Sparks from the Fire

Sometime in the mid 80s I bought one of the first midi sequencers to come out.  It was a marvel of invention at the time and could literally record 160 midi notes in sequence from a synthesizer and then play back the pattern at practically any speed maintaining the pitch of the instrument as the tempo was increased. Remember that tape always moved the pitch up the faster the tape was played, hence the Mickey Mouse effect.  It would only work for one instrument at a time and so we would usually use it for a bass line since it was monophonic, meaning that it could only play one note at a time (no chords).  After 160 notes it ran out of memory and either repeated itself or stopped playing.

It was the size of a large microwave oven and made out of metal with many plastic buttons and little LED lights.  We (my engineers and I) used to program it and then turn all the lights in the studio out and excitedly watch the lights run their sequence as the bass line played.  We were kids with a new toy.

One day we decided to take it apart and see what was inside this marvel of engineering.  We opened the metal case expecting to see it crammed full of gears and widgets and wiring only to find nothing but empty space.  There, at the bottom, sat one computer chip half the size of a vanilla wafer that, of course, ran the entire machine.  We looked at each other in wonder in our first real life experience with digital chip technology.

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I have a student.  In real life he’s a dentist.  In his heart he’s a composer.
He first came to me to study Apple Logic, a computer software program that is essentially a digital recording studio in a box.  With it, you can do just about anything you choose in the world of music – record a song, score a movie, write and record a symphony without hiring an expensive orchestra, take it with you on a gig and expand your band from 3 pieces to an 12 piece horn band, and the list goes on and on.

Apple's Logic Software

It’s a truly amazing technological wonder, but the trouble is, you have to learn it to use it.  And it ain’t easy.  In fact, they say that the learning curve with Logic is the steepest of all the software DAW (digital audio workstation) systems.  I’ve been working with it daily now for about 15 years and I still don’t fully understand it, though I’m what you might call ‘an expert’.  I can fly on it and I can teach it, but I’m still learning it.

Anyway my student was a music hobbyist who would go home at night from his drills and macabre instruments and write music.  Rather, he would go home at night and fight Logic – and Logic most often won.  He was deeply disorganized in his approach to the technology, but his love for music and the act of creativity was so great that it drove him to this nightly struggle.

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