Back in the days songs were recorded in a very sophisticated process reserved to professionals exclusively. Huge switchboards with hundreds of plugs and controls were in place to mix the sound of singers and bands. Large mechanical machines then pressed the sound into vinyl records.
The possibilities and access to creating homemade media drastically changed with the beginning of the digital era. All of the sudden anyone could produce a hit song that sounded just like the radio. The recording of voices or music instruments to computers is now as easy as preparing a frozen ready-meal. Digital sequencers and synthesizers put entire orchestras into tiny PCs or notebooks. Arranging different sound tracks or composing these virtual instruments is handled by software programs that substitute the once expansive studio equipment such as yesterday’s huge switchboard.
More or less easy-to-use software applications such as Steinberg’s Cubase (www.steinberg.net) or Sony’s Acid series (http://www.sonymediasoftware.com) are already established as semi-professional or hobby-level audio production suites. Newer software solutions such as the all-in-one FL Studio application by Image-Line (http://www.flstudio.com) offer everything a hobby hit producer could possibly need to create the jamming sound of tomorrow: pre-set effects, audio recording support for microphone and instruments, or an extensive audio sample archive.
For the more advanced home-producers Apple’s Logic Pro brings professional sound production technology to the home-PC. (http://www.apple.com) This application is not only used by leading music and sound producers, it is so comprehensive that analog record producers from the old days could never have dreamt of so many effects or functions.
Of course the artistic value of such homemade productions still depends on the performer’s talents and not on technology. Modern digital media only gives people the means to express their skills on a more accessible level. However many pop-phenomena have thought us that not everything that sounds a little hip and electronic is necessarily pleasant to the ear. Rock on!
