questions you are dying to ask but are too scared to b/c of music nerd cred?

pattycakes_

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
what do house heads mean by calling a track 'tracky' ? and is it related to 'trackheads'? as in a bunch of people who dig tracky tracks?

mostly seen this in reference to 80's/early 90's house
 
O

Ory

warp drive
always took it to mean a tune without much structure, and definitely nothing resembling a "song" in the traditional sense. so yeah, what luka said.
 
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tyranny

Well-known member
Leo said:
actually, i thought it was "fay-hee". i know someone who played with him one time, that's the way my friend pronounces it.
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Unless this Fahey chap doesn't know how to pronounce his own name either, common affliction among emigrants...
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
pattycakes said:
what do house heads mean by calling a track 'tracky' ? and is it related to 'trackheads'? as in a bunch of people who dig tracky tracks?

mostly seen this in reference to 80's/early 90's house
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I have no idea if this is specifically where the term comes from when talking about house, but in production circles it's a reference to sounding like it was made using a particular kind of software called a tracker, that was big in the time period you mention.

Trackers were traditionally based on quite a limited number of sounds or parts, so tend to loop lots, or at the least development is based on rearranging or messing with that small palette. It'd definitely be easier to write something "tracky" with a tracker than it would be to write something "songy".

Then again, I also wouldn't be at all surprised if "tracky" just came from the imagined distinction between tracks vs. songs, nothing to do with writing on trackers.
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
For a piece of music to be called "polyrhythmic", does one of the rhythms have to be tuplets against the main meter?

For example, if the thing is 4 4, is it only polyrhythmic if at least one of the rhythms can be countable in 3s or 5s or 7s or whatever else?

Or is it still polyrhythmic if the rhythms are just different patterns of 4s /8s / 16s?
 
M

muser

Well-known member
michael said:
For a piece of music to be called "polyrhythmic", does one of the rhythms have to be tuplets against the main meter?

For example, if the thing is 4 4, is it only polyrhythmic if at least one of the rhythms can be countable in 3s or 5s or 7s or whatever else?

Or is it still polyrhythmic if the rhythms are just different patterns of 4s /8s / 16s?
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afaik a poly rhythm is 2 rhythms playing in different time signatures over one another. 4/4 with 5/4 with 7/4 etc is quite common, played at different speeds to each other so they finish at the same point. youtube is great for understanding poly rhythms .

The beat "4 8 16" isnt really so relevant, generally when you hear people talking about polyrythms they saying things like "3 over 2" (3/4 over 2/4) or "5 over 7" (5/4 over 7/4) etc If you were to play 6/8 over 3/4 you would just make the rhythm 6/8.
 
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Immryr

Well-known member
no there does not need to be a triple time over a duple time to make something a polyrhythm, nor does there need to be two time signatures in it. polyrhythms can be very simple things, or very complex things. a cross rhythm like 3 over 2 or 6 over 4 or whatever is only one specific type of polyrhythm.
 
C

Client Eastwood

Well-known member
Sectionfive said:
Whats a Drumpan soundboy ??
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A weak sound system best described here . . . not sure why 'drumpam' maybe cos it sounds like a steeldrum all tinny like ?

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O

Ory

warp drive
Big Nose said:
What about when music is described as being/sounding "clipped"?
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as well as what pattycakes said, i've mostly heard it refer to when the end of a sample (snare, hihat, whatever) is cut off to give that snappy sound, often with compression applied.
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Immryr said:
no there does not need to be a triple time over a duple time to make something a polyrhythm, nor does there need to be two time signatures in it. polyrhythms can be very simple things, or very complex things. a cross rhythm like 3 over 2 or 6 over 4 or whatever is only one specific type of polyrhythm.
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Ah "cross rhythm" - that's a new one on me. Interesting, cheers.

So, broadly, polyrhythmic is pretty redundant when talking about most any music that might get talked about on here?
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
michael said:
Ah "cross rhythm" - that's a new one on me. Interesting, cheers.

So, broadly, polyrhythmic is pretty redundant when talking about most any music that might get talked about on here?
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Not entirely - eg Reynolds uses it a lot to talk about old jungle break chopping which often isn't polyrhythmic at all - the rhythms are complex, twisty and unpredictable but seldom actually layered in any way...

Also, 'polyrhythmic' is often used to mean 'obviously and unusually polyrhythmic' - in the same way that people use 'melodic' to mean 'foregrounding the melody' not just 'having an instrument that plays more than one pitch sequentially.'
 
M

michael

Bring out the vacuum
Yeah, was thinking the latter after I posted.

At the time I was just thinking of the number of tracks that would have different parts playing different dotted rhythms.
 
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