Brian Eno: How To Make Original Ambient Music - BBC Click

I think the most important thing he said, the take-away, was that he sets up his generative music-making machine and then goes away to focus on something else. So, as ambient music, it's supposed to sound in the background, and if he notices that some pitch is too loud, plays too often or in the wrong register,then he comes back into the studio to tweak the machine. It's like designing wallpaper. You can only test it by printing a roll and pasting it on a wall. If your eyes get distracted by something then the pattern isn't performing its function. (Please don't think I'm insulting Eno's music by comparing it to wallpaper. It's just an illustrative metaphor, especially since he is or was also a visual artist.)

A remarkable musician, he wrote out all the program patches for the Yamaha dx7 no mean feat

I love this. I kind of want to do some partially randomized computer-generated music at some point. He's in deep with that though as shown here. I can take comfort knowing that he names his tracks with goofy descriptions like I do.

I could do a similar tour of my bedroom slash studio, but I'd have to pick up my laundry from the floor.... 🙂🙂🙂

Brian Eno is a master at the science of sound. I learned many of my techniques from listening to his music.

Why use probability but then a plug in to correct the pitch. You aren't getting true probability then as you are forcing the notes played to stay in key

Sometimes is good to create tension by using the odd note out of scale .

Music is math

Also why wouldn't you send someone at least a little familiar with music production to talk to Brian fuckin Eno???

Eno is about the closest equivalent a musician can be to a quantum physicist.

I make ambient music occasionally, but I always come away feeling like a charlatan as whatever I come up with sounds like third rate Eno knock-offs 🤷‍♂️

I'd have loved it if after having inputed all of those parameters the computer just spat out B notes.

bloody hell, if you're going to interview someone as advanced in their field as Eno, send in someone who at least has a basic grasp on music theory and production techniques.

This is lovely but the camerawork is dreadful.
So many wobbly or unhelpful shots. You're trying to show us what's on screen but can't keep the camera still enough for us to see. Did someone lose all the BBC's tripods?

What is the application he is using? I'm not very familiar with the appearance of interfaces on Apple products

I actually don’t know how to play keyboards, synthesizers, etc, but I use SoundTrap and the keyboards and synthesizers on there. I basically free improvise my music. My project Crocxsin is an ambient, noise, drone project I’ve been working on since I was 19 and I have a lot of people really enjoying my music.

The beauty of this is it confirms to all the bedroom musicians that if the god-progenitor of electronic ambient music as it exists, today, uses logical plug-ins and automation, no one else deserves shit for doing the same.

i kinda like that since he already did everything in his career himself, he just has the computer do it all for him now. and i would think he’s earned that. a lot of musicians of our age (millennial-gen z) have all this available at their fingertips since they could walk. eno and robert wyatt, on the other hand—i’m assuming they just starting hitting keys and shit on a piano one day and were like “hey we should make a soundtrack for an airport, but just out of stuff like this”

we just suck now, is what i’m saying

The camera dudes need a dose of ambient music to chill the fuck out out. Felt like a sequence from Bourne identity

An absolute genius

Everyone figuring which plug in ia the beat, while Brian Eno has its own scripts!

What plugins does he use?

Even just a little bite of his process has so many gems and ideas, it's awesome to see just some of the little random inspirations that might occur

Could somebody here explain what software or plugin is he using, or what can be used to randomize notes and patterns based on the producer's predefined variable value?

Then put it with some 808s, simple techno synths melodies and a glitchbeat and you got pretty much every aphex twin song ever.

So what is the rig? There looks to be a keyboard synth? And the software. What are they? Thanks.

Does anyone realise that none of this genuinely tells you how to make ambient music....I-

As boring as it is fascinating.....

I have a question: Why does a guy who doesn't know why Eno wouldn't want a "B" get to be the person handling this interview?

music by numbers

it is a correct music

Brian has been working on/towards this system of producing 'music' or whatever you feel like calling it, for many years, why would/should he do what everyone else is doing? I have followed his work from the age of 15 (1980) right through to the present. If you like it, listen, if not, move on. He has been inspired by what came before and he is inspiring whats to come.

+100

It's like when a scientist explains to you what rainbow is, why it is, how it is, and therefore why you should like it.

Brian is pretty smart and has had a great career, but where's the creativity here? I've been tasked with writing some for my daughter's shop because she can't afford the PRS for existing trax. I think I'll just sit down with the keyboard and come up with something that sounds right....

Okay what is this "Scripter" thing?

Wait, is he using GarageBand?

Basic probability should be understood by everyone. This is not complicated. The host I believe is a just patronizing Eno.

Title misleading, nothing to do with ambient music

This is incredible. Ambient is kinda the only music I tend to like and as a computer scientist seeing how he uses the computer to create these landscapes is truly astounding.

seems like a cold way to make music

a guide for the untalented masses. thanx brian- you shoulda quit while you still had more than just a head

Can I watch the whole interview somewhere?