Wednesday, December 22, 2010

New Technology Drives Music Industry

By Lou Camassa


Music has an impact on all parts of our life. Its nature is simple: rhythm, melody, and harmony; and with the rise of technology these elements are capable of great musical depth. A great new outlet to find the latest music and groups is now on internet radio.

"Today's recorded music has computers which really has fine-tuned recording and can make multiple manipulations to perfect the sound and balance," said Pat Pearson, guitar teacher and performer out of Atascadero, California.

Pat performs in the group Cuesta Ridge and also with his wife, flutist Dana Pearson, in the group Pitch & Rhythm. The couple has been performing together for five years and they have spent about 30 hours in a recording studio, as well as experimenting with doing their own home recording.

"We recently acquired a Mac Book from Apple and discovered some pretty amazing music applications that have been amazing for recording and editing songs," Pearson said. Cellular phones have the capacity to record audio so when a burst of inspiration comes to mind, you can immediately record it for future reference."

Computer software related to music production has skyrocketed creating a new genre of music, electronic music. All this new software has also helped to usher in a new type of musician, the home recording artist. Any person who can play a musical instrument and has access to a computer has the capability of producing a home recording if they purchase the appropriate software for less the four hundred dollars.

"Home recordings have enabled a larger number of people to become recording artists, both amateur and professional," Pat Pearson said. "It gives you the ability to improve your track without having the expense of high recording fees."

The advent of music production software has opened up new ways of approaching songwriting and recording. In the past, recording and writing had to be accomplished in real-time. Musicians need to perform every note on record. Today, computer software gives us the capability for musical parts to be sliced up, shifted, and copied to other sections of the recording. This is the manner in which electronic music helps to create those pounding rhythms that inspire us to dance. Software with mastering capabilities also allows access to all the dynamic attributes of recording and post-production so each recorded part can be enhanced to its full potential.

"Technology enables the beat to free itself and be more true and complete" said Tim Gladwill, otherwise known as DJ Evasive out of San Luis Obispo, California, who performs on his own and in the band Ashes to Light, along with myself. Music is constantly evolving and breaking new barriers." You can get quick and easy access to all this music via free online music sites everywhere.

But with all this new technology it bears the question: "Are we losing out on anything important in our musical experiences?" There are still some distinct advantages when a real, live person is in a room creating a distinctive art form with music. A computer isn't capable of feeling or passion and these are the elements that push music into a realm beyond entertainment.

"Modern music lacks a lot of the real rawness and distinctiveness that it once had" Pearson said. In the past it was more about pure music, with the advent of new technologies, some of the purity of new recordings is obscured."

The history of music has shown that the bottom line is expression. If you create from your heart, people will respond. Technology is just another tool of creation. The source of inspiration always comes from within the musician.




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