Suggestions for Hardware Industrial Music Gear

[williamharris]

The SC DrumTraks sounds pretty industrial when you pitch its sounds down.

[23]

I wasn't going to contribute to this thread, as I felt it's premise was completely off, but I've finally caved in.

Like I said, I think the premise is entirely off.

Industrial, in it's purest form, was a result of experimentation. And in this vein, once one elects to pin out down forumlaicly, they're totally getting away from it. To this end, once one finds themselves asking "What's the best gear for industrial", they've already fallen off the tracks.

Now granted, I think the original posters question could be rephrased as "I have 'X' as a goal sound, what gear would be ideally suited towards such ends?" This is a question that deals more with timbre than with some sort of genre however.

Unless one is looking to get stuck in a rut of emulation, I really don't think that putting to much worry into what gear other people have used or other people is good is really worthy of much consideration. And I know some here think that such takes away from the "musicality" of things, but this is where I think study is worthwhile.
I mean to look at timbres and ask "What made this timbre work? What are it's qualities? What makes various synths tick? What architecturaly components would be ideally suited for me accomplishing my goals and HOW CAN I BEND THEM towards other ends?"
I mean these are much more relevant questions I think.

To understand how and why a certain tool(s) can be used to accomplish a certain goal ultimately yields many more options than a simple emulative outlook of "Well let me just take up the same tool set as 'X' person(s)".
In the end, very often even with the same tools, unless an understanding of how and why those tools do various things is in place, one can have the same exact tools and still not end up reaching their end goal.
In essence, M.C. Escher may have used pencil, but just because someone gos out and grabs a pencil doesn't mean that they will now be able to accomplish artistic effects along the lines of Escher. There's going to be a level of understanding of how to use that pencil in place in order for Escher like effects to take place. And further, once that understanding is put in place with other understandings, certain elements of Escher can be taken and combined with other techniques and elements in order to formulate something more original than Escher rather than just to emulate him.

Understanding and experimentation.....
Understand the theory and execution, and combine with imagination, and you're on to a much more interesting road.

[cartesia]

^ I agree with most of what you say,

but I think the underlying basic point of asking us is that they have a price limit and want us to help them to make sure they get a pencil instead of a crayon

[metrosonus]

That's true of anything though, especially regarding the electronic styles or experimental.

Which is why I have nothing to say either.. but you have to admit that after the initial experimentation a sound or sounds were "coined" as it were which leads to genreficitation. That's the simple evoloution from a DJ playing records together to keyboards having presets on them like "house keys" and "house rythm kit". It usually ends at what we are looking at now, with a highly streamlined and homogonized form of music.

I usually go by what bruce lee said.. "i can't teach you to be you, I can only teach you to be me".

[JSRockit]

If I were you, I would add a Metasonix TM-7 to any of your existing synths or drum machines.

[Zamise]

And, something with an a*s kicking fucted up snare hit! Its all in the snare hit, I promise you, get that sounding sexy enough and even catholic shcool librians won't be able to resist the worst of the rest of your creamy fillings. Unfortunately most of them will be dudes with a gotee, glasses, and their grey hair in a pony tail.

[voltageHead]

the new industrial does not sound much like the old stuff
one of my favorite new industrial albums is Artificial Soldier by FLA

[Entropy Farmer]

Industrial, in it's purest form, was a result of experimentation. And in this vein, once one elects to pin out down forumlaicly, they're totally getting away from it. To this end, once one finds themselves asking "What's the best gear for industrial", they've already fallen off the tracks.

I think it's less about formula and more about context. Playing the spoons is not industrial to begin with, but playing it through a distortion pedal knocks it into that context. Some synths start or are easily kicked in that direction. Look at the Wretch Machine - good luck getting that thing to spew out anything but industrial. The ESQ-1 and Evolver are also industrial to begin with because you can trivially make these horrible, wonderful noises come out without running it through a Metasonix Vomit Comet or whatever first.

Contrast that with something like Xenakis' Concret PH. Sampling burning charcoal is an industrial-as-h**l technique, but the arrangement wasn't there.

[Andy_X69]

Some synths start or are easily kicked in that direction. Look at the Wretch Machine - good luck getting that thing to spew out anything but industrial. The ESQ-1 and Evolver are also industrial to begin with because you can trivially make these horrible, wonderful noises come out without running it through a Metasonix Vomit Comet or whatever first.

If thats the case, that a synth that can easily sound evil is an Industrial synth, then I would say the following count: 1) Virus of any kind (simply because it sounds naturally dark and has so much distortion to play with), 2) Nord 3 (the Sync and FM options can just grate), 3) Andromeda (the FM can sound eeevil and the analog distortion is quite aggressive). Of course, these synths can do much more than industrial.