Monday, July 10, 2006
Late at Night
It's very late - 1.30 AM, and I am here futzing with my computer and electronic gizmos. The light above me is a compact flourescent - not very bright, but it doesn't have to be - my laptop's monitor is plenty bright, and as the rest of the room is cluttered with the detritus of years of accumulation - dead computers, broken monitors, keyboards that use a legacy bus that stopped running years ago - there isn't much else to look at.
I make electronic music, and I give it away, for free. I make art and I give it away, for free. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. I give you my words, my ideas, here - for free. Free as in speech, free as in beer.
I'm up late every night because I snore. I have always snored. As I have aged, it has gotten worse, and my wife can barely sleep because of it. I've tried a number of remedies, and none work. So, I stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning, so she can get 4 or five hours of good solid sleep. I crawl to bed and within half an hour I'm out, and usually, she is so deeply asleep, that my snoring doesn't wake her. At least, that is what I hope - it's what I tell myself.
In the meantime, I have time to work with my machines - type blog posts, type email, do some web design. On my little G4 iBook. It's slow, by today's standards, but it works and it's cute. I bought it used, for very little money, and it's very good on electricity - a battery charge can last 3 or even 4 hours, as long as I'm not doing something insane like rendering video clips.
What is interesting about my music system here is that it actually uses a fraction of the amount of electricity it used 20 years ago to do so much less.
In 1986, I got a credit card and maxxed it out and bought a pile of gear. I bought a Korg DSS1 sampler, a Yamaha TX81z synthesizer, an Atari 1040ST computer and monitor, MidiSoft Studio MIDI recording software, Minstrel compsing software, a dot matrix printer, a keyboard stand, a Yamaha SPX90 processor, a MIDIverb reverb unit, a Yamaha mixer, a crown power amp, a Yamaha MIDI merger, and a pair of TOA speakers and stands. Several months later, I bought another sampler, a Sequential Circuits Prophet 2002 and a Yamaha DX11. I had quite a rig.
All that gear sucked down huge amounts of electricity.
Now, my entire electronic music system consists of my laptop, a USB powered Oxygen8 keyboard, two Firewire drives, an Edirol UR80 MIDI USB recording system, Ableton Live software, Propellorheads Reason software, Audacity audio editing software, a Mackie Mixer, and a pair of Event PS8 speakers.
I also have a USB powered WACOM tablet for graphics, but it's usually not hooked up.
All that gear I had back in '86 is now just a small part of a drop down menu in Reason.
I often wonder about that - all that electricity to make music - where did it go? I was more productive back then, but I had more time back then - I wasn't living with a daughter... I was able to get more done then. I have more ideas now, but less time to do them. And now I have compeeting interests with video and imaging. It seems endless...
But now I have these late evenings under the cool glow of the CF lamp, music quietly oozing from the speakers as iTunes spews my CD collection back at me in random fashion.
Sometimes I think iTunes is psychic. At random it pulled "All the Things We've Made" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark up for my listening enjoyment.
The lyrics go:
To want this.
Of everything we've made.
The times it's worked before.
Of all the things we've said.
Times that worked before today.
To want this.
Of everything we've made.
The times it's worked before.
Of all the things we've said.
They've always worked before today.
Will that be the theme song of the transition?
S2
I make electronic music, and I give it away, for free. I make art and I give it away, for free. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. I give you my words, my ideas, here - for free. Free as in speech, free as in beer.
I'm up late every night because I snore. I have always snored. As I have aged, it has gotten worse, and my wife can barely sleep because of it. I've tried a number of remedies, and none work. So, I stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning, so she can get 4 or five hours of good solid sleep. I crawl to bed and within half an hour I'm out, and usually, she is so deeply asleep, that my snoring doesn't wake her. At least, that is what I hope - it's what I tell myself.
In the meantime, I have time to work with my machines - type blog posts, type email, do some web design. On my little G4 iBook. It's slow, by today's standards, but it works and it's cute. I bought it used, for very little money, and it's very good on electricity - a battery charge can last 3 or even 4 hours, as long as I'm not doing something insane like rendering video clips.
What is interesting about my music system here is that it actually uses a fraction of the amount of electricity it used 20 years ago to do so much less.
In 1986, I got a credit card and maxxed it out and bought a pile of gear. I bought a Korg DSS1 sampler, a Yamaha TX81z synthesizer, an Atari 1040ST computer and monitor, MidiSoft Studio MIDI recording software, Minstrel compsing software, a dot matrix printer, a keyboard stand, a Yamaha SPX90 processor, a MIDIverb reverb unit, a Yamaha mixer, a crown power amp, a Yamaha MIDI merger, and a pair of TOA speakers and stands. Several months later, I bought another sampler, a Sequential Circuits Prophet 2002 and a Yamaha DX11. I had quite a rig.
All that gear sucked down huge amounts of electricity.
Now, my entire electronic music system consists of my laptop, a USB powered Oxygen8 keyboard, two Firewire drives, an Edirol UR80 MIDI USB recording system, Ableton Live software, Propellorheads Reason software, Audacity audio editing software, a Mackie Mixer, and a pair of Event PS8 speakers.
I also have a USB powered WACOM tablet for graphics, but it's usually not hooked up.
All that gear I had back in '86 is now just a small part of a drop down menu in Reason.
I often wonder about that - all that electricity to make music - where did it go? I was more productive back then, but I had more time back then - I wasn't living with a daughter... I was able to get more done then. I have more ideas now, but less time to do them. And now I have compeeting interests with video and imaging. It seems endless...
But now I have these late evenings under the cool glow of the CF lamp, music quietly oozing from the speakers as iTunes spews my CD collection back at me in random fashion.
Sometimes I think iTunes is psychic. At random it pulled "All the Things We've Made" by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark up for my listening enjoyment.
The lyrics go:
To want this.
Of everything we've made.
The times it's worked before.
Of all the things we've said.
Times that worked before today.
To want this.
Of everything we've made.
The times it's worked before.
Of all the things we've said.
They've always worked before today.
Will that be the theme song of the transition?
S2
