I was watching this video posted the other day on the Matrixsynth blog. There’s something about these kinds of specialized noisemaker devices that has me suspicious and a little wary (devices by Frostwave, Effector 13, Metasonix, Bugbrand, Lastgasp Art Laboratories, 4ms Pedals, Mid-Fi Electronics, all the circuit-bent toys in the world, and every second-string FSU plugin out there (usually a waveshaper and a crappy modulated delay of some sort made in Max or Synthedit. See KVR’s database for clarification on the term FSU)). Now, don’t get me wrong, some of these devices are really cool things (although some I suspect are over-priced or over-hyped crap), and I would love to have some around (even though I’m sure it’s just for the cool toy factor most of the time).

But, I’ve seen a lot of these kinds of videos and heard a fair amount of audio clips and tracks made with such devices, and even circuit-bent one or two devices of my own. So many of these folk just don’t seem to be doing anything interesting with the stuff they have (not commenting on demo videos such as this exactly, it just got me thinking). Maybe I’m just not nihilistic enough to tap into the splendour of unadulterated machine noise, but I usually prefer music/noise/sound/art to be a bit more than simply turning your gear on and grinning stupid. Perhaps it is even ridiculous of me to go looking for standards or quality or effort in something we call noise, but I guess I’m a little too old school that way.

Dull sloppy squeakfart music, or some spastic guy turning stuff up real loud and flailing about on stage like an ignoramus, or 8-bit distorted sounds integrated in to the same old generic DnB beats just doesn’t strike me as interesting. For instance, I keep waiting for someone to do something even remotely interesting with Metasonix gear (although Michael Weeks’ Wretch project has come close, many times I think it is interesting despite the Metasonix stuff, or certainly that the few interesting things that the Metasonix gear imparted could have been found elsewhere).

I offer up my track Bent Machine as an example of the opposite. It’s a circuit-bent Behringer EQ pedal, and I think it shows a little more craft than simply the noise a circuit-bent pedal might spit out on its own. I’m willing to accept that I may be full of crap on this, though, should you disagree with my assessment.

I do have to wonder if the sounds that come from a lot of these devices are so one-note that perhaps it isn’t exclusively driver error, and that they really aren’t useful for much? Most of the time I suspect that their value has less to do with making music/noise and more simply to do with gear fetish. The impression I get from a lot of these things is the same I get from all those guys that have mountains of expensive analogue synths around, who buy endless stacks of machines just to get the same damn lead sound to do their best impression of a Jan Hammer Mahavishnu solo over top a Robert Rich-like drone/arpeggio thing. Although these days more and more of those guys (perhaps the new generation?) are just making the dull sloppy squeakfart music.

I’m not saying folk shouldn’t make whatever noises they wish to make, I just wish they’d maybe try a little harder. It’s easy to make any old noise (and purveyors of any old noise seem to be more and more ubiquitous), but is that all making noise was ever about?