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Electronic Music Guide

Written by Walid on Friday, August 01, 2008

Electronic music is music created using electronic devices. These devices are low-power systems and use components such as transistors and integrated circuits. Examples of an electronic instrument are samplers, theremins, synthesizers, and a computers.

Electronic Instruments:

  • Synthesizer is an "electronic musical instrument designed to produce electronically generated sound, using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM, physical modeling synthesis, phase distortion, or Scanned synthesis. Synthesizers create sounds through direct manipulation of electrical voltages (as in analog synthesizers), mathematical manipulation of discrete values using computers (as in software synthesizers), or by a combination of both methods. In the final stage of the synthesizer, electrical voltages generated by the synthesizer cause vibrations in the diaphragms of loudspeakers, headphones, etc. This synthesized sound is contrasted with recording of natural sound, where the mechanical energy of a sound wave is transformed into a signal which will then be converted back to mechanical energy on playback (though sampling synthesizers significantly blur this distinction). Synthesizers typically have a keyboard which provides the human interface to the instrument and are often thought of as keyboard instruments. However, a synthesizer's human interface does not necessarily have to be a keyboard, nor does a synthesizer strictly need to be playable by a human. Different fingerboard synthesizer or ribbon controlled synthesizers have also been developed."
  • Sampler is an "electronic music instrument closely related to a synthesizer. Instead of generating sounds from scratch, however, a sampler starts with multiple recordings (or “samples”) of different sounds, and then plays each back based on how the instrument is configured. Because these samples are usually stored in RAM, the information can be quickly accessed. Unlike traditional digital audio playback, each sample is associated with a set of synthesis parameters, and can thus be modified in many different ways. Most samplers have polyphonic capabilities: they are able to play more than one note at the same time. Many are also multitimbral: they can play back different sounds at the same time."

Electronic Music genres: (Popular tracks are included at the end of each sub-genre (artist - track) )
  1. Trance: Trance is the most emotional genre. It can make you cry, make you shout, make you cheer, and make you celebrate absolutely nothing of substance except pure, ecstatic bliss. This is interesting, when at one time it was very repetitive and hypnotic (hence its label 'trance').
    • Progressive: The term "progressive" typically refers to the structure of a track which occur incrementally. An exception is progressive trance. The term Progressive trance usually refers to a type of trance music that features a less prominent lead melody and focuses more on the atmosphere.
      Sasha - Xpander
      Lost Tribe - Gamemaster
      Marc Norman - Touchdown
    • Dark: Darker, more "evil-sounding" Trance.
      Fascinated - Totally Fascinated
      De Niro - Mind of man
    • Melodic: Less loops, very melodic.
      BT - Flaming June
    • Uplifting (Anthem): A combination of Progressive and Melodic Trance. It's the most popular dance music in the world, it's euphoric and the most emotional Trance.
      Rank1 - Airwave
      Paul Van Dyk - For an Angel
      Vincent de Moor - Fly Away
      Tiesto - Adagio for Strings
    • Tech: More techy, less melodic, more loops, very similar to House music.
      Timo Maas - Riding on a Storm
      Breeder - The Chain
    • Vocal: Trance music accompanied with some vocals.
      Tiesto - Silence (Tiesto's In Search of sunrise remix)
      Planet Perfecto - Bullet in the Gun
    • Psychedelic or Goa: Psychedelic Trance removes the hindu/middle-eastern influences and melodies and full-on blasts you with great sounds...teleport zappers, star trek tweeps, nintendo twerps, theremin squeels, feedback hums and radio antennae frequency squelches. This is the futuristic sci-fi Trance.
      Infected Mushroom - Acid Killer
      Hallucinogen - Twisted (Album)
  2. Techno: Techno is a form of electronic dance music that became prominent in Detroit, Michigan during the mid-1980s with influences from Chicago House, electro, New Wave, Funk and futuristic fiction themes that were prevalent and relative to modern culture during the end of the Cold War in industrial America at that time. Following the initial success of Detroit Techno as a musical culture — at the very least on a regional level — an expanded and related subset of genres in the 1990s emerged globally. The term "techno", which derives from "technology", is often used (many would say misused) to refer to all forms of electronic music. Music journalists and fans of the genre, however, are generally more selective in their use of the term, being careful not to conflate it with related but distinct genres (i.e. house, trance)

    • Detroit Techno: Detroit techno is an early style of techno music originating from Detroit, Michigan, USA in the mid-1980s. A distinguishing trait of Detroit techno is the use of analog synthesizers and early drum machines, notably the roland TR-909 for its production or, in later releases, the use of digital emulation to create the characteristic sounds of those machines.
      Jeff Mills - The bells
      Carl Craig - Dreamland
  3. House: House is the most soulful genre. It's also the simplest, the oldest, the warmest, and where electronic music is concerned, easily the most human-sounding, making it one of the most popular, commanding the most producers, artists, labels, DJs, fans, and subgenres.
    • Progressive: In the case of progressive house, the term "progressive" can also refer to the style's open mindedness to bring in new elements to the genre. These elements can be a variety of sounds, such as a guitar loop, computer generated noises, or other elements typical of other genres.
    • Tribal: Just like its name, it's the Loop-based House.
      Kao - Pressure
      Papacha - Sentossa
  4. Drum n Bass: Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated to DnB or drum n bass) is a type of electronic dance music also known as jungle. Emerging in the early 1990s, the genre is characterised by fast tempo broken beat drums (generally between 160 & 180 beats per minute) with heavy, often intricate basslines. Today, drum and bass is still considered an underground musical style, but its currents of influence run throughout popular music and culture.
  5. Experimental Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is!! This type of music uses "extended techniques" which are methods of performing on a musical instrument that are unique, innovative, and sometimes regarded as improper. For example, ordinary instruments modified in their tuning or sound-producing characteristics. For example, guitar strings can have a weight attached at a certain point, changing their harmonic characteristics! Strings on a piano can be manipulated directly instead of being played the orthodox, keyboard-based way (an innovation of Henry Cowell's known as "string piano"), a dozen or more piano keys may be depressed simultaneously with the forearm to produce a tone cluster (another technique popularized by Cowell), or the tuning pegs on a guitar can be rotated while a note sounds (called a "tuner glissando"). It also uses an incorporation of instruments, tunings, rhythms or scales from non-Western musical traditions, sound sources other than conventional musical instruments such as trash cans, telephone ringers, and doors slamming.
    Aphex Twin - I care because you do (Album)
    Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album (Album)
    Autechre - Confield (Album)
  6. Chill out:Chill out (sometimes chillout), a term derived from a slang injunction to relax, emerged in the early and mid-1990s as a catch-all term for various styles of relatively mellow, slow-tempo music made by contemporary producers in the electronic music scene. A number of compilations with "Chill Out" in their titles were released in the mid-1990s and beyond, helping to establish the genre as being very closely related to downtempo and trip hop but also incorporating, especially in the early 2000s, slower varieties of house music, nu-jazz, and lounge music.
    The Buddha Bar series of albums.

Electronic Music artists:
  1. Trance
    • Tiesto
    • Armin van Buuren
    • Paul Van Dyk
    • Paul Oakenfold
    • Above and Beyond
    • Ferry Corsten
    • Signum
    • Ronski Speed
  2. House
    • Sasha
    • John Digweed
    • Steve Lawler (Tribal)
    • Deep Dish
    • Saeed & Palash (Tribal)
    • Deep Dish
    • Danny Howells
    • Nick Warren
    • Dani Tenaglia
    • Satoshi Tomiie
  3. Chill out
    • Claude Challe
    • Aria
    • La Roca
    • Gotan Project
    • David Visan
    • Dies Irae

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