Acoustic OONTZ

March 11, 2011 12:39 PM

How to play a trance song ... on a guitar. [via reddit]
posted by bayani (62 comments total)

CAUTION: that shit is trance.

(Actually I really like this. It sounds great, is a neat idea, and doesn't go on for like 48 hours)
posted by poe at 12:44 PM on March 11, 2011

That is really, really awesome.

Looking forward to DJs attempting to simulate the guitar sound.
posted by odinsdream at 12:50 PM on March 11, 2011

That is crazily good playing, though there's a lot more reverb than you'd normally hear from a guitar leading me to think that it's been enchanced with electronics.

Crazy good. Think his bottom 2 strings are the same note (which would certainly help with fingering).
posted by BigCalm at 12:50 PM on March 11, 2011

this isn't remotely trance. He's just playing with a delay that's at the same tempo as he is playing.

Here is trance with guitar.
posted by empath at 12:53 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Dayammmmmmn. Very fast fingers on this one.
posted by pmbuko at 12:57 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Yeah that ain't trance. All that is is a delay pedal and a riff or two.
posted by spicynuts at 12:57 PM on March 11, 2011

This is also impressive.
posted by wabbittwax at 12:57 PM on March 11, 2011

i like this one more
posted by nathancaswell at 12:58 PM on March 11, 2011 [16 favorites]

That is crazily good playing, though there's a lot more reverb than you'd normally hear from a guitar leading me to think that it's been enchanced with electronics.

I think that's entirely intentional and isn't something he's trying to hide.
posted by odinsdream at 12:59 PM on March 11, 2011

yeah, so, pmbuko beat me to it. Whatever. But also, here's that same piece at the end of the Ralph Macchio classic, Crossroads
posted by wabbittwax at 12:59 PM on March 11, 2011

Wait, so U2 is trance? And Cathedral by Van Halen is trance?

I'm so confused.
posted by The World Famous at 1:02 PM on March 11, 2011

Here's some more trance with guitar. (well, house, really)
posted by empath at 1:02 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, I listened to half of it, and it's nice, but he really isn't doing that much. A properly-timed delay is doing the bulk of the work, soundwise.
posted by Decani at 1:04 PM on March 11, 2011

i like this one more

Flagged as brain-meltingly terrible.
posted by odinsdream at 1:04 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

Flagged as brain-meltingly terrible.

Do you disagree that today is friday, yesterday was thursday, tomorrow will be saturday and sunday afterwards?
posted by nathancaswell at 1:06 PM on March 11, 2011 [13 favorites]

He's just playing with a delay that's at the same tempo as he is playing.

Yeah, well, that's trance-music-production 101: play a bunch of 16th-note arpeggios with a tempo-synced delay. So he's definitely on the right track.

What this is really missing is the big 4/4 drumbeat. Give it a steady kick and some syncopated hi-hats and you'd have a solid piece for a dawn set. Of course that's the easy part - any idiot with a drum machine can do that - so I think the guy's proved his point.
posted by Mars Saxman at 1:06 PM on March 11, 2011

This is really impressive.
posted by anoirmarie at 1:07 PM on March 11, 2011

I think part of the point is that there aren't any other instruments. This is not trance that happens to have a guitar, it's an attempt at trance using only guitar.
posted by Jpfed at 1:07 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Do you disagree that today is friday, yesterday was thursday, tomorrow will be saturday and sunday afterwards?

Funfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfun.
posted by odinsdream at 1:08 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Leo Kottke reborn?
posted by pmbuko at 1:09 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Guy in stupid hat wows chicks with his digital delay, film at 11.
posted by TheCoug at 1:13 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, I listened to half of it, and it's nice, but he really isn't doing that much. A properly-timed delay is doing the bulk of the work, soundwise.

Why should we even have to read that comment? I mean, the internet did the bulk of the work. You should have telepathied it to us.

He's no virtuoso, but watch his hands - he's still got some solid technique. Technically, every musician's instruments do the bulk of the work. And it's true a delay can make a lot of things sound better, but I also find that by adding a guitar I can make wiggling my fingers sound better. So unless any of you have a video of yourself playing something at least as impressive, or of someone miraculously producing music just by holding their hands up in the air*, you may find that a bit less finding fault on the internet and a bit more plucking practice will cure you of that taste for the Haterade, hmm?

*No, theremins don't count.
posted by regicide is good for you at 1:22 PM on March 11, 2011 [4 favorites]

Yeah, well, that's trance-music-production 101: play a bunch of 16th-note arpeggios with a tempo-synced delay. So he's definitely on the right track.

What this is really missing is the big 4/4 drumbeat. Give it a steady kick and some syncopated hi-hats and you'd have a solid piece for a dawn set. Of course that's the easy part - any idiot with a drum machine can do that - so I think the guy's proved his point.

Good trance is all production quality and engineering, more than composition. It's easy to come up with a trance melody and structure. It's very, very hard to get the exact combination of effects, pads, bass, leads, drum samples, etc so that it just sings as a coherent whole but doesn't sound hackneyed and over done.

This goes for pretty much any genre of dance music. They're all formulaic pretty much by definition. The innovation is in production -- witness the rise of dubstep, which is all creating innovative bass patches more than it is about actual song writing.
posted by empath at 1:27 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

i like this one more

Holy goddam fuck that is possibly the worst song I have ever heard.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 1:28 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

This guy uses a similar (albeit more minimalistic) style:
Yoav - Beautiful Lie
posted by schmod at 1:30 PM on March 11, 2011

A properly-timed delay is doing the bulk of the work, soundwise.

Do you only listen to handclaps and/or unaccompanied voice choirs?
posted by Threeway Handshake at 1:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Holy goddam fuck that is possibly the worst song I have ever heard.

is it weird that i've watched it 3 times already? i like imagining it is some $80k sweet sixteen present. i also like imagining how sad the rapper at the end is.
posted by nathancaswell at 1:30 PM on March 11, 2011 [7 favorites]

reminds me of this
posted by triceryclops at 1:30 PM on March 11, 2011

Good trance is all production quality and engineering, more than composition. It's easy to come up with a trance melody and structure. It's very, very hard to get the exact combination of effects, pads, bass, leads, drum samples, etc so that it just sings as a coherent whole but doesn't sound hackneyed and over done.

I guess what I'm saying here, is that you can throw a delay on any instrument and get something that sounds vaguely trance-like, but it's not 'playing' trance until you get the whole suite of effects, synths, samples etc.... Once that's done, you can play almost any random set of notes and turn it into a finished track. In fact, my friends that actually produce trance do exactly that -- they play random notes for a few minutes, get something that sounds vaguely song like, and then twiddle knobs for several weeks and barely think about the melody again unless they need to change it to make the production sound tighter...
posted by empath at 1:32 PM on March 11, 2011

nice
posted by StickyCarpet at 1:42 PM on March 11, 2011

i also like imagining how sad the rapper at the end is.

God fucking damn it... you're going to make me re-open that shit and actually watch the rest of it?!
posted by odinsdream at 1:48 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

God fucking damn it... you're going to make me re-open that shit and actually watch the rest of it?!</i<

I just watched it. I'm pretty sure that video comes on right after "Ow, My Balls!".
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 1:53 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

i like this one more

Which one of those kids is Justin Bieber? Are they all Justin Bieber? When did I get so old?
posted by borkencode at 1:57 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

i like this one more

I wish you were here so I could punch you in the eye.
posted by lumpenprole at 2:15 PM on March 11, 2011 [5 favorites]

The complaint about the delay is something I've heard for years, as a guy whose music is essentially composed around immense chains of delays and modulators and reverbs and other wonderful sound-bending machines.

"Oh, that rig is doing all the work," some wise guy cynic would say, seeing me sitting there with my little box of gear, and there some reason for them to think so, since I'm often making little movements and gestures that won't emerge from the speakers for a good thirty seconds or so, distinguishing me from those who play more direct instruments.

The thing is, I'm playing the system, and the system is my instrument in the same way that the studio is Brian Eno's instrument, or the paper roll was Conlon Nancarrow's instrument. This isn't billed as trance on the guitar, completely acoustic and a capella. It's impressive playing feeding a simple system. Me, I'm a simple player with an unbelievably complicated system, but it's my system. Every detail, every parameter, and every mode of interaction are by my design, and are the product of years of study, play, experimentation, and surrender.

"Yeah, it's all just the gear making the sound," the occasional wag will say, and when I have the time and I'm in the mood, I stand up, offer my seat, and make a suggestion.

"Then you won't have a problem recreating what I've been doing for the last half hour," I say, step back, and watch.


This guy with the guitar, though, well, he's got some talented fingers. Wish I had half his facility with that instrument.
posted by sonascope at 2:16 PM on March 11, 2011 [17 favorites]

All that is is a delay pedal and a riff or two.

More accurately: this guy has taken what I think a lot of people recognize as certain idioms often used in trance (among other kinds of electronic music) and has produced something that's recognizably related (and entertaining) but pared-down enough that can be performed by a single person using nothing but a guitar and delay pedal.

It's certainly fair to say there's more to a really good trance piece than that. This is still recognizably related, arguably well-distilled, and IMHO entertaining.
posted by weston at 2:22 PM on March 11, 2011 [3 favorites]

Actually, I wouldn't mind hearing someone drag that audio into Ableton and make it into an actual trance track, just for fun.
posted by The World Famous at 3:07 PM on March 11, 2011

Me, I'm a simple player with an unbelievably complicated system, but it's my system. Every detail, every parameter, and every mode of interaction are by my design, and are the product of years of study, play, experimentation, and surrender.

Yeah, that was kind of what I was trying to say. With EDM, the gear is the instrument, and tweaking the gear settings is a significant percentage of the composition.
posted by empath at 3:14 PM on March 11, 2011

I make a chunk of my living producing dance music for a couple of small record labels, and I think this is awesome. I just went to iTunes and the track is available for purchase there.

Dude has managed to capture the essentials of the style on one instrument - no easy feat.
posted by tantrumthecat at 3:18 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm not ashamed to say I liked it, even without any epic 30 minute snare roll buildups.
posted by AlsoMike at 3:21 PM on March 11, 2011

Holy crap Unknown Asian guitarist is amazing.
posted by Ad hominem at 3:25 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

i like this one more

This is probably going to sound weird, but that song was so vapid and free of content from the very first note that I was immediately convinced that it must be Christian music.
posted by penduluum at 6:01 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Buckethead'd

posted by Ct314 at 7:02 PM on March 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

i like this one more

Holy shit. I didn't even watch that the first time I looked at this post...and then I went through my metafilter feedback loop again because work is boring...and I clicked it.

I clicked that link...and I can't stop watching it...and I can't stop posting it to friends facebook walls. It's like a car crash combined with crippling embarrassment. Thank you.
posted by jnnla at 8:25 PM on March 11, 2011

Leo Kottke reborn?

Leo Kottke is still alive.

and goddamn you for making me check in a minor panic
posted by Mr. Anthropomorphism at 8:37 PM on March 11, 2011

Gotta get down to the BUUUS STOP
posted by you're a kitty! at 9:48 PM on March 11, 2011

i like this one more

If this is satire, it's pure fucking gold. If it's not satire, I quit. Everything.
posted by reductiondesign at 10:00 PM on March 11, 2011 [2 favorites]

Plus she totally cockblocks that other girl in the back seat. Not cool!
posted by Adventurer at 10:09 PM on March 11, 2011

the music is very reminiscent (to me) of Maserati's song Monoliths. I would be surprised if this guy is not a fan.

also thank you nathancaswell for updating my reference to Top That!
posted by noway at 10:11 PM on March 11, 2011

what a bunch of typical mefi grumpy bastards!

i just heard about this guy today. what a badass. he brings life and humor to a field filled with everyone from berklee students to basho disciples making more of the same.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ewan_Dobson

that level 5 and 30 piece is great. just bought his new album.
posted by Señor Pantalones at 10:34 PM on March 11, 2011

I declare it to be good.
posted by palacewalls at 11:47 PM on March 11, 2011

different kind of trance.
posted by rainperimeter at 1:17 AM on March 12, 2011

Here's Dobson doing Blood and Ice.
posted by tomcooke at 1:30 AM on March 12, 2011

John Martyn playing Rather Be the Devil
posted by Grangousier at 1:51 AM on March 12, 2011 [1 favorite]

i like this one more

I liked it more too.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 4:18 AM on March 12, 2011

I'm I the only one who hears Aces High from Iron Maiden?
posted by kmartino at 5:49 AM on March 12, 2011

Who the Hell Made Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’ Video?

It’s like everyone involved was given cat tranquilizers and then forced at gunpoint to make a video. The expression on her face when she’s saying the “fun fun fun fun” line is somewhere between ‘I’m saying “fun” but that word means something different on our world’ and ‘Help me I am being held hostage by Kim Jong Il and forced to do this.’

posted by Rhaomi at 6:00 AM on March 12, 2011 [8 favorites]

So who's going to make a Rebecca BLACK FRIDAY darkmetal cover band of her with me?
posted by Threeway Handshake at 7:57 AM on March 12, 2011

i like this one more
posted by nathancaswell

Is Rebecca Black the new Rickroll?
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 8:48 AM on March 12, 2011

Holy crap Unknown Asian guitarist is amazing.

It appears her name is Li Jie.
posted by Coventry at 9:47 AM on March 12, 2011

Kind of reminds me of KJ Sawka doing Drum n' Bass accoustically
posted by P.o.B. at 11:48 AM on March 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

Rhaomi, great link, thank you, especially in the comments wherein someone associated with the production company gets into a tussle with the world and also where, like in this thread, important work is done to figure out what "Friday" really means:

“YESTERDAY WAS THURSDAY, TODAY IS FRIDAY” – measured human evolution. We are progressing at a constant rate of 24 hours per day. You simply cannot deny it. So true.

etc.
posted by noway at 9:31 PM on March 15, 2011