i've been producing for about six years now simply for my own amusement, and i've developed a system (though it's been developed before) that works very well for me.
i'm sure we've all heard bt's "fibonacci sequence", and for those of you who don't know, fibonacci sequences are the patterns that produce harmony, but why is this so great? some of this might sound really weird & eggheady, but it's not that bad...i promise!
the intrinsic characteristics of harmonics allow for different waves to propagate concurrently without any turbulence, which is what gives them their pleasing quality; when our ears convert musical sound waves into electrical pulses, they hit our auditory cortex in such a manner that our consciousness can anticipate, or at least appreciate, what comes next because they are being received in a manner that follows a rational pattern based on what has come before; this is the essence of progression.
we all know that harmonic frequencies produce chords, but most people, i imagine, never think of music as a vastly complex wave function, and so never think to apply the principles of harmony to EVERY facet of music.
for those of you who are sceptical; here's a simplistic mini-proof:
let's call the kickdrum of a 4/4 beat f1; and the snaredrum f2...
let's say that the kickdrum occurs every quarter measure, and the snaredrum occurs every 1/2 measure(just like in the standard 4/4 beat)...
by comparing the frequency of the events we can see that f1 occurs twice as often as f2, a harmonic ratio that corresponds to an octave!
even the nastiest jungle beats can be broken down like this, breakbeats are just representations of superpositions of two or more harmonic waves or wavelets(a wave that doesn't repeat infinitely) in the same pattern.
so for those of you who have the patience (NB tails), when you write a pattern you like and can't find something to go along with it; you can break down the pattern into a system of periodic (when events occur at identical/regular intervals) waves. then multiply by a harmonic, or add or subtract harmonic waves to yield a new pattern that will sound good!
another thing to bear in mind is that you have to pick a "base" to work in...a fundamental number from which you'll derive all your harmonics. so long as your base is the same, any harmonic pattern will work throughout the song. but be careful, you may create dissonance between patterns if you don't keep track of the frequencies of the waves you've already applied & select a non-harmonic one...
hopefully you're convinced that the intrinsic characteristics of harmonics produce pleasing effects no matter what dimension you are working in (if not, try taking measurements of different objects in your favorite piece of artwork), so you can take this li'l piece of knowledge and apply it to LFOs, patterns, sound qualities...everything! c'mon people let's usher in a brave new world of electronica, leaving no room for mindless incipid poptrash!
i could go on for pages & pages, but i really don't want to seem like some knowitall asshole; this is the most useful and powerful thing i've learned from writing & studying music. if anyone wants more quasi-mathmatical musical mumbo-jumbo, i'd be happy to pattle on!
for anyone whom i've really interested, & doesn't mind a lot of reading, checkout "The Schillinger System of Musical Composition"; it'll teach you ALL about it.
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Originally Posted by n-root
