Compression! Auto-tune! Sampled instruments! (Oh My!): The Role of Technology in Modern Music

 - San Francisco, California - Music listeners have had a rather tenuous relationship with recording and mixing technology over the past 10 years. Auto-tune (or more technically “pitch correction”) has been declaimed as a form of lying to the listener, since it has been used to suggest vocal talent where it does not exist. Metallica’s 2008 release Death Magnetic gained the worst kind of press notice because overcompression caused it to suffer significantly in musical quality. Since the popularization of digital audio with the compact disc and the digital audio workstation (or DAW), technology-based musical tools have given musicians, mixers, and producers tools to manipulate music in ways previously impossible, for both financial and artistic purposes. The speed of technological advancements in the music industry over the past 20 years has left many music listeners and musicians in a state of confusion over what is “ethical” in music.

Click to read more ...

Music In The New Millennium: A Model For The Digital Age

- San Francisco, California - Music is a deeply ingrained part of modern American culture.  Americans encounter music in television shows, movies, and even supermarkets.  Regardless of the state of the economy and regardless of the state of the nation, music seems to always exist.  Music is the canvas upon which we paint ourselves with better brushes than those we own; we hum melodies we did not concoct and sing enigmatic stanzas we did not invent.  In this sense, musical talent is irrelevant in our connection with music.  By expressing previously inexpressible thoughts and emotions, music becomes a deeply-ingrained part of all of us.

Click to read more ...