Is Technology hurting music recording/performance?

[audioicon]

I was listening to NPR "The world" and they were talking about music from Brazil and Peru. These songs were made from "woods and sticks" and several "ethnic instruments. And they were comparing the same songs to the once digitally sampled. My hearth just dropped.

 

In Liberia there was a band with four guys, the guitar was made with a large powder milk can with fishing lines. The drum was made from thick plastic tied over a metal can. When these guys played every body went nuts. The music sounded "extraordinary."

 

My point is, has technology hurt music recording/production?

All the compression, all the tweaking, the editing, in the end one "nasty over processed sound."

 

Is technology hurting the "musical performance?" Is the availability of too much plug-ins and soft synths" pushing us to the point of "plain screw ups?"

 

Maybe I'm aging faster then I think. Where would music be today if we didn't have the 24bits/96khz war? And the Vinyl's were still alive?

 

I say technology is hurting todays music. But I'm here to learn.

What are your views?

 

AI

[EnemyofSilence]

IMHO, no.

 

Those guys you heard are using technology too, it's just old technology. The key is they're making the most of it - pushing it to its limits. These days the bar is SO high in terms of what's possible, that it's hard to come close to it. The tendency is to use technology to make what one would normally do easier to do, rather than exploit the implications and possibliities in new directions. As for the over-processed/edited product out these days, that's more culteral than technological. Cultural comfort zone.

 

The technology has also allowed more people to get their feet wet with various aspects of music creation. And of course the internet provides means for these people to be heard, where they'd have been silent beyond their basement walls before. I view that as an entirely positive thing, btw. But the signal to noise ratio is different than it used to be. And I think that also brings the expectations of commercial music (which has really always tended towards the vanilla) down to a more common denominator.

 

But there are always those who will leverage technology to do what hasn't been possible before. The current state of technology has reached 2 critial milestones, from my perspective. 1 - it's transparent. My setup has become extremely complex over the last 20 years, and it's all controllable now. And 2, the synthetics have attained levels of expressiveness that were lacking for years.

 

Those guys you heard are masters of capabilities. There are those who can and will achieve similar mastery of the current spectrum.

[audioicon]

IMHO, no. Those guys you heard are using technology too, it's just old technology. The key is they're making the most of it - pushing it to its limits. These days the bar is SO high in terms of what's possible, that it's hard to come close to it. The tendency is to use technology to make what one would normally do easier to do, rather than exploit the implications and possibliities in new directions. As for the over-processed/edited product out these days, that's more culteral than technological. Cultural comfort zone. The technology has also allowed more people to get their feet wet with various aspects of music creation. And of course the internet provides means for these people to be heard, where they'd have been silent beyond their basement walls before. I view that as an entirely positive thing, btw. But the signal to noise ratio is different than it used to be. And I think that also brings the expectations of commercial music (which has really always tended towards the vanilla) down to a more common denominator. But there are always those who will leverage technology to do what hasn't been possible before. The current state of technology has reached 2 critial milestones, from my perspective. 1 - it's transparent. My setup has become extremely complex over the last 20 years, and it's all controllable now. And 2, the synthetics have attained levels of expressiveness that were lacking for years. Those guys you heard are masters of capabilities. There are those who can and will achieve similar mastery of the current spectrum.

 

Very well said!

 

AI

[EnemyofSilence]

Very well said! AI

 

Thanks. It was a great question, and a topic near and dear to what I love about music as an art form.

[alphajerk]

ya know, i think i would have to agree with this and probably thought about making this same thread after that compression thread. i think the good music i listen to it isnt hurting it, but i think a lot of music that isnt so good depends on it to make it better. i think to some effect the musicians are becoming lazier, and maybe some producers are becoming lazier thinking it can be fixed in post rather than before.

 

i recorded a band whose drummer wasnt up to par with the music. i protested they need to hire a session drummer for the album and basically get rid of the drummer they had... it was one of those bands that was one element away from having something good. but because of fear, politics or whatever other reason, they wouldnt go along and i had to edit said drummer to oblivion making my life miserable in a sense. it wasnt even an issue of the drummer practicing because he could HEAR what he was doing wrong. anyway, it was sheer luck and torture to make that album into a release. it has gotten some really good reviews... and it happened to be the album i mentioned in the other thread about nuking it into pretty much pure distortion. and supposedly they are now heading overseas to tour in support of it.

 

that along with a few other things has now made me refuse to work on anything that isnt worth my time and sanity anymore. i know what i can do with technology on my end, i guess i am now waiting for a band to work with that is good enough to run with it on their end and not rely on me to make them better than what they are. i remember i used to love to record bands who were good, who had their {censored} together. im seeing less and less of that now.

 

maybe im just too hungover today from a far too stressful of a week and being too harsh... but i am slowly giving up on something that used to bring me so much joy to do. its like i have all this power and nice gear tied up and not finding bands worthy of using it. {censored}, i need to stop posting now before i become despressed.

 

 

and btw, i so relate to the initial post remembering watching this chinaman playing a stick with one string on it on the sidewalk years ago... he played some of the most gorgeous music i have heard from such a simple instrument.

[Dean Roddey]

I think that technology is a great thing. I'd never be able to do what I'm doing now without it, which is to create fairly professional quality, full songs in my apartment. It's the greatest thing since sliced bread really, and for what is, though not cheap, very reasonable compared to what it would have been even a short time ago. With the advent of good software amp sims, you don't even have to have a great room, just enough to get vocals and the occasional accoustic bit mic'd in.

 

It's still limiting in some ways, relative to a high end studio with a plethora of mics and amps and instruments to use. But, if you use it creatively, you can create some good stuff.

[alphajerk]

i have no issue with technology... i love it in fact. i agree with it being one of the best things ever, but using it for laziness vs using it for creativeness, i think laziness is winning irhgt now.

[Super 8]

I don't see technology hurting music recording. I do think it makes sense to purposefully limit your tool set. You say, "this is what I've got to work with, and I'm going to make something good with it". Limiting yourself forces you to be creative. Anything you have in abundance usually gets wasted.

[elsongs]

 

I was listening to NPR "The world" and they were talking about music from Brazil and Peru. These songs were made from "woods and sticks" and several "ethnic instruments. And they were comparing the same songs to the once digitally sampled. My hearth just dropped. In Liberia there was a band with four guys, the guitar was made with a large powder milk can with fishing lines. The drum was made from thick plastic tied over a metal can. When these guys played every body went nuts. The music sounded "extraordinary." My point is, has technology hurt music recording/production? All the compression, all the tweaking, the editing, in the end one "nasty over processed sound." Is technology hurting the "musical performance?" Is the availability of too much plug-ins and soft synths" pushing us to the point of "plain screw ups?" Maybe I'm aging faster then I think. Where would music be today if we didn't have the 24bits/96khz war? And the Vinyl's were still alive? I say technology is hurting todays music. But I'm here to learn. What are your views? AI

 

 

 

Both yes and no. Yes for the obvious reasons, but no because the more organic music you've heard is instantly appealing to you because it's so much in contrast with the more technologically-dependent music that it stands out.

Technology also costs money, and there will always be people who cannot have access to that technology. But musical knowledge, training and talent doesn't necessarily have to cost money, so there will always be the more organic ethnic music.

 

In the defense of technology, if it weren't for technology, you wouldn't have had the chance to even hear that wonderful organic ethnic music from across the world...