[atlantaprog] Re: Fwd: David Byrne on the future of music distribution


Allen Welty-Green <agmedia@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: I think the unspoken part of 
this *home recording vs. studio recording" discussion is that much of today's 
popular music doesn't NEED a studio. The drums are from loops & samples, basses 
are synthesized. There's no "band". The only thing recorded with a microphone 
is the vocal, and with mic-preamp emulation plug-ins, plus pitch correction and 
harmonization software, it's not that hard to create a pro-recording anymore in 
certain genres and adhering to specific aesthetics - hip-hop, synth-based pop 
music, etc.
---
Yes, for those genres it's true, so we have two reasons working together that 
make low-budget home laptop recordings more feasible:  1) technology has 
improved and gotten more user-friendly so you can make a good recording without 
breaking the bank-- great; 2) changing aesthetic expectations have reduced the 
requirements-- bad, IMO.  Perhaps we can get away with less because we've 
lowered our expectations for what sounds good.  It's easy to reduce what you 
spend on food each month if you switch to eating only McDonalds.  It's possible 
for Walmart to sell sewing machines for $79 because they're cheap plastic crap 
that breaks in two years, instead of steel that could last a century.  

<rant> So if Steely Dan used expensive studios in the 70's, and Fatboy Slim 
records on a laptop now, how much of that is #1 vs. #2?  Personally I want to 
hear a bass guitar and drums played by skilled humans, not the substitute of 
programmed synth bass and drum machines (even when the samples are good the 
programming is usually devoid of feel, dynamics and variability).  I can hear 
the artifacts of vocal pitch correction and machine-generated harmonies all 
over the radio and it sounds awful, especially on country music where the clash 
between pickup trucks and honky-tonks vs. the sound of a Cher dance number is 
jarring.  Same with R&B, which has the soul surgically excised.  And with 
rock-- anyone remember Lenny Kravitz's cover of the Guess Who's 'American 
Woman' a couple years back?  Wasn't it obvious that the choruses were 
cut-and-pasted in ProTools instead of the musicians playing each one?  I want 
SUGAR, not Nutrasweet, and sugar can be achieved even in a home studio if
 it's well-equipped and manned by someone with a good ear and experience (and 
good musicians), but it takes more than a laptop, an SM58 and some samples.  If 
that's all someone has, then make your music, express yourself and sell it by 
all means, but to make _great_ music IMO you need great musicians playing 
instruments of wood, plastic, fabric, metal and animal hides with their hands, 
great singers (not monotone shouters), great songs, great producer/engineers, 
_and a great recording quality_.   'Aja' has it, and 'The Joshua Tree' and 
'What's Going On'.  Hell, even Crossfade recorded their own album and its sonic 
quality stands up alongside anything on 99X, but it took some doing.  There has 
to be some way to configure the multibillion-$ music industry so professional 
musicians can thrive without sacrificing sonic and performance quality in a 
race to the bottom, yes? </rant>
---


I'm in the opposite camp - I absolutely love my ipod. It has completely 
revolutionized my listening experience. I listen to more music these days than 
I did as a teenager (if you can believe that!). I still love the album 
experience, but only for those special albums. I still buy a lot of CDs, many 
of them are downloaded from itunes however. (itunes is really great for 
*instant gratification* impulsive people like me!). 


A lot of people only think of ipods as a headphone-type device, but I rarely 
use the headphones - I dock in my stereo system at home and an FM transmitter 
dock-thing in my car. 
---
The iPod is a brilliant invention with a number of advantages that could 
compensate for its drawbacks.  The main factor for me is transition costs, 
monetary and otherwise.  If my stereo, CDs and car got burned in a fire I'd 
move to the iPod.

On a different subject, did anyone else see the Police a month or so ago?  What 
a great show!  Sting's son was in the opening act and they were good too, sort 
of Coldplayish but heavier. 

Brian

       
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