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Roger Linn: "What's the big deal about nostalgia?"

guigui

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Hi, everyone!

I don't know if you guys are aware, but in recent years, there has been a discussion in the electronic music gear world about Behringer releasing recreations/clones of old and famous electronic music instruments. Last year, they released the LmDrum, based on the LinnDrum drum machine, created by the genius Roger Linn. Many famous artists used it in the 80s, and you'll probably recognize its sounds when you hear it:



Mr. Linn decided to share his thoughts about the Behringer's recreation/clone on a post in his blog. It's a very interesting read, but I think the best part it's the ending, where he talks about nostalgia. Since it's a very frequently brought up subject in here, like in discussions about R2R DACs, I wanted to share it here so maybe we can talk about it:

One last comment. What's the big deal about nostalgia? I can understand that some people value analog synthesis, though I find the many types of innovative software synthesis created in recent decades to be far more capable, versatile and interesting. But even if people value vintage analog synths, why vintage digital drum machines? I ask this because an old bit is no different than a new bit. Our collective love of nostalgia brings to mind an old Douglas Adams quote from Salmon of Doubt:

"I've come up with a set of rules that describe our reactions to technologies:
1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you're thirty-five is against the natural order of things."

As a guitarist, I recall having endless discussions in my youth about "good distortion". :)
 
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Many of the users grew up with the sound of those old machines, and those were used by their musical heroes. The same counts for the different Roland TR modules, those were key in the development of most modern dancemusic in the 1980's as they were (relative) cheap and easy to use. Perfect for underground music scenes. Now even the Roland JP8080 is getting a revival as 90's eurotrance and hardtrance is back, and that machine was the sound of that style and era.

Off course tech moved on, but modern plugins are so complex for many that they are hard to use, and you don't have the tactile feel. Digital synth hardware has the tactical feel but are often also way to complex. Rememeber that most musuicians are not engineers and hardly got any technical knowledge. They want an easy device with only limited knobs that sound good, and those like the LinnDrum and the Roland drummachines mentioned are like that.

And some music styles are build arround the sound of certain modules. Acid tekno is old, started in the late 1980's and is still very alive and kicking. The sound of that genre is the Roland TR-909 drum machine and the Roland TB-303 synth. Without those you can't make that genre. The more mainstream acid house used the same combo, but died out after it was comercialised in the 90, but the harder dirtier Acid Tekno is still one of the driving music styles of the ever growing illigal-rave Freetek party circuits in Europe. The Behringer clones (ao) help to keep that genre going as the originals become so sought after that they become ridiculous expensive.
 
Nostalgia makes sense for old people like, ahem, me -- it gets weird when we think about youngsters ;) pining for things they never experienced -- e.g., records, tapes, rotary dial phones, handlebar mustaches...

EDIT: That said, and to date, I've never had the urge to clip-clop around the 'hood with a horse and buggy (e.g.).
 
I think it's sad that the more complex programming of the very early 1980s has seemingly not been recreated since. Think
or Prince's 1999.
Nostalgia makes sense for old people like, ahem, me -- it gets weird when we think about youngsters ;) pining for things they never experienced -- e.g., records, tapes, rotary dial phones, handlebar mustaches...
Never discount the appeal of romanticism.
EDIT: That said, and to date, I've never had the urge to clip-clop around the 'hood with a horse and buggy (e.g.).
Mind you, the equine kind of locomotion famously is a tad high-maintenance, too, and speed and comfort are limited. It feels like doing things in hard mode without much of anything in return. Even ham radio still has some perks to offer in the age of ubiquitous mobile phones.

Historic clothing does seem to be a reasonably popular subject though. YT dress historians like Bernadette Banner or Karolina Żebrowska or Abby Cox have 5 to 6-digit subscriber counts. (A super nerdy bunch in the best sense, I may add. :))

People also do things like banding together to keep steam trains running in some capacity, or historic aircraft or water vessels.
 
Nostalgia makes sense for old people like, ahem, me -- it gets weird when we think about youngsters ;) pining for things they never experienced -- e.g., records, tapes, rotary dial phones, handlebar mustaches...

EDIT: That said, and to date, I've never had the urge to clip-clop around the 'hood with a horse and buggy (e.g.).
And are you still wearing the handlebar moustache?
 
I think it's sad that the more complex programming of the very early 1980s has seemingly not been recreated since.
Can you explain a bit more in detail what you mean? I mean: there's still a whole scene with live sequencers+drum computers+synths, even modular, and I've heard way more complex/interesting stuff there than in the video you posted - usually not in pop music though. But maybe I'm just missing your point :)
 
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I think there's some nostalgia in this arena, but also an aspect of cargo cult-ism around gear. In music, if a famous recording uses a certain piece of gear, there will be a certain level of demand for that gear for a long time.

The electronics (mixers, compressors, etc) from the abbey road studios show up as VST emulations all the time, as if introducing the same distortion the Beatles dealt with would make your song good.

I think the demand for vintage synths is driven by that more than nostalgia per se.

@Waxx also makes the good point that certain genres rely on certain gear. You can't do acid techno without a 303 any more than you can do country-Western without guitar. Luckily for producers there are fairly credible software versions for most of this stuff now.
 
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