Starise
Waltenstien- Thanks for listening.I listened to some of your material too. It sounds pretty good. I haven't had the chance to comment on any of it yet. I see you mostly like the synthy pad etherial type of thing. No harm in that. So I understand where you're coming from in the comments. I'll share for you why I have tended to get away from some of those earlier tracks. For me it isn't a real challenge to put a few loops together, get them sounding decent and add a human part here and there. I could make those kinds of songs all day. The bigger challenge is in making it mostly from scratch. Granted it can be fun to play with panning and effect automation etc. but not as much fun as playing a real instrument, at least for me. I might need a loop here and there or a drum track sometimes but I try to minimize it. I like to play my own bass if possible too.Hopefully I'll get better at the acoustic stuff as I go along.Thanks for listening.
I'm heading in the opposite direction from you apparently. I did my acoustic ballads and instrumentals about 20-30 years ago. ;)
Keyboards (especially analog modeling synths) are relatively new for me. I feel like an explorer, learning how to control oscillators and LFOs and filters and envelopes. What I love about synths is that you have to be part engineer, part producer, and part performer, but the emphasis is on being a good producer. As you pointed out, you can even create synth music without performing at all, just dragging MIDI loops around your project. I understand if some people have a problem with this approach, but personally I don't, as long as the production is creative or innovative in some way.
Considering the enormous variety of sounds and techniques that are possible in electronic music, I find it quite challenging! In contrast, I find simply playing a guitar or bass pretty limiting, and usually try to get that bit over with quickly so I can move on to the fun production stuff. :) But that's just me.