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The vocal effects of Daft Punk

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Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#71

Post by swivelmaster »

rickdeckard wrote: post #36
jedimastert wrote: post #17

It is unreal to me the amount of impact Daft Punk had with only four studio albums.

(They also did the Soundtrack for Tron:Legacy, basically their fifth studio album) Anyway, I keep remembering how panned 'Human After All' was, and how bad the reviews were because the album was too "mechanical" and was "missing the warmth of House", while this is EXACTLY how the genre evolved in the years to come and none of those music experts saw this. Many journalists did a retrospective of it a few years later a…

The reason that I dislike Human After All is that, quite simply, it's not fun.

It's dour. It's depressing. And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it.

What happened was that Daft Punk challenged themselves to make an album in six weeks and ended up with a showcase for a few neat guitar pedals and two fun songs (Robot Rock and Technologic), one of which consists almost entirely of a barely-changed sample (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFwGQAEYqHs).

Electronic music certainly evolved in ways that made it less warm, but that didn't make it less fun. Case in point, Skrillex's early music is weird and playful despite relying on 'cold' synth sounds. Human After All is just cold.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#73

Post by an_aparallel »

nprateem wrote: post #46

Any good software vocoders out there?

Fl studios "vocodex" is likely the most advanced vocoder there is.

128 bands, band redistribution, ability to further route using patcher, just look at its manual to see :)

Though its shrouded by the standard "FL is for rap dumb dumb" stigma. Marketing is one hell of a drug.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#74

Post by debrisapron »

I was a bit surprised by this article as it actually contradicts the account I always heard, which was their main vocal effect was a Roland VP-9000. If you listen to e.g. Harder Faster the effect is somewhere in between a vocoder & autotune, so I assumed that was the VP-9000. That said, this guy has clearly done his homework (pun intended) so I'm inclined to accept his version of events.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#76

Post by coldtea »

swivelmaster wrote: post #71
rickdeckard wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(They also did the Soundtrack for Tron:Legacy, basically their fifth studio album) Anyway, I keep remembering how panned 'Human After All' was, and how bad the reviews were because the album was too "mechanical" and was "missing the warmth of House", while this is EXACTLY how the genre evolved in the years to come and none of those music experts saw this. Many journalists did a retrospective of it a few years later a…

The reason that I dislike Human After All is that, quite simply, it's not fun. It's dour. It's depressing. And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it. What happened was that Daft Punk challenged themselves to make an album in six weeks and ended up with a showcase for a few neat guitar pedals and two fun songs (Robot Rock and Technologic), one of…

>And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it.

Being robotic and repeatitive never stopped people dancing like crazy to techno all night. In fact, that's its very allure.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#77

Post by l33tbro »

swivelmaster wrote: post #71
rickdeckard wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(They also did the Soundtrack for Tron:Legacy, basically their fifth studio album) Anyway, I keep remembering how panned 'Human After All' was, and how bad the reviews were because the album was too "mechanical" and was "missing the warmth of House", while this is EXACTLY how the genre evolved in the years to come and none of those music experts saw this. Many journalists did a retrospective of it a few years later a…

The reason that I dislike Human After All is that, quite simply, it's not fun. It's dour. It's depressing. And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it. What happened was that Daft Punk challenged themselves to make an album in six weeks and ended up with a showcase for a few neat guitar pedals and two fun songs (Robot Rock and Technologic), one of…

Fine not to like it for those reasons. But maybe try listen to it next time from a more psych, garage, or post-rock perspective. They were influenced very early on by groups like Spacemen 3, and I see HAA as them doing something big and dirgey in this kind of school. I even recall the liner notes saying only "all guitars by Daft Punk".

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#78

Post by swivelmaster »

coldtea wrote: post #76
swivelmaster wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason that I dislike Human After All is that, quite simply, it's not fun. It's dour. It's depressing. And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it. What happened was that Daft Punk challenged themselves to make an album in six weeks and ended up with a showcase for a few neat guitar pedals and two fun songs (Robot Rock and Technologic), one of…

> And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it. Being robotic and repeatitive never stopped people dancing like crazy to techno all night. In fact, that's its very allure.

"in a way that feels tiresome" is the operative phrase here. I like the throwaway tracks on Homework that are twice as long and half as interesting more than I like most of Human After All. They're fun.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#79

Post by marcedwards »

DHPersonal wrote: post #62
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tron:Legacy still lives in my head. I'm still chasing the music I imagined after seeing the movie/hearing the soundtrack. Also half of Daft Punk Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo's work in Kavinsky’s 'Nightcall'.

The composer who assisted them also worked with M83 for the Oblivion soundtrack, which I think is also pretty spectacular.

The Oblivion soundtrack is amazing! Love it. I’ve listened to it so many times. I haven’t seen the movie yet. I should do that.

Re: The vocal effects of Daft Punk

#80

Post by swivelmaster »

l33tbro wrote: post #77
swivelmaster wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason that I dislike Human After All is that, quite simply, it's not fun. It's dour. It's depressing. And it's repetitive in a way that feels tiresome; You can't dance to most of it or even really tap your foot to it. What happened was that Daft Punk challenged themselves to make an album in six weeks and ended up with a showcase for a few neat guitar pedals and two fun songs (Robot Rock and Technologic), one of…

Fine not to like it for those reasons. But maybe try listen to it next time from a more psych, garage, or post-rock perspective. They were influenced very early on by groups like Spacemen 3, and I see HAA as them doing something big and dirgey in this kind of school. I even recall the liner notes saying only "all guitars by Daft Punk".

The sound design is certainly interesting from the perspective of psych, garage, post-rock, etc., but the sound design doesn't make up for the songwriting. You need both. Or at least, I do.
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