What's right or wrong with music production?

[cactus-head]

I'll start this off with a little history then move to the topic...

I remember when I was younger, maybe 13 or 15, we had a few generic cassette tape recorders. Basically they could be a radio with a cassette player that could record with a built in condenser mic or a similar dedicated tape recording unit that was rectangular shaped with a cassette tape player and recorder that used a condenser mic or had an attached mic. They functioned the same way: pop in a cassette, rewind it for about 20 minutes press the Play+Record buttons and you were recording.

What I used to do was record 1 part, like drums or something (I made a set of drums out of boxes and pans) on one tape recorder, pop in a second tape in the other recorder, play back the first recording and play along with a guitar or piano or sing or whatever and record this on the second machine. I'd bounce back and forth like this for all of the parts. There was no punching in or out. Everything was one take so I had to have the parts down pat!

Things have changed quite a bit since then! I have been in and out of bands, recorded in different studios from super low budget bedroom in home 4 track cassette recorders to university studios to independent "professional" studios. What had always been consistent was caring over the idea of making a great performance in as few takes as possible. The concept was, a great performance's value trumps production value. When you can feel the human element coming through, the production helps that shine.

Nowadays, almost anyone has access to audio tools that allow them to set up a quality home studio at a fraction of the cost and time it would take in the "old days" so to speak. But there definitely is and has been a trend of piecing together tiny cuts of multiple performances, using automated functions to correct timings and pitches, even having algorithmic generated music...

With so many tools available to make the "perfect" mix is the actual human element of capturing or even giving a great performance something that is being lost?

Are we as a whole becoming content with mediocre singers and autotune or even computer generated singers? Is everyone happy with pressing a button to have a mix EQed and mastered without even understanding or being able to listen too and identify clashing or missing frequencies? All these tools do give someone without musical skills the ability to actually make songs. So isn't that a good thing? With some imagination, people put together some wild interesting stuff.

What is the goal in making music or producing music?

[Ray Cube]

There are still new young musicians out there that practice and try to improve their craft. Some still attend music schools.
A lot of famous bands in the past had classically trained musicians in them. I think it is part a shift in the types of mainstream music played on the internet or streaming services as older forms of broadcast become less used. Distribution of material with how people listen has also changed. There is still plenty of good new music out there from younger artists but they get lost in the sea of dross.
Try listening to Octave Radio if you want good production values.

https://octaverecords.airtime.pro/#

Ray.

[mixyguy2]

Are we as a whole becoming content with mediocre singers and autotune or even computer generated singers? Is everyone happy with pressing a button to have a mix EQed and mastered without even understanding or being able to listen too and identify clashing or missing frequencies? All these tools do give someone without musical skills the ability to actually make songs. So isn't that a good thing?

Yes to all of your questions except the last one. Sadly, both people's standards and knowledge of music continue to spiral downward. Newer generations in general increasingly have a warped view (or utter ignorance) of what quality music even is.

[Acoustica Greg]

But there are so many amazingly good new bands. You just have to seek them out.

[cactus-head]

There's always good music and good new bands. I think for myself, the "commercialized" in your face stuff seems so prevalent and it may be churned out of a machine... and that might lead me to think that people don't put time and effort into making music. But that's not true, because there's all kinds of music and artists everywhere. But, convenience seems to be the way of the world society... so it's just weird.

[ppayne]

With AI in music, everything has already changed, and in my opinion, much more will change.

New technologies are developing exponentially, and the time frame for AI to take over everything will be only 2 to 5 years. Even now, absolutely anyone without any knowledge of music or a DAW can create radio-ready music in 5 minutes.

The skills you've acquired are no longer very valuable in this field. This applies to many areas, not just music.

Many thought AI would only do the tedious work, leaving people to concentrate on the enjoyable and creative parts of the job. As it turns out, however, the exact opposite is true.

Images, videos, music, books, newspaper articles, source code, etc., are all done promptly with a few mouse clicks and a few words. It's happened so quickly in the last 3 years that most people haven't realized it yet.

There will only be a few people left who find meaning or a business model in it.

In my opinion, it's unstoppable. I also ask myself what the point is of learning or creating something else. You can still do it out of principle or as a hobby. It was already difficult to make money with creativity before. Now it's practically hopeless for the majority of creative people.

At the moment, it's clear to me that I'm losing my hobbies and my job as a software developer. Luckily, I'm old enough.

The next step is the unification of AI and robotics in my private life. Then I won't even have to get out of bed.

I still enjoy creating music using a DAW and creating something creative with the help of AI-supported plugins. But even that's old-fashioned now. AutoTune is a dinosaur, and the creative using of AI voices is also already outdated.

In the very near future, musicians who can actually play the guitar or sing will be as rare as organic vegetables in the supermarket. 95 percent will be mass-produced. Many people just haven't fully realized it yet.

What I mean is this:

https://youtu.be/uBmLqOTs2jo?si=A4GxzC9ByAbdSwIp

This really raises the question of what's left for humans. I experience the same problem in all digital and creative fields. From photography to music production. Any trained chimpanzee can create anything. I'd say this is evolutionary progress, with the result that humans have optimized themselves away in many areas.

Patrick