The following is a response to the question 3 proposed by the NCT learning blog,
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Digital media put the tools of production into the hands of the everyday computer user making it incredibly easy to produce content. These creative skills used to be something that people worked to develop. Now it appears that amateurs can produce content of a fair standard within a relatively short period of time. Where does this leave 'professionals' and highly-skilled artists? Choose one area of creativity and discuss some of the challenges facing practitioners vs amateurs in producing digitalcontent.
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Digital Music Production Technology in the Digital Age
Due to the massive influx of interest and mass marketing of digital technology, digital music production has never been so easy to create. With the constant development of digital studios, legal and illegal means of obtaining new industry standard audio technologies and instruments, and the rising popularity of online music distribution stores, the distinction between practioner and amateur in the facet of digital music production, has never been so severely blurred. However, fair distinctions can still be made, and in some cases, explicitly highlighted by the technologic advances to which aim in assisting and reducing the complexity of digital music production. Perhaps, it is not the distinction between professional and amateur that has been blurred, but the gap between the two merely shortened. With the rise in popularity of digital music production, coupled with the large influx in online hosting websites, blog spots and other various online resources aimed at sharing industry quality virtual audio technologies and instruments, tools which were at one time, only available to established producers and or enthusiasts with enough disposable cash, are now available to your everyday computer user; for next to nothing. The shift from the once conventional method of buying music from a store, to buying music online, has seen a large development and increase in websites offering high quality digital music, direct to the user, online. Distribution of digital music has never been so simple. It is due to these various factors, that the seeming degradation of the classification between professional and amateur in digital music producer has occurred.
Digital music production technology has developed in such a way, that if you own a personal computer, and or laptop, you can have a professional fully functional and mobile studio workstation. The ability to compose, record, edit, mix and remix is all available given the development of virtual workshops and multi-trackers, more or less, identical to the real life studio workshops that cost thousands to create. (Pekka G, Ilpo S. 1999, pg 223) By the mid 1980’s, the typical professional studio generally comprised little more than a 16 or 24 track tape machine, 24 track mixing desk, sufficient rack of signals, processors and effects, as well as, half a dozen analogue synths. From an early stage, the advantages of having a digital assisted recording studio were already being noted. (Middleton, C 2006, pg 20) The massive recording studios of today, despite now containing a far greater range of equipments, have found their way onto the everyday computer. Studios that were once basically off limits to professional artists only, costing hundreds of dollars a day to use, are now fully available in a virtual environment. (Journal of Digital Recording and Reproducing Techniques, pp. 48 – 55) With the huge potential of these virtual workshop environments realized, big company investments along with the mass marketing of this digital technology resulted in professional studio quality programs, aimed at taking the complexity out of the recording process. This, in a sense, has leveled the playing field for all artists, regardless of their musical abilities.
The development of these digital workstations essentially, eliminated the need for the user to understand the theory behind the given tools of production (be it a compressor, equalizer or type of effects). (Middleton, C 2006, pg 37 - 43) Users have the ability to select from pre-designed setups for each individual tool, as created by the software designers. (Middleton, C 2006, pg 40) This allows even those users with limited to no knowledge of track dynamics to produce a seemingly polished sound. ((Middleton, C 2006, pg 26) However, this assistance in turn creates a fundamental flaw in the development of user’s future tracks. Professionals on the other hand, with the ability and understanding behind a tracks design, structure and dynamics, will be able to produce sounds at a higher quality than that of the standard of a generic ‘to suit all sounds’ setup for given equalizers, compressors and other tools created by the software makers. The challenges of dithering, effects, equalization, mastering, mixing, normalization and quantization can all be solved from a novices point of view, using the software settings, however, a professional can utilized the theory behind the tools to produce a higher quality track in the end. This therefore shows, that whilst the development of these digital workstations have allowed for nearly any user to produce a relatively high quality, the distinction between professional and amateur can still clearly be noted. However, these new digital production tools wouldn’t be in the hands of amateurs in the first place, if it wasn’t for the massive influx of interest and mass marketing of digital production technologies, coupled with a rise in popularity of blogs, forums and other internet mediums.
These days, the internet has grown to be a popular form of media, people can easily created and join worldwide community’s, specifically interested in a given hobby, to discussion and share their knowledge to a wide active audience of people. With the development of digital production technologies, and the availability of these technologies to those with access to a computer, interest in the digital music production has increased dramatically. ((Middleton, C 2006, pg 5) This increased traffic, results in more blog spots, forums and other dedicated websites aimed at sharing new digital audio technologies. With the increase in free online file hosting websites, the sharing of these files can be completed with relative ease. Whilst once upon a time, professionals would be required to purchase all their production tools, or receive products from sponsors in order to keep up to date with the latest audio technologies, at current, the latest audio technologies are hosted on websites in these given communities for anyone to obtain. Audio technology that was once only exclusive to professional artists, are now available for anyone to obtain. Distinction between practioner and amateur, in this case, comes down to the time spent learning the given virtual instrument and the actual musical theory and knowledge the producer posses. It seems that these internet communities have allowed for the connection of people in an infinite variety of ways, to share work, publish, collaborate and sell music online to a specific target audience and is even influencing the way we now purchase music material
The music industry itself is changing with the times of the internet. The selling of tracks directly to a listener online has proven to be widely popular, resulting in a large amount of online music stores popping up on the internet. The internet allows for the easy distribution of music, no matter what genre, to people all over the world. (Middleton, C 2006, pg 6 - 8) Professionals who once had to source out labels, to cover the costs of recording and distribute cds, are now able to create and distribute their own music via these online music stores. This however, is now also becoming the case for any amateur producer. Perhaps the most distinguishing factor between professional and amateur producers was distribution of music. With the change in trend of music distribution, it is now significantly easier to release new media for both parties, a large distinguishing factor in professional and amateur productions.
It is quite evident, that the developments in digital music technologies and increase internet traffic have caused a profound effect on the world of digital music production. Through the introduction of new, simplistic design digital workstations, aimed at un-complicating the production process, the increased interest and consequential sharing of digital audio technology, due to the mass marketing of these technologies, and the shift in music distribution and purchasing, the line between the definition of professional and enthusiast producers has been severely affected. However, the fundamentals of musical theory and deeper knowledge and understanding of production methods and tools, still allow for the distinguishing between the two parties involved. Whilst the range in quality of production between the two parties has been drastically reduced, there is still a notable difference between professional productions and amateur productions. Although the challenges facing both parties are seemingly similar, the extra time and money spent to develop and perfect ones production, will always separate those who have dedicated their work solely to music production, and the wider group of enthusiasts involved in the industry.
References
Kostka, Stefan M 1999, Materials and techniques of twentieth-centruy music – 2nd ed, Prentice-Hall, Inc. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Pekka G, Ilpo S. 1999, An International History of the Recording Industry, Cassel, Wellington House, London.
Middleton, C 2006, Creating - Digital Music and Sound, Focal Press, Burlington, USA. Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford, UK.
Zager, M 2006, Music Production: a manual for produces, composers, arrangers, and students, Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Md.
Chapman, Nigel P c2000, Digital multimedia, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, England
Thomas S. Valpic c2000, Digital mythologies : the hidden complexities of the Internet, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J.
‘Digital: music, recording, multimedia’, Journal of Digital Recording and Reproducing Techniques, no. 6, 1997, pp. 48 – 52
‘The Recording Engineer Comes of Age ‘ http://www.recordinghistory.org/ , accessed, 18/10/09
