Friday, June 24, 2011

the latest and greatest

As someone who works with music technology for a living, I’m continually running into the issue of obsolescence as it relates to my own equipment.  Invariably, as soon as I have my studio up to “standard,” something else comes out onto the market that changes the game.  If it’s a new operating system, immediately my version of Pro Tools is incompatible.  Once the new version of Pro Tools comes out, then all of my Waves plug-ins have to be upgraded.  And so on and so on and so on...ad infinitum.  This phenomenon becomes an endless, frustrating dance over time, not to mention financially draining.

I had an interesting conversation relating to this topic earlier this morning with my mother, a self-admitted luddite who still refuses to carry a cell phone or get an email address.  Normally, we tend to have differences of opinion when it comes to technology, but I found that ultimately we share the same personal philosophy: it’s not about the tools you have, but about how you work with those said tools.  My mom’s illustration of the ubiquity of smart phones is a good example.  Just because one can send text messages or facebook updates like a fiend at all hours of the day and night does not ensure fruitful communication or lasting relationships.  So true.

As a musician who works with technology, there are interesting parallels, accessibility for one.  I can go into the studio, day or night, and record almost anything (well, with the exception of screaming guitar leads…let’s be honest!).  I don’t need to wait for a performer to read the notes on paper to hear what I’ve composed; that was always the great frustration of traditional “classical” composing, in my mind at least.  I’d work for months on a single piece, then everything would be over after the premiere…and I’d end up in an anti-climactic sort of depression every time.  (What was the point of all of that work for five damn minutes of hearing one’s own music?)  However, at the same time, accessibility can be a mixed blessing.  In terms of quality, I would say my “output” is proportionately slanted toward crap about 90% of the time.  Another parallel comes back to my initial paragraph, in terms of this idea of manufactured obsolescence.  Companies want to make money, and so they have to keep consumers locked into buying their products.  Thank goodness for all of the advances that have been made in Pro Tools software since version 5 (when I first started working with this).  But really, now with Pro Tools 9, do I really absolutely need to spend the hundreds of dollars in upgrade fees just so that I can have up to 256 internal busses?  Really?

As an instructor, I used to encounter some students who had sunk in serious cash into their studio setups…and then couldn’t make head or tail of a major triad.  These aspiring “producers,” “arrangers,” and “engineers” really didn’t have the musical background to make MUSIC per se.  But they had all of the tools at their disposal, and continually kept those tools “current.”  Over the years, I’ve been very careful about how much money to invest in studio gear, and also very selective about what equipment ultimately to purchase.  I’ve invested in both software and hardware products.  On the hardware side, I’m an analog synth enthusiast…partially because I will never have to upgrade an operating system on that particular instrument.  So I don’t have the latest and greatest “whatever” is on the market.  Who cares, if the end product is of quality?

Recently, with working on my music theatre piece, I became incredibly obsessed with the production quality of the backing tracks that may end up being used for the workshop next week.  I seriously did not see the light of day for several weeks, spending hours upon hours in the studio mixing, remixing, rearranging, adding another layer of string pads here and there, and generally obsessing.  I printed up the charts a few days ago, and the final copies came back from the printer’s yesterday.  And you know what I did?  I sat down at the piano and just played through everything.  Talk about liberating!  It’s so easy to get caught up in production that you can forget about the music…I’m happy to say that – at least in my humble opinion – the songs stand on their own.  Whether with a simple piano or guitar accompaniment, or a full progressive metal band, the songs can translate.

Lesson learned.

1 comment:

  1. Hey "Teach" this is Corey. This quote comes to mind, "a good craftsman never blames his tools." It drives me nuts that the prevailing sentiment in conversations about music is technology as opposed to quality, progression or musics ability to challenge/enlighten modern man. I'll send you a link to a speech engineer Bruce Swedien gave on this topic. I like your writing.

    ReplyDelete