26/4/2007
A day of presentations.
A reoccurring them in today’s presentations was ANALOGUE AND DIGITAL.
Ross Robinson (the subject of one presentation) was quoted as saying that he felt that digital audio was just a phase or trend – and would die out soon.
Steve Fieldhouse stated that the prevailing wisdom of the 21st Century seems to be that a mixture of analogue and digital processing is ideal. To me, this sounds about right.
We were told that Kevin Shirley and Dave Freedman (the subjects of other presentations) both opt for a combination of analogue and digital processing in their productions.
Balance is truly one of the keys to life. So it is with great confidence that I add my amateur opinion to the throng of pop wisdom and say: Yes! We can live in a world where analogue and digital are friends…
I have certainly heard the dogma that the ‘analogue extremists’ put out there: that digital audio is cold and analogue is the only way for real quality. But this kind of extremism (in any area of life – not just audio) always seems to be too simple a description of reality. Life is always about striving for this balance between opposing positions, rather than taking one side to the exclusion of the other.
For the record: I am as pro-analogue as my budget allows. (Which means: I own some great analogue modelling software…)
Another noteworthy thing from today’s presentations was a point made by Stuart J: that one of the defining characteristics of Dave Freedman’s production style is his track intros. Stuart played several audio examples from Ammonium and a remix of a Jane’s Addiction track: all produced by Freedman, and all with very interesting intros. They struck me as being perfect examples of what intros should be: a tantalising invitation to stay for the song. (As opposed to ‘filler’ before the vocals..)
3 comments:
But remember Ken of what is to come... I can still see wars breaking out between old ways vs. new.
Again you show a good insight into production, I always enjoy reading your blogs, they're different... in a good way of course.
this software frustrates me. I said....
Do you have to push boundaries to be creative? I think so, if you haven't invested sweat, tears and time into a creative venture, what have you done? Example in point, Stockhausen. Anyone with a keyboard could make the music he made now at push of a button or two but you couldn't say it is being creative in the way cutting up and sticky-taping together 100s of recordings of sine waves, bleeps, blips and static is...Go Stockhausen...oh yeah...Stockhausen rocks.
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