hairy old hippy
Group: Members
Posts: 304
Joined: July 2005 |
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Posted: Aug. 03 2012, 03:55 |
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I've always found the computer music debate very interesting and I think there are two key points.
Firstly that of integrity. When something is fake, the listener knows it's fake, i.e. saxaguitar or whatever you want to call it. No matter how convincing it is the heart knows what's going on and can't relate to it. Yeah, maybe it's fun for the musician or composer involved but there's no need to use it in a recording over the real thing.
Secondly and most importantly the bottom line is creativity. Now if computers and software initiate creativity then that's a good thing and it's something that a listener will pick up on conciously or subconciuosly.
I believe you need both things, if you have an incredibly creative flurry this can carry the integrity of the sounds. I think (perhaps controversially) this has been the case on some of Oldfield's albums, Taurus II is an all time favourite but listen closely and the some of the keyboard sounds are a bit tacky. It doesn't matter though because there is so much creative genius and so many other great sounds around them that those keyboards come across as fun and quirky and sound great.
I think on top of this, staring at a computer screen for hours on end is not condusive to creativity, it saps the soul. This is why I think it can be better to seperate the role of producer, engineer and musician. You can't avoid computers at some stage of the recording process in this day and age and it's much better for the musician to be lost in the soul of the music than to be staring at a screen thinking about peak levels, compressors, limiters, bit rates and all the rest of it
The opinions I'm expressing here have been formulated through experience as a listener, musician and producer. I spent 8 years making my last album because (amongst many other things) I had to save money for the right instruments and learn my craft as I went along. Some of the keyboard sounds are plugins becuase I was never going to find or be able to afford a mellotron for example, but the plugins for these are great. Much of that creative head of steam I built up making Mohribold was lost when mixing and mastering the album because I spent weeks on end staring at the screen and wrestling with technology.
I do realise of course that music, as with all art, is subjective and as such one persons classic guitar sound is another's tacky plugin.
-------------- Listen to Mohribold; an epic musical tapestry that weaves between a multitude of genres.
Andrew Taylor's Mohribold album has proved very popular with fans of symphonic-rock, prog-rock, psych-folk and indeed Oldfield's classic albums!
www.andrewtaylor.bandcamp.com
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