BEAT MANIFESTOS
MUSICIANS SOUND OFF ON THEIR FAVE TECH TOYS AND THE FUTURE OF MUSIC.
On my last album, Vespertine, I became obsessed with my laptop and my laptop speakers: I was trying to make a bubble you could exist in, a paradise.
For the string and music-box arrangements, I used a classical program called Sibelius, where you have all the instruments of a big orchestra in a laptop. You get a picture of sheet music and a mouse that operates as a pencil, so you write it out and press Play, then print it and hand the music to the orchestra.
I recently got a thing that's become a favorite called MOTU 828. It's a firewire rack that replaces the soundcard, which means I can plug my microphone straight into my laptop, and it's got the best recording quality there is.
A gorgeous thing is happening now as technology becomes more common. It's like years ago, when there was a piano or guitar in everyone's home and everybody would know how to use them. It's excellent, because if one's human spirit wants to write a song, it's more likely to be captured now. Good music always wins.
(Nortec Collective/Fussible)
We started using sequencers on computers about 13 years ago. We weren't even using Windows, just straight operating systems like DOS.
Ten years ago, I was working with a sampler that had only 1 megabyte of memory. Now I have one that has almost unlimited memory. That's insane. But it's good to have the old school, because sometimes, when you limit yourself, you can become more creative. Technology has a way of making people lazy.
I have different toys I like. I work with hardware instruments like drum machines that I build myself. One of my favorite software gadgets is called Live, made by Abelton of Germany. It's an audio sequencer that allows you to sample your software instruments and assign all the keys on your computer keyboard to trigger all the samples, so you can create a track on the fly. The other one, which will revolutionize music for DJs, is called Final Scratch. You can record your vinyl and MP3s on the computer, then connect the interface to your turntables. And you can put physical vinyl on the turntable: It has a digital code that triggers the MP3 on the computer. Both will be the big thing this year and in the future.
Since I'm a singer, my favorite tool is the microphone. A microphone is an instrument in and of itself, different ones that go well with your voice and different ways of using it to make yourself sound a certain way.
Technology is making the creative process full of options. There are so many ways you can make music now; you have a million and one things you could do, which doesn't necessarily make it better.
Now everyone uses computers and programs like Logic and Pro Tools to make records in their home studios, which is still pretty new. It's so at-your-fingertips. Everyone has the ability to make a whole record - not just demos - that will actually be played. I've got a whole studio setup at home based around computers, though I use real amps and instruments combined with the computer-generated stuff.
Technology is changing music sonically - instead of a band in a room with some mikes, it's a lot more digital sounding. Everybody and their mother uses technology to mix old music samples with new music. The difference is how you use it.
(Gorillaz)
The more powerful the machines are, the less they obstruct your way or dictate what you have to do. Most of the synthesizers I use are basically sampled or sound-generated, so they are all computer based. A lot of the effects are old stuff, but all the recording and sound generating is done on Macintosh computers.
The most important piece of equipment I own is probably my mobile phone. I'm all over the country all the time, so that's what I use to take care of business, set things up. Other than that, the most important item is Pro Tools. Basically all the music I do is recorded on Pro Tools. Every musician has to have it. It's the one constant. But I don't think it lives up to the hype; they do these horrible upgrades, and everyone I know just hates it.
But Pro Tools is so firmly entrenched at this point, it's hard to use anything else. It's a monopoly.
I work with samplers of various types, and the challenge is to fill them with interesting things. The best one is the S612 by Akai; I have 10 of them. It was the first one they ever did, and it's quite Fisher-Price. There's an amazing new sampler by Roland called the VP-9000, which is designed to slow things down and speed things up in real time - it defies the laws of sound.
The new stuff I'm working on is about the sounds of corporations - like McDonald's and Disney and the Gap - that I hate, using their products to generate noise and then destroying them. On a track called "Starbucks," every sound you hear is made entirely from a Frappucino and a caramel latte, of me pouring it down the sink and doing everything except drinking it.
Entering music into a computer with a mouse is a completely inhuman experience, and I think we'll look back in 50 years and laugh at how people were supposed to put their ideas across using one button and a 17th-century keyboard.
I think at one time, people used to shop for music. Now people shop to music. Music is a secondary medium, and fashion has taken over. Music puts one word - entertainment - into shopping. We use music to look at things, to watch, to style - for every activity other than for its own sake.
I started to make music as a film director would make a movie - but without a camera. I was left with sound, and out of the sound, I have to tell the story. I remember what James Brown said about me: "Musicians are usually looking at their guitars, but this guy is always looking out the window." Because I'm forever trying to paint the picture. But I'm trying to do that by music. So that's how I work.
I think more and more, music will be made by people who aren't musicians. In some instances, that's creating music that might be considered far too karaoke. But it may spark a very different kind of music, one that's not governed by structures that were originally created by musicians.
I'm not majorly technology-literate, but I'm literate in terms of what I work with to make music. I just use what we all use in hip hop: Akai MPC-3000 and E-MU SP1200 synthesizers, Akai S5000 sampler, and SSL mixing boards and Pro Tools. That's the basis of hip hop. We ain't fucking around with bands. Make a track, add an MC - it's convenient.
On our tour bus, normally I bring Tascam DA-88s, 8-track modules that you can combine and have as many tracks as you need. We also got Xboxes and PlayStation 2s, and when I get around to it, I love the martial-arts games.
I'm an analog dude, but I deal with digital because of the convenience and speed. Analog gives you a warmer sound, and you can get more of a thump out of your analog shit; digital cleans it up a little too much.
I have no idea where music is going creatively. As long as there's a mind to create a new idea, I'm sure technology will always introduce new shit for us to fuck with.
(Air)
There is a sensual relationship between the machine and human beings. In the studio you have to plug and de-plug these machines all together. It's very sexual. It's like trying to organize some lovemaking parties between the machines, and some machines are not able to fuck with others. We have the feeling to make love to them, too.
We only buy electronic equipment with red LEDs. I don't know why, but the reality is that all the good things have got some red lights on them. With the Korg ER-1 Electribe beat box, it's so easy to do something modern. You just turn the knobs and it sounds good - and the buttons are red, so it's beautiful in the dark.
I've got a little Sony DAT recording unit; I know it's like a cliché, but in a hotel room I recorded the noise of my toilet because it was producing a sort of rhythm with water. I also like these famous orange speaking toys from the '70s, Speak & Spell! The tune of the voice - the timbre - is amazing. I've got two.
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