To Play or to Program

Recently, in Guitar Player magazine, Jack White clarified his supposed antipathy to Pro Tools and other software used in the recording industry. His objection is that too often the computer does the work through programing rather than the artist/musicians, and that the music loses something because of it. 

I thought of this as I was recording an album called Winter. Originally, the songs were recorded on my Tascam Portastudio 244, a 4-track cassette machine and these were the first songs I recorded using it. It has the usual tape hiss and noise one might associate with home recording, although most of the noise came from running the track recordings through a Fender deluxe reverb amp because portastudios didn't come with built-in effects in those days and quality reverb units were pricey. 

The tracks were demos for a band album that never was and although I promised to re-record the songs, it's only now that I've gotten around to it.

As with all my recordings, I play all the instruments, with the noted exception that in some cases I use drum patterns, either because I like the rhythm or because at the time of the recording I didn't have an actual drum kit.

Nor are the tracks composites of many recordings, say of a solo; what you hear is what was laid down in that take. That can make recording tedious if you are trying for the right series of notes or groove, etc. and not having a lot of success. Having a home studio, if nothing else, gives me the option of giving up till tomorrow what I can't find today; if you're paying for studio time, having an mixer splice something together might be the more affordable option if you're paying by the hour.

I do think by working out and playing the various parts, be it bass or percussion or keys, gives the song it's human element; I suppose you can use the correction tools to fix glitches or odd moments, but unless it seriously detracts from the song or is glaringly obvious, sometimes a supposed mistake give the song its quirk.

And I think that's what Mr. White is alluding to, the human quirkiness in doing the work, in giving the song its character, and that doesn't necessarily mean flaws or errors. It's what makes it interesting.

This week's song: As noted above, I'm working on an album called Winter,

Back in 1984 I wrote a bunch of songs that were meant to be a new band album after we'd recorded Broken Hearts and the Fabulous Perch in 1982. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens, we never found the time and other projects and bands took precedence. This year I decided to finally re-record the songs into more finalized versions. So for this week's song we have both the original demo and the finished song. The song is Wind. You'll note I shorted it and changed the solo. The other most notable thing is the difference in the sound depth of the new version.

You can hear them at mrprimitivemusic.com.

©2018 David William Pearce