One of my students now has his EP for sale on iTunes. If you ever wanted a reason to test the limits of your sound system, whether in your car or at home, here’s a good chance.
Seriously good EDM, very well produced, and extremely heavy.
Category: Meta
Did humans invent music?
Interesting discussion over at The Atlantic. I hadn’t thought of this before – did proto-humans sing?
Missing the point
A lot of people must have just read my headline last week about iOS music production, and missed the larger point I was making. I didn’t say there’s no potential, or that iPads will never be useful. I pointed out flaws with iOS, the operating system. The persistent sandboxing, and lack of ability to share data or audio files between apps. The problem is not with iPads, touchscreens, or lack of ports or anything silly like that.
The problem is that the inherent design of iOS creates the need for weird workflows. I don’t mean new workflows, I mean *weird* workflows. Here’s an example, taken from Chip Boaz’s well written article defending iPad use:
It’s not impossible though; after spending quite a while using audio copy/paste for musical creation, I’ve developed a very productive iOS workflow.
If I’m not mistaken, this workflow is the exact method I outlined in my video – I guess it depends how you define productive. Did it work? Yes. Was it efficient? No. Did it inhibit creativity? Absolutely. Did it hamper production quality? Most likely. A true professional, obsessed with sound quality and production value – might want to use an iPad for production but simply cannot yet do this.
It’s particularly telling that the example video Synthtopia posts in defense of iOS music production is performance driven. Is iOS as a performance system revolutionary? Absolutely! Here’s a short list of gear the iPad basically renders obsolete:
- MPC samplers
- Jazzmutant Lemur
- Video samplers
- Analog non-MIDI synths
- Korg Kaosscilator
- Simple DJ setups (kind of – if you’re ok with mono output)
- Handheld recorders
- Drum machines
- Loop pedals
- Simple direct-to-CD recorders
…the list could keep going on. Serious musicians can definitely use the iPad as a stage-based performance tool, no question. I never said this wasn’t possible. I also never said the iPad might not be an appropriate tool for beginners. Obviously, it’s good at displaying simplified aspects of production that appear friendly to mainstream audiences.
It, however, is not yet possible to fully mix and master a recording on an iOS device, and obtain the high caliber sound expected of a conventional workstation. I would like very much to be able to use my iPhone or iPad or future iGadget for full-on music production. Until that day comes, I do not recommend teaching audio on them, or using them as the central production device. Honestly, I don’t think anyone else is seriously recommending this either.
[P.S., markLouis is the “winner” of today’s comment thread for this quote gold from Brian Eno]:
My guitar only has five strings ’cause the top one broke and I decided not to put it back on: when I play chords I only play bar chords, and the top one always used to cut me there. — Brian Eno
Beyond a mountain of well-reasoned, passionate arguments – using what “works for you” will always work best.
Triad article
Dear readers – especially those outside of Ohio, here’s an article I wrote for our state music ed magazine. It’s not quite a manifesto, but it does gather together a good amount of he motivations behind what I do.
As a bonus, the article includes some details I usually don’t share at conventions, such as the original planning and registration of the first year. It’s crazy to think how much our the makeup of this program has changed in six years.
Like milk with a bit of spice in it.
If you get this joke, your membership ID for the nerdy producers club is in the mail.
