nuFrontiers

My first NAMM experience was in the Winter of 1997 and I got to see Seer Reality, and a lot of other great new software products on the floor.  1997 was a great year for computer software:  Personal Computer Music software was booming, driven by the mass availability of high quality audio cards, cheap CD burning, and improvements in computer speeds.  Most of what you could do in analog recording was now possible with an inexpensive PC, and it was faster and easier.  Being able to see the latest technology in those days was amazing.  I have been to NAMM several times since, but I have not seen as dramatic a change in music production tools since that first show.

I have been recording music for quite a while.  First, with a pair of cassette recorders in the 70’s, then with a cassette-based 4-track in the 80’s, then with a SVHS-based 8-track in the 90’s, and now with computers.  One of the pivotal moments along that path came at NAMM in January of 1997, when Seer systems released the first professional software synthesizer for the PC called “Reality”.

To be sure, sampling software synthesizers had been around on dedicated devices since the late 70’s from companies like Synclavier and Fairlight.  On those systems, the software filled a role more like an operating system – commanding all the resources of the device with a guaranteed slice of CPU, rather than sharing the hardware with many other processes that could steal time slices away with no warning.  Dedicated hardware is expensive, with the early samplers costing more than $25,000.  The introduction of a professional quality synthesizer for the PC opened the door to great sounding instruments for everybody.

Reality was kind of a hybrid between the Windows Platform and a dedicated hardware platform.  Seer only runs on Windows 95 and 98 because it needs access to some hardware-level functionality that is not allowed on the later versions of Windows.  That functionality guaranteed Reality the responsiveness it needed to deliver a professional playback experience in real time.  Once Reality proved it could be done, a whole array of other software synthesizer products began to pop up.

Computer power had increased dramatically since 1997, and is now generally capable of powering a software synthesizer without having to reach down into the hardware level to make that happen.

It seems like most of the obvious problems in Music software have been solved, so you might think “audio is done” and there is no room to grow a business in music software today.  But I believe there is a very clear field for growth in the Music software industry that mirrors what occurred in the automobile industry in the 1970’s.

At that point in time, the American automobile market was saturated with automobiles. Henry Ford’s dream seemed to be fully realized. But marketing luminaries at the time recognized that the system of mass production tended to fall short in some way in terms of providing what people wanted most. Mass production is great when everybody wants the same thing, but we don’t all want the same thing from a car – or from music software. A gap between what mass production can provide and what the market wants is a business opportunity waiting to be tapped! But in the case of Music software, I believe there is an even bigger opportunity waiting thanks to the internet…

Beyond just creating software that zeroes in on the needs of a particular class of musician, there is the opportunity to use the internet to facilitate connecting groups with different strengths. Imagine there are two musicians: Jane, and John. Jane is really interested in composing loops, while John loves to finesse loops into a really tight beat. If Jane had a piece of software that focused on creating great loops efficiently, she could make more loops, or she could make the same amount of loops of higher quality.

Now if there was an easy way for Jane to sell her loops to John, or for John to put out a request for some new loops to Jane, Jane could sell more and better loops to John. With more and better loops, John can make more and better beats, and maybe make more money off of his passion. This is already being done to some degree by sites like BeatPort and BroadJam, but there are many links in the music chain left to connect.  And the best part is that music software that is targeted to specific modes of music production can ultimately provide better music for everyone!

If you are interested in a more in-depth explanation of the power of specialization, take a look at this video.

One of the strategies for achieving excellence I learned at the 2010 IMMMS was “Aim Low,  Get High”.  Great things are built in small steps that incrementally make the result great.    The key to success is having the tenacity to keep building until you are there and a sense of taste that allows you to realize the next steps you need to take.  This approach works for all kinds of creative endeavors from music to theoretical physics.  So let’s assume you have mastered your instrument and take it from there…

Popular culture portrays creativity as if a creative genius gets a great idea all at once.   But that is absolutely not the case.  I used to work with Douglas “Spot” Spotted Eagle at Sonic Foundry.  One day while I was at the gym pumping iron in front of the TV, I saw Spot win a Grammy Award.  I later asked him where he found the time to put out that great album while working at Sonic Foundry.  He chuckled and told me it took years to get to that point.

If you are going to spend years on a project, you need to have an idea of where to go next at every stage if you are going to succeed.  How do you do that?  You have to develop a sense of taste, and that usually requires immersing yourself in the existing body of work in your chosen domain.  When you do that, you will inevitably begin to develop a catalog of the work you like best.  And once you have that catalog you should ask yourself what it is that makes those works stand out for you.  By doing that you develop your inner compass that will help point you in the direction to greatness.

Albert Einstein was once asked how he thought differently than most people.  Einstein’s answer was that most people, when given the task to find a needle in a haystack dig through the haystack until they find the first needle.  But Einstein suggested he would dig through the entire haystack until he found all the needles.  That kind of tenacity is exactly what it takes for greatness!

Can musicians apply this kind of tenacity to produce a great album?  Yes they can!  Say your goal is put out an album with 10 great songs.   You could just write 10 songs and put them all on the album.   But what if you wrote 20 songs instead and picked the best 10 out of those songs?  Chances are you would end up with a much better result if you did.  This concept can be applied at multiple levels of songwriting too:  Try a few variations of melodies, chord progressions, lyrics, or instrumentation and see how it impacts your results!

So stick with it, and learn what you love about the music you like!

As a developer of computer music technology, I have a keen interest in identifying the greatest opportunities in the future of computer music.  Will everyone move to the iPad?  Or maybe the iPad will be a passing fancy?  I suspect the answer will lie somewhere in between.

People are getting more creative about finding ways to maximize their productive time compared to 20 years ago.  Cell technology now allows for people to communicate in any location with cell service.  If someone is going to be late to a meeting, they can now call ahead and inform the people in the meeting and make alternative plans.  If you head out to the grocery store and your significant other realizes there is something else they needed you to get, they can now call you and update your shopping list.  If you are lost, you can connect to the Internet on your mobile device and view a map of your current location.

But what about music?  Unlike simple communication, making music consumes more of your attention, so it isn’t quite suited to the range of environments that people are using for cell phone communication.  Headphones can certainly improve your listening experience wherever you are, but many mobile devices can’t be seen in bright sunlight.  The smaller screens (1024×768) are limiting compared to most desktops, so apps tend to focus on a narrower set of tasks (which can be a good thing).  A touchscreen is certainly better than a mouse, but the lack of a keyboard means accelerator key options are limited.

The bottom line is that iPad apps that can work with a narrow focus will be done more on the iPad, while apps with a broad range of options, or that are greatly enhanced by keyboard accelerators are going to stay on the traditional desktop or laptop.  It is also a safe bet that developers will be providing better and better interoperability between iPads and traditional desktops, so that you can fly out a simple task to your iPad while riding the train to work, then re-integrate your work into a larger project on your desktop once you get there.  For that reason, I suspect music production on laptops and desktops isn’t going to disappear and iPad music production will increase, but won’t be the only game in town.