling his Bach sing alongs to be secret time travel machines due to the universe as a spinning 5D black hole of formless noncommutative time-frequency quantum phase with a geometric dimension of zero or so Gerard 't Hooft told me.
Nishi Ravel's Piano Concerto in G Major 2nd movement kicks the ass of Adam Neely's casio performance - as this 2nd movement of Ravel's Concerto in G Major 2nd movement is Frisson inducing. Frisson meaning skin orgasm as vagus nerve inner ear activation that increases dopamine and neutralizes free radicals of the body. I performed this Ravel Piano Concerto in G major 2nd movement in a piano recital with my piano teacher who is a beautiful female, playing the part of the orchestra. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6BOhx6J21AY.html
I remember how disillusioned writing in FL Studio made me because SO much was possible that I never knew what I should do. Then I discovered chiptune, got a copy of LSDJ (music writing program for the gameboy) and have been rocking that for almost a decade now. The limitations are what makes it so fun to write for and hearing artists break those limits is fascinating. Compare chiptune from actual gameboy games to stuff Trey Frey, Roboctopus or Fighter X do with it now. The progress is astonishing. Also, in case anyone was wondering, The Mission Impossible gameboy color game generally is the most advanced soundtrack from the original era.
My case with Guitar Pro 6 and FL is just that (and I export the bass and alto sax, both with EQ and effects, from it, to FL Studio). I like to do composing in GP6 and (most of) the final products in FL
I had the opposite effect from FL Studio because I only used the demo version for YEARS, as I was a student and couldn't afford it. This meant I had to compose everything in one go because you cant reopen saved files, meaning I had to be very particular about what I made, and either make it in one sitting or keep it open on my PC for days (made much worse by the fact it would sometimes crash, so nothing was safe ahah). On top of that, I only had the default instruments. Some fairly crappy violins, some quite noughties synths and pads, and frankly pathetic drums. I learned a great deal from having to make do with what I had. My goals became to make orchestral oriented cover tracks and to make them sound as realistic as possible, which was a massive challenge on very synthetic instruments - but god dang does that does teach you that the little things matter. You can do so much with the crappiest of instruments if you put your mind to it, but when it comes to realism there really is a limit (which I now why I gobble up Spitfire Audio libraries like the edge pieces of a fudge brownie). They didn't sound great mind you, but heck if it doesnt feel good to bleed emotion out of the musical equivalent of a rock.
Thanks, I have now made my instrument simpler by removing all the strings and just recording setting it on fire while smashing it on the floor, really nice
Awww Finally I heard something about Shostakovich here ^^ Thats really a funny coincidence because two days ago I literally searched for "Adam Neely + Shostakovich" on RU-vid and Ben Levin talking about shostakovich Influence was the result (which I really loved). I was about to ask Adam in Q&A, "Hey! Why not a single statement Shostakovich? do you hate him? :D" The truth is when I heard about György Ligeti, Bartok, Stravinsky and etc here, I was so damn glad that Adam is doing a great job here. But why not Shostakovich? well I'm more glad now. btw I'm Persian, not some sort of a patriot Russian :D
I've heard one musician (I don't remember who exactly) say that he loves starting his songs with some limitations, but always ends up braking them later on, once he gets the creativity flowing, which I think is a very neat hybrid approach. Also about the analog gear providing the much needed limitations - one of my favourite VST synths is Arturia SEM V, exactly because it is a good sounding, but simple, mostly one screen instrument and it holds me back from getting lost in fiddling with it, so I can focus more on making a song.
Recently read a book titled "Steal Like an Artist". There's a chapter where he talks about having "2 desks" (work spots): an "analog" one and a "digital" one. Start with the moral equivalent of a pencil and 3x5 cards, then go to the computer (or other complex editing platform) to finish.
reminds me of when my church's digital organ decided to go bonkers and only the swell division would sound. playing with only the swell and couplers really made me think about registration choices and consider creative ways to achieve different registrations and tone colours with a limited palette of stops.
Damn this was eye-opening. I've been juggling with the idea with limitations for a while now but can't quite put it to words. But you really nailed the topic and I thank you for that!
It's fantastic what you did! Back in 1991 I was a salesman and demonstrator for Casio musical instruments and when the Rapman was introduced into the market, me and my colleagues milked every bit of creativity from ourselves to produce anything out of the Rapman. The results were amazing. It was challenging and exciting!
This is why I love the old drum corps with the limited voicing and pit selection. You become creative with what you have. You didn't need all the electronics to get that effect you want.
THIS IS FUCKING AWESOME!!! I ACTUALLY STILL HAVE MY CASIO RAPMAN!!! I wrote and recorded some fun songs and demos with it, from 1991 to 1993. I thought it was actually kind of a cool little instrument, and never had the heart to part with it. So happy and excited that you used it for a live gig, and demoed it here on your channel!! Great way to be brave and creative. :-)
DAMMIT i been pouring my heart n soul into making an EP using just my casio rapman thinking i was cute and clever and now people are just gonna say 'ADAM NEELY DID SOMETHING VAGUELY SIMILAR FIRST U LOSER' but still
im a visual artist who normaly makes experionism peices with paint but the art that i am most proud of is that of which i made when i was locked in a room with only a four colour bic pen and printer paper
I had a bunch of keyboards and drum machines but had to sell them in 2008. The next recording project I did with a Casio, a $100 guitar, and an old drum set. It was very liberating and turned out to be some of my best recordings. It completely changed the way I look at gear now. I've built up my equipment since but have never fallen back into that gear lust way of thinking.
Saw the title and thought the video was going to be kinda meh and mostly filler until you came up with something better to talk about. Instead it was super thought worthy and one of the most inspirational videos I've seen in a long time. Should have known better than to doubt you! Cheers!
It's so true-one of my favorite ways to write or arrange is using only the instruments at hand when I'm not at home or on vacation. It brings out all sorts of sounds and ideas I probably wouldn't have come up with otherwise. Also, there really is something to the freedom that arises when you're forced to just throw tons of stuff at a piece of paper and see what sticks. It's counterintuitive but limitations really do help with creativity even if it's just as an exercise.
I want to be a designer mainly for furniture but when I see high profile designers with their modern processes and basically zero limitations materialwise, I get frustrated. Thanks to this video I started to design some chairs and side tables only using materials I have and/or can afford, those being OSB, scrap wood and some basic hardware and tools. I managed to design and build some proper prototypes just because I had everything available and was limited in what I can do (no plastic molding, cushioning, CNC routing or similar advanced kinds of furniture making). For the first time ever I made significant progress and felt good about what I was doing and while also feeling completely overwhelmed of how much is actually possible with a jigsaw, OSB, some screws and a bit of time. I never realized the importance of limitations until now and thanks to you. So keep doing what you do and keep inspiring us even if its not music related in my case
I bought one of these in 1992 because the keyboard had a little hardwired microphone one could unspool and “rap” (speak, sing, whatever) into, and it also had … a pitch-shifter for vocals!! So rather than buying an $80 to $240 pitch-shifting pedal to sing into, we could get a Butthole Surfers-esque _Hairway to Steven_ growl (or squeak) to our vocals just by buying this $12 toy!!! (We had to separately mic the keyboard’s built-in speaker and run that second mic out our amps, which made everything extra squealy and distorted, but audio fidelity was not an issue at that point, the extra noise was sort of a plus, and we were singing into the keyboard’s mic through a bullhorn anyway.) We had less control over particular pitch than we would’ve with a pedal, but it suited our purposes, and the aesthetics of our toy keyboard pleased our audiences. We didn’t use much else about that keyboard, but band friend Raphael was fascinated by the “wicka-wicka” scratching-record built into the case. Incredibly, I see these things on eBay today fetching $200+ … I shoulda kept ours!
I was definitely expecting this to be silly, ended up incredibly (pleasantly) surprised when you turned it into such a thought provoking musing on creative limitations. Very inspiring!
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Andrew limits himself all of the time in very creative ways. Adam is not saying that you have to be limited to make good art but that it is easier to pick out something good from limited parameters. The better the musician you are, the wider parameters you can pick from without becoming overwhelmed by the choice.
@@jordan_private being reserved for better artists and being the enemy of art are two very different things. Which is it? The distinction is very important
Andrew's habit of turning cool sounds into seemingly unrelated sounds seems to me like his great limitation. He almost never starts from an instrument because they're sort of creative blank pages. Instead, the samples he morphs into instruments through his standard practices of EQ, Envelope, Effects serve to direct him through their subtle nuances and the associations of the source. Sure, a sample edited into a kick drum ends up just sounding like a normal kick drum, but thinking about where that kick drum started shapes everything that comes after. Andrew limits himself a lot through that mindset, I feel. Sure, he could just use a normal kick, but that kick doesn't limit the possibilities the same way making a kick out of some weird sound does.
I saw Brushy One String a few years ago at Festival International de Louisiane. The way he plays makes me think of old chiptunes, where sometimes, it's just a melody and a bassline, and that can sound full when done well. Brushy absolutely does it well.
Hey, Adam Neely. This reminds me of a Video Game project I wanted to create where I developed the game on a Nintendo 64 instead of a regular development kit and then after the game was finished we just updated the graphics and made sure not to add anything that isn’t graphical such as level design and physics. This idea never came into fruition but it was a response to the game “Yooka Laylee” which was supposed to be an answer to Banjo Kazooie fans wanting a new game. It was made by the same developers but it was made on new tech and the biggest problem of the game was that it was too big and vast and it lost it’s identity due to way too many play styles and ideas being crammed into the game just for the sake of them being able to do it, not asking why they should do it. Thanks for helping me put that same creative drive and critical thinking that I used to have for videogames into my music. You helped connect the missing links to my creative brain that was missing from my music writing!!!
My current situation is a good example of what you're talking about. I've been separated from my audio interface and electric guitar for a hot minute (moved out of my mom's house and haven't been able to get them from her yet). I usually make metal/punk music (think grindcore or crust) and the only instrument I have right now is my Baritone Ukulele, the only way to record it being my phone. It's actually been a learning experience trying to make aggressive punk that way. What I've been doing is putting the microphone end of my headphones into the soundhole of my ukulele, recording it into an app called bandlab, and running it through an amp sim. As you can imagine it's really hard to get the perfect sound this way, but it's been eye opening just working with what I have. It also forces me to mix up my playing style. I definetly can't play those deep, downtune powerchords on my ukulele. Gotta do more melodic riffs for it to sound decent. For the bass and drums, I've been sequencing them out on a mobile DAW called Caustic. I'm attempting to write a demo this way. It's a little frustrating, but definitely eye opening.
The absence of limitations is the enemy of art. And the absence of art is the enemy of civilisation! The absence of civilisation is the enemy of love. The absence of love is the friend of justice, and the casual frenemy of force. The presence of justice and the absence of force are on speaking terms with progress and don't know how they feel about necessity. Necessity is the mother of invention (hi mom!) and the step-sister of time. Time must always be played if it is in your hand, and is the enemy of everything else except justice, for the wheels of justice turn slowly but grind exceedingly fine, unless the statute of limitations applies.
I ssem to recall that progress is friends with benefits with alienation, which sits on a school board with procrastination. Procrastination in turn is the uncle of enlightenment, second cousing twice removed of jealousy and fear. But what is left to say about the relationships between abstracta, now that reason and language have been divorced?
So I just came to youtube after struggling for hours to come up with something to compose and this video was perfectly put in my recommended. I was trying so hard to use so much and was getting overwhelmed with myself and basically just got pissed off that after about 10 minutes, all of my creativity seemed to just fly out of the window. This video just inspired me to go back and try limiting myself and already I've started creating something that I love. I fucking love this channel.
The worst thing to happen to me musically was a laptop, Reason and unlimited time. I finished nothing for years until I settled down and had kids. After that I had to work with the limitation of having the odd spare hour here or there and learned to make songs quickly.
Adam, I did gigs where I had an iPad, a ROLI Seaboard Block (bluetoothed to my phone), a simple instrument, and a few pedals (maybe). I've done gigs where half my stuff died on me, and I had to wiggle my way around the rest of the set. I've done improvised solo guitar or sitar gigs. I recorded a piece using a bamboo flute and water sounds. But I would never dream of doing a gig with just a Casio Rapman. You, sir, not only did it, you pulled it off! And got paid! You have balls of steel. You are a man among men. The Avengers and X-Men cower before you and are abased! All inspissated flourishes and ostentatious redundancies of humor aside, you're absolutely right that sometimes you have to focus on one thing. Inside that one thing is an entire universe.
I'm glad that you talked about this because I just wrote a polytonal fugue with the goal of it being disgusting in like an hour when normally I can sit at a computer all day and just not do anything creative.
its getting to the point where a lot of these videos that I saw when they released from late 2016-2018 are hitting 2-4 year. and its weird. cuz it feels like this vid came out like 3 months ago. Adam is a timeless man
See, the thing for me is that I really try not to second guess myself when I get ideas. However ridiculous that idea may be, I take it, cherish it, and run with it to the finish line. This way the mental blocks come less often, and I don't sit and think to hard about things.
I realized this same thing with my drawings at the beginning of the year. I kept trying to focus on a completed image, a "street view" of what I wanted to create. When I finally focused on each of the pieces (and finding joy in them) I was able to practice in a way I had never practiced before. My art skill has grown more in the past three months than in the entirety of my life due to learning how to focus on the specific concept of what I want to create, and making changes to my drawing until it gets there.
One of the greatest teachers I ever had was a creative writing teacher. I loved writing and books so I took the class as an elective in high school... I had been only a poet up until then.. three days in she told me no more poetry. None. It made me realize problems with my own writing. Limiting and forcing yourself out of your wheelhouse is HUGE
Last year I purchased an Akai MPD218. It’s a 16 pad midi controller with some effect control knobs and three pad banks. While messing around with it, I found out I could play melodic instruments with it as well (duh, it’s a midi controller lol). I immediately figured out how to play major 7th chords and eventually started using it to write melodies. The lack of conventional “keys” to play with really stretched me to figure out how to maneuver around the hardware and what different sounds I could achieve with the controller. Bank 1 is the lowest, starting at C1 (or C0 I don’t remember exactly), then each sequential pad is a half-step up through to the rest of the pads. I know that the interval between the row of pads on the bottom and the respective row on top is one octave. So I can use this to my advantage when recording things like 808s for example. I love to reference this video when I talk to people about ways to spark creativity in music.
Hey Adam, thank you for making this video - I have been in a rut with practicing recently, where I just couldn't stay for longer than 15 minutes. I think I felt like there was too much to do. This came to me right at the perfect time, even though it was posted a year ago
