Top 5 Disruptive Music-Making Technologies
These music creation technologies are disrupting the normal ways in which music has been made in the past.
These music creation technologies are disrupting the normal ways in which music has been made in the past.
1. The iPhone
When I first saw the first MP3 player, ten years ago this month, I
expected that portable music players would evolve a great deal in the
coming decade. But other than the ability to hold more music and an
improved interface, most players released since then have been
essentially retreads of those first models.
Not so the iPhone (and iPod Touch). This device’s large touch
screen, tilt sensors and ability to install applications have already
made it a handy device for going beyond music playback into the realm
of music creation. Four Tracks ($10) replaces the hardware four track
recorders of yore that used to cost hundreds of dollars. Talk about
disruptive technology. Meanwhile, Bloom, ZoozBeat, the harder-to-use
Noise.io and other apps let people make music wherever they are, for a
fraction of the cost of dedicated non-portable hardware.
2. Open-source audio software
One of the great disruptive forces when it comes to software is the
open-source movement. Decentralized teams of programmers with varying
amounts of time to commit to a project can produce applications that
are more stable and offer more capabilities than proprietary software
developers can, almost always offering their final product for free or
at a far cheaper cost.
Audacity, a free, open-source audio editor, has been a shining
example of open-source software for years so stable that I used it as
the basis for a book of digital music tutorials, and that was over five
years ago; the program has only improved since then. Now, it has
competition from another open-source audio editor called Koblo Studio,
which runs on new code (i.e. not Audacity), according to one of its
creators, and offers more some advanced features. The program is free,
but users can choose to buy virtual synthesizers, effects and other
add-ons. Not too long ago, entry-level digital audio workstations cost
hundreds of dollars, and many still do. Thanks to open-source
developers, anyone can now record, edit and produce music for free.
3. Virtual synthesizers
Before the iPhone let us use virtual instruments on the go, the computer
put them in the home studio. Computers are remarkably well-suited to
pretending to be synthesizers. Because they rely on your computer for
processing resources, a display and some of their input mechanisms,
virtual synths are far, far cheaper than their real world counterparts
while offering the same sounds and, usually, more advanced
functionality.
Why buy all the hardware (keyboard, processor, etc.) again each
time you want a new instrument? Virtual synths have allowed a new
generation of musicians to discover yesterday’s vintage equipment and
customize their own sounds to a degree not imaginable in the hardware
world. And as with other disruptive technologies, virtual synths do all
of this at a far lower price than their hardware ancestors.
4. Portable digital audio recorders
As embarrassing as it is to admit, I think I’m in love with my
Roland-Edirol R-09HR High Resolution WAVE/MP3 Recorder, pictured to the
right. Not only is it perfect for recording interviews, with an
optional tripod that lets me record without picking up table noise, an
included wireless remote for altering settings without adding clicks to
the recording and a slow playback option for transcribing speech, but
it has also allowed me to record live music without distortion.
In the past, I’ve had to accept a certain level of digital
distortion as part of the bargain of recording live audio. But the
R-09HR has two gain settings that can each be tweaked to 80 different
recording levels, so no sound seems too quiet or too loud for my R-09HR
to pick up. The built in stereo condenser mics are high-quality enough
for my purposes, but the device also accepts an external mic- or
line-level source. Other high-end portables have been able to record
loud audio without distorting, but this one saves recordings as WAVs or
MP3s on an SD card that my computers see as a plain old disk drive.
Some portable digital audio recorders, the R-09HR included, can
record 24-bit audio, which allows their use on projects requiring
better-than-CD audio quality. High-end portable recorders are
disruptive in two ways: by making it possible to record super clean
audio without a computer and by giving more concertgoers a way to sync
photos and videos to higher-quality audio taped at shows.
5. Max/MSP
When I set out to make this list, my goal was not to include
decades-old technology. Cycling ’74’s Max/MSP, a programming interface
for sound (video introduction), elbowed its way onto the list
nonetheless, because there’s still nothing like it — well, nothing
exactly like it anyway. Forget about imitating synthesizers or making
them portable; Max/MSP lets you build electronic instruments inside
your computer by dragging and dropping objects and connecting them with
virtual patch cords.
Ever wonder how people do things like play real music using
Guitar Hero controllers or turn a Nintendo Wii controller into a
theremin? Their secret, nine times out of ten, is Max/MSP. It’s not the
easiest program to learn, but neither are most other Jedi techniques.
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