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Panel debates role of technology in pop music
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| John Mason/Hudson-Catskill Newspapers Lincoln Mayorga of Chatham makes a point as Henry Hirsch of Hudson and Paul Rapp listen, during Saturday's Songwriters' Festival at Space 360 in Hudson. |
By John Mason
HUDSON — The new technologies: Are they good or bad for music? A panel of eminent musical professionals debated this question for more than an hour as part of the Columbia Arts Team Songwriters Festival Saturday.
The festival continues at 11 a.m. today at Space 360, 360 Warren St., Hudson.
Henry Hirsch, a recording engineer, producer, long-time working partner of Lenny Kravitz and co-founder of Waterfront Studio in Hudson, said, “The sterility factor is apparent ... The argument is the digital age has taken apart the performance element.” He said he’d seen shows in which everything was canned.
Singer-songwriter Marc Black disagreed.
“Technology always changes what artists do,” he said. “If he had come on the scene 10 years earlier, Bing Crosby wouldn’t have been a contender: He mastered the microphone. That was a new genre of art, and there are bands that have mastered the new technology. It requires different skills.”
But Black said he doesn’t care for pitch correction. Brazilian musicians are all a little flat, he said, and punk musicians are all a little sharp.
“Pitch correction homogenizes everything,” he said.
The question, he said, is: What technologies will serve us? Analog requires getting it right in the studio; digital recording can be remixed at home.
“My argument is, if musicians don’t feel compelled to perform, inevitably they’ll grow up not to be Phil Ochs or the other musicians that are heralded,” Hirsch said. “Kids growing up have to play, or else they’ll depend on technology like a drug.”
Lincoln Mayorga of Chatham, a long-time pianist/arranger/composer in Hollywood, Tin Pan Alley, jazz and classical music, said he was involved in a similar debate in 1973, when the subject was multi-track vs. two track or mono.
“As each step came into being, the quality went down a little,” he said. “Four-track lost that beautiful stereo, that feeling of depth. It had been a social event, the whole room was rocking: That was gone.”
He then recalled in 1950, when he was 13, going to see a taping of a “Father Knows Best” radio show.
“They had something brand-new,” he said. “A tape recorder, Ampex 200. A line was fluffed — someone said, ‘We’ll do it again and splice it in.’ So they did the line again but this time, nobody laughed. So they spliced in the laughter from the first time. I thought, ‘Something’s wrong here.’”
Linda Lorence-Critelli, a vice-president at the performing rights organization Sesac, said, “By the time you get to the studio, you’re a trained artist: What’s wrong with using the tricks of the trade?”
“My point is if you are able to pitch-correct in the studio you will, and when you’re live, you won’t be able to do it,” Hirsch said.
“Music is not a constant,” Black said. “What is music? You disturb the air, your ears pick it up, you organize it in your head. The military left oil drums in Trinidad, and the people invented steel drums. In the 1950s we had the combustion engine, and the invention of rock-and-roll, which sounded like music. Now we have the computer age: It’s always the young people who invent music.”
An audience member noted that at the same time synthesizers were becoming popular, there was a boom in piano sales; and now there are a lot of acoustic guitarists, many veering towards jazz.
“They love Jack Johnson,” Lorence-Critelli said, “a young singer-songwriter.”
Mayorga recalled that Vladimir Horowitz’s piano playing live was erratic, but his records were as smooth as could be, due to extensive editing.
Hirsch said the biggest supporters of digital manipulation are the classical musicians; one top cello player required him to use the program PreTools to do a recording a bar at a time.
He said he had found analog recording produces a much closer analogy to actual performance than digital recording, which always sounds bright.
An aspiring songwriter said she was naive about the technology, and wondered what she needs to do to get her songs out there.
Black suggested loading a CD of her songs onto her computer, then into I-Tunes, then creating an MP3, which could be sent anywhere.
Lorence-Critelli recommending starting with a MySpace page.
“I prefer going to a MySpace page over a Web site,” she said, “because it’s right there. Your MySpace page is your business card.”
The technology panel was one of seven that were scheduled to take place Saturday. Then, from 4 to 5 p.m., the experts critiqued songs by novice attendees.
The festival continues today with three simultaneous panels running from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: “Transform your inner critic into your staunchest ally,” “The pitch and the hit,” and “Live performance: showcasing your songs effectively.” From 12:30 until 2 p.m., participants will get their second chance to have their songs critiqued.
To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.
The festival continues at 11 a.m. today at Space 360, 360 Warren St., Hudson.
Henry Hirsch, a recording engineer, producer, long-time working partner of Lenny Kravitz and co-founder of Waterfront Studio in Hudson, said, “The sterility factor is apparent ... The argument is the digital age has taken apart the performance element.” He said he’d seen shows in which everything was canned.
Singer-songwriter Marc Black disagreed.
“Technology always changes what artists do,” he said. “If he had come on the scene 10 years earlier, Bing Crosby wouldn’t have been a contender: He mastered the microphone. That was a new genre of art, and there are bands that have mastered the new technology. It requires different skills.”
But Black said he doesn’t care for pitch correction. Brazilian musicians are all a little flat, he said, and punk musicians are all a little sharp.
“Pitch correction homogenizes everything,” he said.
The question, he said, is: What technologies will serve us? Analog requires getting it right in the studio; digital recording can be remixed at home.
“My argument is, if musicians don’t feel compelled to perform, inevitably they’ll grow up not to be Phil Ochs or the other musicians that are heralded,” Hirsch said. “Kids growing up have to play, or else they’ll depend on technology like a drug.”
Lincoln Mayorga of Chatham, a long-time pianist/arranger/composer in Hollywood, Tin Pan Alley, jazz and classical music, said he was involved in a similar debate in 1973, when the subject was multi-track vs. two track or mono.
“As each step came into being, the quality went down a little,” he said. “Four-track lost that beautiful stereo, that feeling of depth. It had been a social event, the whole room was rocking: That was gone.”
He then recalled in 1950, when he was 13, going to see a taping of a “Father Knows Best” radio show.
“They had something brand-new,” he said. “A tape recorder, Ampex 200. A line was fluffed — someone said, ‘We’ll do it again and splice it in.’ So they did the line again but this time, nobody laughed. So they spliced in the laughter from the first time. I thought, ‘Something’s wrong here.’”
Linda Lorence-Critelli, a vice-president at the performing rights organization Sesac, said, “By the time you get to the studio, you’re a trained artist: What’s wrong with using the tricks of the trade?”
“My point is if you are able to pitch-correct in the studio you will, and when you’re live, you won’t be able to do it,” Hirsch said.
“Music is not a constant,” Black said. “What is music? You disturb the air, your ears pick it up, you organize it in your head. The military left oil drums in Trinidad, and the people invented steel drums. In the 1950s we had the combustion engine, and the invention of rock-and-roll, which sounded like music. Now we have the computer age: It’s always the young people who invent music.”
An audience member noted that at the same time synthesizers were becoming popular, there was a boom in piano sales; and now there are a lot of acoustic guitarists, many veering towards jazz.
“They love Jack Johnson,” Lorence-Critelli said, “a young singer-songwriter.”
Mayorga recalled that Vladimir Horowitz’s piano playing live was erratic, but his records were as smooth as could be, due to extensive editing.
Hirsch said the biggest supporters of digital manipulation are the classical musicians; one top cello player required him to use the program PreTools to do a recording a bar at a time.
He said he had found analog recording produces a much closer analogy to actual performance than digital recording, which always sounds bright.
An aspiring songwriter said she was naive about the technology, and wondered what she needs to do to get her songs out there.
Black suggested loading a CD of her songs onto her computer, then into I-Tunes, then creating an MP3, which could be sent anywhere.
Lorence-Critelli recommending starting with a MySpace page.
“I prefer going to a MySpace page over a Web site,” she said, “because it’s right there. Your MySpace page is your business card.”
The technology panel was one of seven that were scheduled to take place Saturday. Then, from 4 to 5 p.m., the experts critiqued songs by novice attendees.
The festival continues today with three simultaneous panels running from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: “Transform your inner critic into your staunchest ally,” “The pitch and the hit,” and “Live performance: showcasing your songs effectively.” From 12:30 until 2 p.m., participants will get their second chance to have their songs critiqued.
To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.
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