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 | | | | Aug31Written by:Joel Braverman
Monday, August 31, 1998 6:00 PM  Cosmic Message...
Many years ago, I had a job working at IBM, a good two hours away from where I live. Because of the distance, I stayed near the job site during the week, and drove home on weekends, which meant I was not playing an instrument anywhere near as often as I was used to. I felt I was losing touch with it. One week, I stopped into a book store, and thumbed through some sort of mythic adventure book, possibly by which was all about getting back some kind of lost spiritual art. Then I went to the magazine rack, picked up some music rag, and flipped to the back page where there was a large ad for a recording console entitled "Get Back The Art"
It's still a meaningful message to me now.
Time Travel
A friend of mine loaned me a CD of Electric Light Orchestra's Time the other day. Wham. Some people talk about roots music being the blues, and jazz. Well, to me the roots music is the music that turned me on, blew my mind, and moved my emotions. It's what made me want to be a musician in the first place. Listening to this cutting edge electronic rock music again after 15 or more years, brought me back to those old feelings again. Its also amazing to hear what was done with 1981 technology, which does not in any way sound old fashioned. Most people think of Blues and Jazz as their root music because they were brought up on it, and it was what turned them on to music.
...Poppa Jes' don' understand...
Me, I'm a child of the modern age - the music that turned me on usually turns off most jazz, rock and blues aficionados - and especially my parents - even though my father is a scientist, he never could get into it - he listens to the Grateful Dead, Dylan, Marley, anything you can shake a spliff at.
The year in Review
I've been spending a good bit of the last few months testing new audio and MIDI software and hardware, both for beta and review purposes. But in the past few days, I've just been doing music - recording for myself and a few other people. It really feels good to sit down and record something, or even to just sit down and play the piano without turning on any electronics, though I feel a bit guilty if I don't record it, with the piles of equipment sitting over to the right of the piano.
Yes, its easy to get caught up in the excitement of technology, the possibilities that it opens up. But it also takes time to install, configure, troubleshoot, and then learn new products. Time that might be spent creating music. The new equipment opens up new vistas, but one must also take the time to explore those new areas before opening up new ones. Those of us who are musicians, need to remember from time to time that the technology is the means, and not the goal
I'm still using Cakewalk version 6.01, even though 7.01 has been out for a few months. But I know Cake 6.01 works with my equipment, almost never crashes, and I'm well versed in all its functions. If someone comes into my studio, I know I can record and mix at least 20 tracks of audio without any severe hiccups. I've added a few pieces of outboard gear - a new drum box from Alesis, and an ART (cosmic, man) stereo tube mic pre, but they require minimal configuration to work with my system.
Get Back the Art
After a year of furious upgrades, testing and experimenting, I'm glad to finally getting back down to the whole purpose of this equipment in the first place - recording music. It's like listening to an old album from high school - a welcome return to home. I'll still be reviewing equipment, testing software and trying out new toys, but it's important to remember what it's all about - music.
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