This is an experiment. We'll try to capture some musings along my journey into music production. Some instructional information, some creative ideas, and maybe even some music.
A few weeks ago, while thinking of more ways to keep from spending more money, I said to myself, "Hey, this clip launching in Ableton Live would be so much easier with a touch screen!" The concept would be similar to the hardware MIDI controllers on the market for Live (e.g. Akai's APC line, or Ableton's Push).
I considered the alternatives: add a touch screen to my existing laptop, purchase a new all in one computer, design a monster computer and include a touch screen like the ones we have at work - all expensive propositions. What about one of those computers that doubles as a tablet (e.g Microsoft Surface)? I started looking around online. I saw a thorough review of running Live on the Surface. Seemed to be some issues. Finally, I wondered if there were any Android apps that function as MIDI controllers. Whadaya know about that? There are MIDI controllers on Android. I also saw a video of someone using remote desktop to run Live from their tablet.
I decided to check out a controller app specifically designed to work with Live. After the 15 minute trial I was sold! Why? At a 90-95% savings over buying a hardware controller, I could have essentially the same functionality. So I went ahead and bought two of the four modules available for the app.
Like all Android apps, there were a few issues, and I had a few questions about using the app. I contacted the developer, letting him know first of all that I loved the app, so that he would understand my questions were not complaints, but observations so he could help me understand which issues were limitations of my hardware, and which may be "features" of the software. I provided a lot of details. I also noted to him that between the time I started using the app and when I wrote the email, I added a faster hard drive and increased the memory on my laptop (that I'm using as my music workstation), and that this improved PC performance resolved some of the issues. I also offered some ideas regarding features I would like to see in the future.
The developer was greatly appreciative of my feedback, and responded quickly with answers, recommendations and intentions to correct some issues. He also offered to provide me the other two modules for free because of my helpful feedback. Sometimes it pays to be kind.
In any case, that app is called LK (available for Android or iPad). Here's a demo of the app.
I actually used this app to rearrange one of the assignments from that Intro to Ableton course. Here's my posting from Soundcloud.
There, so I'm not just talking about it. I'm actually making music. You need to go make some too!
There's an interesting debate going on in the Music Production world with accusations of sonic sabotage being thrown at your humble music producers. They are being berated for literally squeezing the life out of music. I actually observed this phenomenon during the Intro to Ableton Live course that I took in February. Live is very popular among Electronic Dance Music (EDM) practitioners. In the course, you prepare and submit a track meeting certain criteria, and then evaluate the submissions of five other students taking the course.
I've never listened to this EDM before, so this was quite an ear opener for me; 80% of the tracks I evaluated were of some variant of EDM. How do you evaluate something for which you don't know the rules? And how do you encourage others when their work does not really suit your taste? But I did it. I even listened to and evaluated more than my share on the side.
Anyway, many of the EDM-ites produced their tracks so that their sonic profiles looked like solid rectangles holding max volume from beginning to end. Here's an example from one of my peers:
Being brought up as more of an acoustic musician, I've come to appreciate how dynamics breathe life into most of the music I love and listen to. But with digital recording and mastering, the producer can precisely control and correct every little human "flaw" in a performance.
Apparently, some music industry experts have found that the purchasing masses want to listen to their music really loud. So these experts have coerced their producers to squeeze the dynamics out of the music using such tools as compressors and limiters, and make the recorded tracks as loud as possible without distorting. At least that's what some would have us believe. They call it "The Loudness War". (Google it; it's a thing!)
The irony is that in moving from recording on tape to recording in digital space, producers now have a wider space to play in from the quietest sound we can hear (the noise floor) to the loudest we can bear. (One technical term for this is dynamic range.) However, the opponents of the Loudness War claim the producers excessively use compression to force all the quiet sounds to be elevated. Here's an example that tries to illustrate the issue
The problem is, when I listen to the examples of "overcompressed" music, I cannot hear the problem. The music sounds the same to me, with and without compression. In the example above I hear different EQ (high and low frequencies), but I don't hear the loudness or compression issues. It must be like one of those pictures popular in the 90s, where people will swear there's an animal in there, but you can't see it. Then when you finally do see it, you will never again not see it. Like the shark right here in the middle of this picture. Don't you see it?
Likewise, I can't hear compression (but I can see that shark!)
So here's my position on all of this. I'm not planning on getting my tracks played on the radio or making any hit charts. So I will use dynamics as part of the musical expression. Where the use of compression makes sense, I will use it, but I'm not going to try to compete in the Loudness War.
Does it seem to you that music these days seems to be artificially loud? Have you noticed the difference between the loudness of a typical classical track vs. contemporary music? Do you think this controversy is just a bunch of (ahem) noise? I'd love to know what you think.
