TOTW: Donna summer_I feel love

As someone who likes to play instruments and build patches with synthesisers, you realise with more clarity over time something that should be obvious. Namely an instrument’s input method is the majority of its sound.

As someone who likes to play instruments and build patches with synthesizer, you realise with more clarity over time something that should be obvious. Namely an instrument’s input method is the majority of its sound.

An instrument forces its player to relate to it in a particular way. It sends its player down a path, making certain notes or chords easier to replicate then others. It is this, mixed with the way that the sounds are generated, that creates each and every instrument’s characteristics. Often, just by interacting with an instrument in a way that feels natural for you, it results in its iconic sound.

This leads us to Step Sequencers. Step sequencers and synthesizers have developed in tandem since their creation. Used together they have become the backbone of many genre of music, creating lead melodies, base lines and even drum patterns that have re-defined music. Although the synthesizer can be played with every other form of input method at this point, the Step sequencer is still a method that is synonymous with synthesis. It’s an input method, just like a keyboard or a string, and its design creates its own rigid timbre that, when married with electronics, has resulted in some incredible music.

Throughout December I decided to dedicate my TOTW to the sequencer. Highlighting some great tracks that use it as a primary feature and where else to start than ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer.

For many, this will be the first time the step sequencer and synthesizer would have been heard. Giorgio Moroders synth programming brought this sound to the main stream and in turn started dance music as we now know it. Listening to this at 3 and 5:30 marks where Donna summer’s vocals are removed allowing a driving kick drum in a four on the floor pattern to really drive home the sequenced line sounds epitomising Dance music to this day. Not only iconic, but hugely influential, ‘I Feel Love’ demonstrated the potential of electronic music and the sequencer to artists, and proved that it could be successful commercially.

As someone who likes to play instruments and build patches with synthesisers, you realise with more clarity over time something that should be obvious. Namely an instrument’s input method is the majority of its sound.

An instrument forces its player to relate to it in a particular way. It sends its player down a path, making certain notes or chords easier to replicate then others. It is this, mixed with the way that the sounds are generated, that creates each and every instrument’s characteristics. Often, just by interacting with an instrument in a way that feels natural for you, it results in its iconic sound.

This leads us to Step Sequencers. Step sequencers and synthesizers have developed in tandem since their creation. Used together they have become the backbone of many genre of music, creating lead melodies, base lines and even drum patterns that have re-defined music. Although the synthesizer can be played with every other form of input method at this point, the Step sequencer is still a method that is synonymous with synthesis. It’s an input method, just like a keyboard or a string, and its design creates its own rigid timbre that, when married with electronics, has resulted in some incredible music.

Throughout December I decided to dedicate my TOTW to the sequencer. Highlighting some great tracks that use it as a primary feature and where else to start than ‘I Feel Love’ by Donna Summer.

For many, this will be the first time the step sequencer and synthesizer would have been heard. Giorgio Moroder synth programming brought this sound to the main stream and in turn started dance music as we now know it. Listening to this at 3 and 5:30 marks where Donna summer’s vocals are removed allowing a driving kick drum in a four on the floor pattern to really drive home the sequenced line sounds epitomising Dance music to this day. Not only iconic, but hugely influential, ‘I Feel Love’ demonstrated the potential of electronic music and the sequencer to artists, and proved that it could be successful commercially:

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