Issue 210
When technology injects more of its personality into an artistic act than the artist does, it’s a warning flag . . .
But some ideas that seemed so good at the time may prove, years later, not to be what they appeared. When quantization first showed up, people were ecstatic: Now they could have perfect timing, without the years of practice required for rhythmic mastery. Only trouble is, those years and years of practicing didn’t go into creating robot-vibe music with metronomic precision, but in mastering the control needed to add slight timing “tweaks” so that a given piece of music could “breathe.” Now, decades after quantization made its debut, we have DAWs that include groove and feel templates to put some of that humanized vibe back into our otherwise perfect sequences. Sure, quantization has its uses—but should “perfect timing” be a musical goal? I don’t think so.
Or take pitch correction. The idea sounds like a dream come true, since if a vocal performance is flawless except for one flat note, you can fix that flat note and salvage the part. However, this brings back memories of a vocal session I did one night while very tired, and under a pressing deadline. Quite a few notes were less than perfect pitch. So I loaded the vocal into a digital audio editor, and pitch-shifted individual notes until they were perfectly in tune with the rest of the performance. Mission accomplished, I thought, and pressed the play button with a sigh of relief. But . . .
Something sounded really weird, and it wasn’t formant changes (the tweaks were minor enough that the timbre survived). No, it was something subtler, something that just wasn’t right. Was it possible that perfect pitch isn’t desirable? I went back to the original track, but this time tweaked the pitch just enough to make out of tune notes sound okay. For example, if the pitch was way flat, I adjusted it to be just a hair flat instead of right on pitch. Amazingly, the vocal now fell perfectly into place, but the best part of all this was that I learned a valuable lesson: When technology injects more of its personality into an artistic act than the artist does, it’s a warning flag.
In fact, I’d recommend that when technology starts to nag and nit-pick your every move, tell it to take a hike. But in the broader sense, this underscores once more that you have to be careful what you wish for—because it might come true. We clamored for budget digital to free us from the tyranny of tape hiss, and now we’re incorporating tube preamps and grunge plug-ins so we can mess up the sound. We wanted synthesizers with a zillion parameters for programming, resulting in machines that were so unwieldy we needed computers just to edit them. We wanted computers and software for rock-bottom prices, and we got them—but without the tech support that a higher price could afford to implement.
Maybe it’s time to count our blessings and use the fantastic tools that already exist before thinking that what looks like it might be a good idea actually is a good idea. Otherwise, we may have to hit “undo” a few years later when we find out that “progress” isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be.
Headliners
Technique
The Top 10 Effects Pedal Targets
by Craig Anderton
Why be normal? Use your footpedal to control parameters other than volume and wah
Technique
Enhance Your Guitar Sustain with Control-Room Feedback
by Jon Chappell
Add a new sound and performance element to your guitar through an auxiliary amp that generates feedback
Hot Tip
Emulate Phase Shifter Effects with Parametric EQ
by Craig Anderton
Create all kinds of vintage phase shifter effects with multi-stage parametric EQ
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Inexpensive Pickups—Just as Good as Expensive Name-Brand Units? Pickups are fairly simple transducers that consist of a coil of wire and some magnets. Is there really a difference between inexpensive units and inexpensive replacement models? Materials and craftsmanship can make a difference, but is it enough to justify the price difference? Stop in and tell us what you think! |
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Cool Tricks for the Line 6 DL4 The Line 6 DL4 delay and looper has been a very popular and successful pedal, and it's able to do a lot . . . but not everything is revealed in the manual, so here are a couple of “secret” tricks. Not only that, they also work with the Line 6 M9 and M13. |
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Your Favorite Ten Songs from the 1980s Not everyone agrees, but some people love the music from this decade. There was certainly plenty to pick from, and in a wide range of genres. Do you like music from the 80s? Stop in and share some of your favorites. |
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Drum Mics for Home Recording The original poster already has a couple of good mics, but wants to augment those with additional models in order to record a drum set at home. And this thread delivers, with lots of good drum mic suggestions. |
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Your Favorite Bass Lines and Tones The bass is so fundamental to a great recording; without it, the song lacks a foundation and groove. Legendary bass parts and tones abound—and if you're looking for great examples of killer bass parts, who better to ask than HC’s Bass Forum? |
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Modifying a Chorus Pedal for a Slower Rate Can changing your chorus pedal’s slowest rate really be as easy as a potentiometer swap? If so, which pot should be swapped, and what value should replace it? The Effects forum has the answers. |
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Sample Logic Releases Assault Geared for film, TV or game composers, and sound designers, ASSAULT is a collection of over 850 instruments and multis designed to send chills down your spine. |
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Hal Leonard Publishes Studio One for Engineers and Producers Studio One from PreSonus is a cross-platform (Mac/PC) DAW designed for speed, efficiency and power, and this book, with its 12 new video tutorials, helps users make an easy transition from other DAW platforms. |
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ADAM Ships F Series Monitors ADAM’s new F Series professional monitors are slightly smaller than their predecessors, but feature the same clarity and resolution at an affordable price. |
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Seymour Duncan Releases Whole Lotta Humbucker to the World After a limited release in the UK, Seymour Duncan is making the Whole Lotta Humbucker series available world-wide. These pickups, which improve on the B- and E-string output, were designed based on Seymour's experiences working at the Fender Soundhouse with artists like Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and many others. |
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Radial Introduces the StageBug SB-4 The SB-4 Piezo is a direct box specifically developed to solve the problems associated with amplifying acoustic instruments when using piezo-electric transducers. According to the manufacturer, the SB-4 is a “pared down version of the PZ-DI that the travelling artist can carry in his or her gig bag.” |
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Propellerhead Releases Rotor for Reason Meticulously modeled on the Leslie 122 speaker, Rotor brings its trademark vintage soul to the Reason rack, making authentic organ sounds and old-school guitar tones instantly accessible to Reason users. |
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Editorial
Craig Anderton | Editor in Chief
Jon Chappell | Senior Editor
Phil O'Keefe | Associate Editor
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