L
LP2006
New member
I was unsure wich forum to post this in. It's not really a dilema, just an interesting subject for discussion. I am currently applying to the University of Michigan For electrical engineering and audio engineering. Long story short, one of the many essays struck me as being pretty interesting. It got me thinking about technology and the future. Mostly about how relevant talent will really be in the future of recording. The question is in italics and my answer follows. It's just my what I feel. Opinions welcome.
Engineering (dual degree applicants, please also answer): Where do you imagine your chosen field of study will be in 10 years, and how do you fit into that picture?
I’m sitting behind the glass barrier that separates me from the performer. I slowly bring up the monitor levels, then the instrument channel. We start tracking. A symphony of LED lights flash in thousands of distinct colors in the dim studio. I bring up my slider to 0db, and the console room fills with smooth sound of a tenor saxophone.
The performer closes her eyes and feels the tone of her instrument as she climbs chromatically from A to C. She winces as she holds onto the Bb for just one beat too many. However I hear perfection. A light on my outboard pitch corrector flashes, confirming the alteration. I think back to the days of yore when a performance had to be nearly perfect to get a decent recording. “It’s still cheating.” I say to myself as the sax player holds on the IV note, indicating the end of the session.
In ten years electrical engineering in music will have artificially raised the artist to near perfection. Pitch correction will be everywhere, and midi (musical instrument digital interface) interfaces will exist for every instrument imaginable. Sample rates will be so high that the already fine line between analog and digital signals will be non-existent. Synthesizers will be replaced or hybridized with samplers, creating more realistic instrument tones.
However perfection is inherently imperfect. Perfect music cannot exist, for it is not music. It is the small mistakes an artist makes that reinvents genres, and makes a song interesting to listen to. This is where I stand, the conservative producer/musician who knows the value of actual talent. I hope I can bring a sense of tradition and reality to the music of the future as an engineer or a producer. Humanity isn’t perfect; our music shouldn’t have to be either.
What do you guys think?
Engineering (dual degree applicants, please also answer): Where do you imagine your chosen field of study will be in 10 years, and how do you fit into that picture?
I’m sitting behind the glass barrier that separates me from the performer. I slowly bring up the monitor levels, then the instrument channel. We start tracking. A symphony of LED lights flash in thousands of distinct colors in the dim studio. I bring up my slider to 0db, and the console room fills with smooth sound of a tenor saxophone.
The performer closes her eyes and feels the tone of her instrument as she climbs chromatically from A to C. She winces as she holds onto the Bb for just one beat too many. However I hear perfection. A light on my outboard pitch corrector flashes, confirming the alteration. I think back to the days of yore when a performance had to be nearly perfect to get a decent recording. “It’s still cheating.” I say to myself as the sax player holds on the IV note, indicating the end of the session.
In ten years electrical engineering in music will have artificially raised the artist to near perfection. Pitch correction will be everywhere, and midi (musical instrument digital interface) interfaces will exist for every instrument imaginable. Sample rates will be so high that the already fine line between analog and digital signals will be non-existent. Synthesizers will be replaced or hybridized with samplers, creating more realistic instrument tones.
However perfection is inherently imperfect. Perfect music cannot exist, for it is not music. It is the small mistakes an artist makes that reinvents genres, and makes a song interesting to listen to. This is where I stand, the conservative producer/musician who knows the value of actual talent. I hope I can bring a sense of tradition and reality to the music of the future as an engineer or a producer. Humanity isn’t perfect; our music shouldn’t have to be either.
What do you guys think?
