stefan goldmann: industry

Industry sheds all personalized effort and tests how far you can get by using presets only. All sounds are factory presets of three obsolete 1990s Japanese workstation synths, all effects are presets, all notes are quantized and most panning is purely accidental (laid out in the preset sounds). Industry doesn't rely on successful presets, but on failed sounds of now-obsolete synthesizers -- industrial assumptions of where culture will go, but where it chose not to. The result is a surprisingly pleasant listening experience with effortless grooves and rich textures -- and mildly demonic connotations. From smooth to kicking -- a conveyor belt enjoying mood swings. As beautiful as the scheduled meeting of a PVC sheet and a thermoform mold on a workbench. 0% sound design. What? -> Presets are pre-programmed settings of a device such as a synthesizer or an effects unit: factory stock sounds, equivalent to stock photography or preset styles and filters in apps like Instagram. Audio presets provide a library of "typical" and supposedly desirable sounds -- thus enabling a consumer to bypass individual programming and get quick and easily repeatable results. Every modern instrument or software comes with presets -- and people use them heavily.