Makin' It Magazine

For years, the studio was the central location for music production. A mixing desk, filled with hardware synthesizers, samplers, and sound racks feeding it. However, the evolution of technology has changed this, making hardware less necessary by providing software alternatives that can achieve the same results. In the last few years, applications such as Fruityloops and Reason began to find their way into mainstream music production producing the same results that could be found in digital hardware synthesizers and samplers such as the MPC, Motif, Phantom, etc. When you don’t have access to all the most expensive gear, you can do a lot with a little these days.

While software is cheaper than most samplers and keyboards, the argument always comes up that software is designed to imitate hardware. It’s also said that software doesn’t have the same quality sounds like hardware. Nowadays, there is nothing about using hardware that you can’t do with software. Any knob you can turn on a sound rack, you can do the same with the click of a mouse.

The importance of personal computers in modern music is something people are going to have to get used to, because for every new keyboard that’s out, there’s a software program that can do the same thing. With that being said, if you like to use hardware, then use it. If you like computer based programs, learn how to use them and I guarantee you’ll have them sounding just as good as hardware. At the end of the day, people don’t care how you make your beats, or what equipment you use to make them. Just make sure they sound good.

Too often I hear people brag on their equipment. I hear studio owners and engineers talking about their new $8,000 microphones, or the number of tracks they can simultaneously record. I hear producers brag about their MPCs, keyboards, software and sounds. But what is the benefit of having all the best equipment money can buy if you still produce bull$h!t songs?

It seems to me people have gotten this horrible misconception that technology will make them more talented. Though it can be used to help you reach your true potential, that potential has to already be inside of you. If you don’t understand basic music theory or what it takes to make good music, whether you produce tracks on an MPC, a Korg Triton, or Fruityloops they’re all going to sound pretty much the same. You can upgrade your sounds. You can even buy new processors and effects, but a poorly produced track is always going to be a poorly produced track. I have yet to see a microphone or the preamp that will make up for bad writing or arrangement.Just because you pour syrup on $h!t, doesn’t make it pancakes. It’s like buying a Lamborghini and not knowing how to drive a car. You may impress a few people, but its really foolish to spend all your money on something and not benefi t from its intended use. But everyday someone purchases a high-end piece of equipment or software because they’ve been convinced that it’s the industry standard only to never take the time to learn how to effectively work it or enlist the aid of someone that does.

Now don’t get me wrong, investing into your equipment can be one of the best moves you make. But before you invest money into a new piece of gear, invest time into the equipment you already have. I’ve seen plenty of people blow a few hundred dollars on an upgrade for a feature that was readily available to them in a piece of equipment or software they already owned. As producers, the most important upgrade we can make is constantly educating ourselves on new production and recording techniques, pushing our equipment and creativity to the limit. As a business man I could care less what you use to make a hit song as long as one gets made. So just remember before the advent of the MPC-2000, Triton Workstations, Protools and all these modern marvels of recording technology, many of the classic records from hip hops golden age were churned out using nothing more than a four track recorder and somebody’s drum machine, proving once and for all: “Its not the technology; It’s the talent behind it.”