Everything counts in all - orchestration / arrangements and presets

When working on Shine On You Crazy Diamond, I observed how a dull boring (or even cheezy) melodic phrase can sometimes become good serious stuff just by the mean of changing the instrument (or the octave register). I thought for long that changing the instrument was too easy to be considered the real stuff. But finding the right sounds is part of the work (sometimes short, sometimes long).

It took many years to me for accepting that harmony/melody is not the only thing that matters makes a song. At a (dark ;-) time, I was even more radical by saying that harmony only is important but though it is not so stupid for certain kind of music like drone ambient (where time is less strict), it is too strict for many kind of musics.


Actually, I really understand now that many aspects count in all:

• the times between notes in a melody affect the perception and the melody itself, it is also what makes a melody (not only the notes/pitches)
• the instrumentation/orchestration changes the song. Of course, as mentionned for Neil YOUNG or Bob DYLAN's songs, a good song written on an acoustic guitar can be played in many ways and still be as good, but ok you understand what I mean ?

And in a similar way, using presets is not bad. I long time thought it was, I even believe that Depeche Mode's Martin GORE said in a french magazin in the 80s that all their sounds were made/sampled/programmed by themselves, ok (but in last DM albums, I don't think it is still as true, as simple, and it does not matter, their last albums are great !). And many musicians saying that presets stink.
But when making a song with a certain idea in mind, the way to achieve the result is not important, it's the result wich counts.

So using presets is a solution, and sometimes it takes time to find the good one, and perhaps modifying it. At the end, if the result is close to the one in mind, it's ok for me.

If I had more time, I'd try to search for "better" (more appropriate, more trippy/dreamy, deeper, etc) sounds. I don't blame the musicians (like Aphex Twin) who tweak and make all (or almost) by themselves.



Presets is a good thing (I read this page AFTER writing this post)
Most famous presets post wich reminds me that Tangerine Dream used in Kiew Mission (Exit LP) the same Synclavier sound that the one heard in the first measures of Michael JACKSON's Beat It and I even thought that Tangerine Dream just played the sound from the demonstration vinyl of the Synclavier ! Well, actually, some guys even think that Quincy JONES made it too by sampling the vinyl, they're maybe right...