Here's an idea for you music creators out there, plus some questions:
I've always thought that all of the equipment usually used in a
techno/idm production studio seemed kind of silly in light of the fact
that almost all of the functions can be reproduced 100% in a computer. I
propose to create a 100% digital studio, with no analog equipment at all
(except maybe for input devices like a MIDI keyboard and a few
turntables and of course the monitors). Not even a cassette tape machine
or a mixing board. Everything can be done in the PC without ever using
that stupid obsolete rip-off expensive clumsy huge ugly equipment most
people have piled up in their studios.
Take the sampler for example. What does a sampler do that a fast PC
can't do? With a large fast Hard Drive and lots of RAM, there should be
no point at all in having a sampler. I mean, I can sample from a CD
going digital-to-digital on a PC without any quality loss.
Until recently, home PC's were too slow to handle doing the kind of
real-time intensive work music entails. But the only reason real-time is
an important factor in music making is that most people still have a few
bits of analog equipment in the loop - an 808, some effects processors,
etc. Also, people like twiddling knobs.
The kind of music produced in a purely digital fashion will of course be
very different, in the same way that illustrations produced in 3D
modelling programs are different from paintings. Users can't always hear
what they're doing along the way, or directly work on the final product.
But I don't think it's an inferior way of working, just much different.
The MIDI keyboard is optional because I can't play piano anyway. I'd
rather "compose" based on sounds and frequencies rather than on a
traditional western scale, although it would be nice to learn some real
music theory along the way. But I firmly beleive that these days it's
possible to create great music without knowing a treble clef from an "&"
sign.
Now that PC's move at light speed and are way cheaper, I think I can
just about build that dream studio now. Here is a sample configuration.
If anyone has any ideas of what I'm forgetting, what I don't need, or
what crucial thing I'm forgetting that makes the whole idea pointless,
please point it out. It would be interesting to hear what you
knob-twiddlers think of us mouse-clickers. I don't wanna hear about how
tube-based effects processors and such make for better sounds, because
although I agree, I can still get 99% as good sounds from a PC. And I
can cut and paste!
*** Configuration X ***
Double Pentium 200 / 128 MB RAM / 5+ gig SCSI HD
12X SCSI CD ROM drive
SCSI Jaz Drive
Windows NT (multitasking but w/o W95 bugz)
2 SoundBlaster AWE 32 Sound Cards (for speaker output and WAV
processing help)
Digital Sound Card (for external digital devices)
SCSI 4X CD ROM Burner (don't necessarily need no DATs!)
Logic Audio (the works)
Sound Forge 4.0 (you can do anything to a sound in this)
Netscape/IE 3.0 (for stealing samples, baybee!)
Rebirth (the shit rocks!)
Various other sound processing/playback/recording software.
Quake (for breaks)
MIDI Keyboard
Stereo/Turntable/CD Player
Speakers, monitors, headphones
Anyway, it's dinosaurs vs. propellerheads, Moogers vs. Surfers. Let's
hear it.
-Chris Fahey