Pro Sound Web: Beefy computer processors. Humongous track counts. More virtual instruments and plug-ins than anyone could possibly ever need.
And, it’s all (relatively) inexpensive.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be a recording engineer now than 1981. There have been so many advances in technology, so many ways to get really great-sounding music.
But is there a downside to all these options? Absolutely.
2 comments:
I really like the take on recording that the author of this article has, and I think that it can be applied to so much of what we do in theatre. Sometimes we need to step back and realize that less actually is more, an that there are major advantages to keeping things simple. It can feel weird to design a show that has a minimal set, or no intelligent lighting fixtures, but we shouldn’t let the lack of those sort of things make us think that the design isn’t any good. The play should dictate the design, not the technology. If you try to shoehorn every sort of advanced technical thing you have at your disposal into something, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be better. Chances are, it will end up clouding the story and the product will be a visual spectacle that leaves the audience confused. I think it’s great that we have all of these cool technologies available to us, but we should follow the advice of the article and keep in mind that sometimes we don’t need them. And we shouldn’t feel that not having them makes the design not as good. Now that we have them and are using them a lot more, we need to start exercising restraint. Sometimes a simple show is nicer than something incredibly complicated, just like a simple acoustic recording sound better because it isn’t filled with other tracks and instruments.
I agree that less can be better with sound sometimes. Many successful songs are just with a singer and an acoustic guitar. When there are a lot of different sounds and instruments in a song, it can be very distracting from the lyrics and main point of the song. If there is a lot going on then it can be hard for your brain to process all of the different noises and figure out which are more important. With all of the new technology advances and the popularization of dub step and electronic music, tracks are becoming more complex. That type of music is popular to some people and effective at times, but there also needs to be a contrast of simple songs that are not about the fancy sounds that can be made with computer programs and synthesizers. I like a wide variety of music, so sometimes I enjoy listening to electronic music while other times I enjoy simple songs with only a few instruments.
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