Learned Computer Schizophrenia: A Musician’s worst Enemy

The modern computer is no longer the best method for capturing musical performances. Today I was running Apple’s Logic Audio and doing some composition and keyboard recording in order to make a new track. I was starting to get frustrated with my computer because it wasn’t allowing me to become fully immersed in my sound. You would not believe how difficult it was to really feel/focus on the music and create. I am convinced that it is currently not possible with the current state of recording software on the PC and macintosh. Why? It has to do with efficiency and your brain’s connectedness to its physical workspace. This is something that is not compatible with today’s modern computer setup for music.

Now, when your using your computer and the various midi keyboards / modules that you own, they are usually spread out in different places in your studio. You will have a midi controller in front of your computer screen, some modules or fx over to the side, and maybe a keyboard or two that you need to physically move away to from your chair to use. It is this movement causes a major split in work-flow for most people. I call this learned computer schizophrenia. You might think that you are only balancing two different interfaces /concepts in your brain to make your music: The computer sequencer (hitting record), and then your keyboard performance. The fact is that your actually balancing many more concepts simultaneously, while trying to be creative and get some music out. It is not an efficient setup for musical creativity. Learned computer schizophrenia is not only physical, but mental. I will talk more about these extra concepts in the next paragraph that have convinced the “modern” computer will become obsolete in the recording environment.

Lets, first look at the basic computer controls themselves. Unless you have a midi DAW controller, you might have to resort to some key combinations on your computer keyboard and use them constantly to be in record mode. What if you need to create a new track to record to? Or perhaps add a VST effect which has its own custom controls? In these scenarios you must resort to the computer’s mouse, which involves clicking dialog boxes, and dragging windows. Surprise: These are concepts that do not have anything to do with making music. IBM only created the mouse & windows as a way to keep data visually organized on computers about 25 years ago. Thats older than I am. Why are we still stuck with this method? I don’t have an answer for this except to point out that there is a lack of innovation. Besides being forced to operate your PC & mouse, you must also learn the intricacies of every piece of gear you have. This is the fun part actually and I won’t complain about it too much. However, you must also learn how to use each piece of gear in conjunction with your PC’s Software. This is something that is totally different than just turning on it on and “jamming”. This problem creates a new scenario you must solve for every piece of gear you have. Did you decide if you wanted your groovebox to actually groove or just become a tone module? You must now make the appropriate adjustments in each menu on your gear AND inside your PCs preferences. If you ever wanted to do it differently you must do the same exact process again. Surprise: another concept that has nothing to do with music. While, this is not always a big deal, its not flexibility, which music requires. Music is about change!!! A true musician would rather be listening to their inner voice’s changing musical tastes, thoughts choosing note structure, and how music sounds and feels. Would he/she, the focused musician, like to get up out of their chair and manage their computer’s little windows with mouse for the billionth time? Nah.

Learned computer schizophrenia comes to its epitome when you make digital music. When sitting at the computer, a musician’s goal is only to make amazing audio. The PC is based on physical input (keyboard) with VISUAL output (monitor). This causes a problem for our musician right from the get-go. He/she is looking at a pretty VST interface which is colored, involuntarily changing the perception of his own audio coming from his speakers. Focus is lost. This reminds me as being the equivalent of not using flat sounding monitors and having the EQ be off in a mix. The end result isn’t quite as good as it could be. Some software designers, like Ableton’s realize this color problem and have gone with a neutral grey interface. Still, a lot of VST instruments are guady and I have reason to believe the layout of the controls, or just simply being focused on the computer screen will mess up your music. When its easy to think of audio frequencies as certain colors, your brain is being scrambled by the excessive visual output on the screen, and the placement of its controls. What is funny about this is that you can only “touch” these instruments again, with your 25 year old PC and keyboard mouse.

Music is made up of multiple concepts itself. These age-old concepts are the only thing a musician, composer, and audio engineer should really care about. Mastering the art of music is what gets them a grammy or a mix they are really proud of. These concepts are make it so they are not embarrassed to upload an mp3 to myspace. Hardware and software designers need to realize that using the computer adds layers upon layers of brain cycle wasting processing tasks. We need to get rid of the modern PC as a music creation device.

Tomarrow I will write about “the solution” and also my disappointment with the current Keyboard Workstations that were just released at NAMM 07.

-CEO Sammy Taters

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