OFF/HW: double bass...who's on first? what's on second?

[Gesticulates Very Expressively]

On Thu, 11 Oct 2001 21:51:16 +0100, Jon Jarrett
<jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK> wrote:

>> personally, i would much prefer the sound of 'driving straight ahead'
>> to the sound of a hovercraft or helicopter.
>>
>> to rock is to be driving straight ahead.


I don't disagree with this, I just think there's a little more to it.

Moving straight ahead, of itself, is no great achievement.
Okay, a hundred and fifty down the motorway is a very memorable and
enjoyable feeling. But that's because of the things around it that make you
aware of that speed. The lampposts blurring, all those bends you never
noticed before, and the sheer length of acceleration it takes to get there.
Constant speed has no sensation.

So how do you get the sensation of movement in it?

Think about walking down a street. To move forwards perpendicular to the x-
plane takes two different pairs of sweeps in the y-plane, two springs
working perpendicular to the z-plane and a torso doing its torsion thing in
the z-plane. Eccentric motions and perpendicularity all over the shop.
Striding around, it's not the passing scenery that tells me I'm making good
progress, it's the nested pattern of rotation modes in assorted ball and
socket joints.
The music that feels like rock to me, the music that makes me feel like I'm
driving straight ahead, has to have these epicycles too.

I mean, really, everything going forwards all together in a neat straight
line is a bit boring. It's like sitting in a nice tin box on wheels with a
nice soundproofed engine bay and nice sealed doors and moving smoothly
along, looking at as much view as you can get through a single plane of
tinted windows.. Speed, maybe, but speed like the only point is getting
there fast, with no idea of enjoying the ride. And who wants to travel that
way?

How do you know you're going unless you feel the bite as you kick back
against the ground?

So let's get on board that helicopter for a minute. Why is it a buzz? why
does it feel powerful? because you can hear the roar and feel the shudder
as thin metal blades rip through the heavy air, because you know that if
they slow down you're going to drop like a stone... perhaps if it sounds
like a helicopter, it's trying to invoke that feeling and remind you
there's more interesting ways to go fast than on wheels.


>        This interests me for two reasons, and though to the best of my
>current knowledge <> will not be reading this, I wonder if anyone else
>might care to pitch in. Firstly, I got played some Mayhem a while back and
>that really did sound as if they had a helicopter in the studio. Drums too
>but this bass-register wub-wub-wub-wub noise all the time. I must be
>getting old, I couldn't see what it was supposed to achieve.
>
>        But, more deeply. A bass-playing friend of mine can get quite
>lyrical, or at least, gesticulates very expressively, about the shapes of
>music. Bends in riffs, slopes and curves, she sees and enthuses about. She
>doesn't really have much time for music that just goes, as Larry has it,
>"straight ahead"; I on the other hand do. So I'll put something saying
>"this ROCKS," and wig out for five minutes and she'll still be wondering
>when the good bit starts as it finishes. It's no good to her without some
>kind of shape, straight lines don't do it.
>
>        And my question is, does anyone else understand this sort of
>language or is it just that I've successfully picked up her idialect
>without really feeling much of what she's talking about? Apologies if this
>is too OFF.


*ahem*

who, me?


I'll go back to lurking, then.

Sherm.