"limitation breeds creativity"

[r4ph431]

Currently find myself recording loops onto my sp-202. This thing is basic as fuck compared to using a daw or my 808 but it's forcing me to take different approaches towards sampling and creating sounds.

ITT:

-What limits have you worked with?
-Limited set ups ie, slow computer, 202, etc.

[hseiken]

Palm Pilot, PSP, Gameboy Advance, DOS/Adlib/OPL3, PxTone, etc.

Limitations are fun if you have a set goal with those limitations or if you're someone who finds that restored focus when you don't have all the sounds of the world available to you. I sorta fall into both categories because I do find more focus away from infinite possibilities of ccomputer compared to hardware, but sometimes I'll have a goal as well, which tends to be masking any way I can the fact I'm using very underpowered tools...i.e. make something that doesn't sound like it could be done on that device if one was to just know or hear the specs (Damn, dude, you did all that in 20k and with 2 buttons and thumbpad?)...etc...

But yeah, I think focus is what you get from limited choices. It's not about shopping for what brand of sampler you want to muck about with all day it's 'here's what we got to get us from point a to point b...and I sure as hell am gonna get to point b even if I die trying'...it's basically a way of cutting out the bullshit from the craft.

[r4ph431]

'here's what we got to get us from point a to point b...and I sure as hell am gonna get to point b even if I die trying'...it's basically a way of cutting out the bullshit from the craft.

I laughed aloud! I have a game boy advanced and a bunch of games right in front of me right now. You have just inspired me. Ty.

[jetson]

I'm an old fart from way back when...I thought I hit the jackpot when I got my first 4 track cassette recorder. I would lay down three tracks, then bounce to track 4, then lay down 2 more, and bounce to another empty, etc. Yes, it got pretty stupid noisy, but I was multi-tracking!

Of course, that was a big improvement over live recording to a stereo cassette, and then live recording to another tape deck with the original deck in the loudspeakers as another live instrument! ha ha....those were the days.

[ellaguru]

in the mid 90s i had just a guitar (with amp), a boombox and a k7 recorder and also a bass. So i recorded tapes with "fake loops not precisely in time" of drums (made with 1)kick=beating a cardboard 2)snare=recorded short waves from radio), and when i recorded a track i started with the k7 (fake drum loops) and guit(or bass)+voc in one take...some months later a friend of my Brother gave him a yamaha pss 170, so i integrated that in the "set up" with also a karaoke (2 tracks!!yeah!!)...many tracks were recorded with this method, ...i bought basic samplers years later (end of 1996: su10, sold, and soon after a remix16)and a 4tracks recorder...i still got all those cassettes, guitars, recorders, the remix16...and many years later i rebought an su10...

[l i f]

I'm an old fart from way back when...I thought I hit the jackpot when I got my first 4 track cassette recorder. I would lay down three tracks, then bounce to track 4, then lay down 2 more, and bounce to another empty, etc. Yes, it got pretty stupid noisy, but I was multi-tracking!

Of course, that was a big improvement over live recording to a stereo cassette, and then live recording to another tape deck with the original deck in the loudspeakers as another live instrument! ha ha....those were the days.

Feeling this!

My real jackpot moment was getting a cracked version of Adobe Audition in around '04 and no longer having to edit cassette mixes with the pause button on a double-cassette deck... I got pretty quick with it; I have a stack of mixtapes recorded off dialup internet-radio recorded with my finger hovering over the pause-button to edit out the audio dropouts

A (major?) limitation: I never learned how to use midi but I'm pretty good at running cables to various bits of semi-broken equipment - unmodified 808 (the upgrade thread on this site goes waaay over my head), thrift-store stereo, turntable needs a kick-start to run the platter and plays Left channel only, Tascam DR-1 has a broken volume button so plays back at 20% volume, most of my cables need to be held in a 'certain position' to work... the struggle and daily problem-solving for me makes it that much more satisfying when i get a result, but then, I'm not producing EDM for the radio

A friend of mine in Florida established a label to promote music produced under such limitations, may be of interest to readers here...

Poverty Electronics

[LesPasta]

casio sk-1, sony walkman and tascam portastudio back in the early 90's

I think one day I will revisit that set up

[ellaguru]

casio sk-1, sony walkman and tascam portastudio back in the early 90's

I think one day I will revisit that set up

yes!

[noDDy hEAded fREak]

i like the ingenuity that limitation inspires.

Korg Monotron is a fun tool to think outside the box with
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[JadeGodHands]

First rap song I ever made was on a Talkboy by holding it next to the TV screen looping the instrumental from "All About The Benjamins" or something like that.

Second one was from one of those dual cassette players. Rapping over the 1998 undertaker theme with a 20 dollar mic. It took like 10 takes but the quality wasn't horrible.

I would also use the talkboy in combination with these weird nickelodeon-ish voice changer toys they used to make at the time. So that was my first take on music and "sampling"

I discovered FL in 06 but over the next couple of years I was also doing songs on Korg DS, Electroplankton and some other stuff that had it's limits but produced unique results.

[jetson]

First rap song I ever made was on a Talkboy by holding it next to the TV screen looping the instrumental from "All About The Benjamins" or something like that.

Now that is epic!

[r4ph431]

i like the ingenuity that limitation inspires.

Me too! :3

[medearis]

"...but I'm pretty good at running cables to various bits of semi-broken equipment."
Fuckin' punk rock

I'm one of the "lucky" types that has had a lot of gear in and out of my hands (I buy & flip for profit regularly)... but there is always something sexy about having nothing but ambition, desire, will-power to MAKE SHIT HAPPEN.

In my experience, limitation does not create creativity as much as it pushes people to just get out there and simply DO.

DatZenLife

[r4ph431]

DatZenLife

That's w'sup!

[skinny.b]

This thread got me inspired last week and I did this

http://soundcloud.com/skinny-b-1/sofa-jams

Stupid little track with no production values but was fun! All battery powered sitting on the couch. Monotron duo, internal mic and resampling on the 404. Made the kick by tapping the int. mic then pitching and isolator