The Score Magazine - Archive May 2015 issue! | Page 50

DIY: A boon or bane? The current music generation is living in an age of accelerated technological advancement. There is constant advancement in the variety and quality of tools available to an aspiring musician. A musician or any music lover equipped with the right set of tools can now create a piece of music from scratch. It is now possible to compose, arrange, record, mix, master and publish your music right from the comfort of your bedroom. You can even generate sounds of instruments that you do not play or have access to. Remember that track you heard on the radio that featured a full-fledged orchestra and exotic instruments? Well, guess what? It was probably all created on computer with no real instruments. The term ‘producer’ is now being thrown around much like anyone with a DSLR and an Instagram account is a “professional” photographer. There was a time when releasing an album involved a lot of people like composers, musicians, recording engineers, mix and master, record labels etc. Not anymore! Meet the ‘bedroom producer’ With MIDI programming, you can compose and arrange multiple instruments with little or no training; one can also adjust the pitch and time of audio with Digital Audio Workstations. While this sounds great, it is often abused by ‘enhancing’ a musician’s natural ability. With ‘auto tuning’, it is now possible to record speech and turn it into a melody. ‘Pitch correction’ can make any person sound pitch perfect, blurring the lines between quality music and quality musicians. The flip side of the argument is that Computer Audio is opening doors for gifted musicians who do not have the ‘luxury’ of a studio. Meet the ‘bedroom producer’. He is well versed guitarist who does not need a loud and heavy amplifier. Parents take notice! With a pocket sized soundcard and headphones, all his guitars are recorded minus the “noise pollution”. 1. With a MIDI keyboard he composes and arranges all the instruments on his track. 2. Without any expensive hardware, the tracks are mixed and mastered using ‘plugins’. 3. Using music platforms such as iTunes Store and Bandcamp, he releases and sells the album that he created in his pyjamas. So is D.I.Y a boon or a bane ? Ed Degenaro who is the head of the Music Production department at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music says, “Our Production and Independent Artist programs are designed to create complete all round musicians. We equip our students with all the tools necessary to excel in today’s demanding entertainment industry’. Keerthy Narayanan who worked on Grammy Winning New Age album ‘Winds of Samsara’ added, “You may like it or hate it, but you definitely cannot ignore it. Some of the biggest hits today are made using digital audio and people don’t seem to notice the difference This article was written by a guest writer, Mr. Siddhartha Ramanathan who is a guitarist of Escher's Knot and Guitarist/Producer of Trojan Horse. He also manages admissions and scholarships at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (SAM). For more details please write an email to [email protected] 48 The Score Magazine www.thescoremagazine.com “Our Production and Independent Artist programs are designed to create complete all round musicians. We equip our students with all the tools necessary to excel in today’s demanding entertainment industry’. Ed Degenaro Head of Music Production, Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music