The proliferation of hardware and software

The proliferation of hardware and software can be described the improvement, increase in availability, and the distribution of technology required for hardware and software to work. In recent years, the proliferation of hardware and software has evolved in such a way that it has revolutionised the way that producers, writers and composers have made music. It has also changed the way that consumers listen to music and opened doors for consumers to be more free with their creativity and actually allow the everyday listener to producer their own version of a song to suit their taste.

This is known as prosumerism and it is on the rise as a result of the changes to hardware and software. It is clear that the proliferation of hardware and software has brought many changes to the music industry. But whether this has improved production practises or simply watered them down to a level of ease for anyone to use, is what I will address in this essay. Personally, I believe that the proliferation of hardware and software has brought positive improvements to music production practises for both the producer and the consumer.

 The development of production practises has been a direct result of the industrial evolution when the middle class was created and with it, a new era of music production. During the 1940s when the electric guitar started to gain popularity, children began to break away from traditional styles of music such as classical to explore blues and rock music with their friends. The electric guitar was very successful and led to the production of a new sales industry of music devices for example guitar pedals, digital and analogue effect processors, synthesizers, midi modules and more. Since this major industrialization of additional music equipment, there has been an improvement in the quality of home music production tools, that have reached unimaginable heights. These modern tool allow anyone with work ethic, talent and vision to create hit sounds from their bedroom on something as common as a laptop or an iPad.  The iPad has been touted as a great media consumption device, but critics have continued to knock its ability to be a productivity tool.

Front man and songwriter of popular band Gorillaz, Damon Albarn reveals that he has been recording the next Gorillaz album on his iPad. "I've made it on an iPad--I hope I'll be making the first record on an iPad. I fell in love with my iPad as soon as I got it, so I've made a completely different kind of record.” Jesse Terry, development manager of DAW software Ableton Live, believes the key to Ableton`s and electronic music`s success is the drag and drop software concept “This means you can easily sequence tracks, add distortion, delays and echo effects to a track, quickly and in real time.”

During the 1990s, larger studios were the only parties that could afford to buy high-end recording and production equipment, but now the recent proliferation of hardware and software means technology is now so compact and affordable, meaning producers don’t need large studios to gain access to essential tools of electronic music. Matthew Derbyshire, a product manager for audio engineering company Novation, says “ The Studio itself is changing. The new semi-professional studio is now contained within a bedroom. As most of the large, expensive studios collapsed, bedroom studios have blossomed thanks to cheaper technology.” Amateur producers with no experience or fancy equipment now have access to an unlimited amount of innovative recording, manipulation and production essentials at low cost from their own homes. Electronic music is being produced more quickly and often than ever.

“For programming production, you now only really need a laptop. All the sounds, bar vocals and guitar riffs, you can generate inside of the computer,” says Derbyshire. The success of computer generated music is down to the development of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which is a communications messaging protocol, which allows a computer to digitally interact with a musical instrument. Next came DAWs (Digital Audio Workshop) which is basically a visual programming environment for audio.

However, others may disagree with the statement in question and argue that the proliferation of hardware and software has not led to improvements in production practises but has instead diminished the quality of production practises and there has been a notable decrease in the quality of sounds produced. Many would argue that new production practises are taking the heart and passion out of a once professional and expensive market whereas now we take for granted how hard producers had to work before iPads and laptops existed. Raw tracks that demonstrated real talent is rare and nowadays we are listening to fake music that has been copied and changed to suit a prosumers taste. Hardly anything we hear nowadays is original and refreshing. Old practises are now out of fashion. Traditional methods cutting tape and splicing tracks are almost non-existent. Many expert producers have lost their faith in the music industry because of its new production practises and many have now retired or moved on to other things.

Delia Derbyshire who was a composer of electronic music was famous for her methods of recycling everyday sounds to create tunes of music that have become iconic for example The Doctor Who theme song. She vanished from the music industry in the 1970s after the creation of the modern synthesizer. This electronic musical instrument that closely resembles a keyboard, generates electric signals that are converted into different sounds. The availability of modern technology means that prosumers are using unprofessional methods to create sounds that are of lower quality than music heard in the 1970s, before the introduction of cheap and accessible hardware.

 This means there is now a collection of low quality songs that overshadow the unique aspect of songs produced with proper high quality equipment. Modern compact synthesizers are unbelievably expensive for example OP-1 All in One Portable Synthesizer is priced at £849.99 on Amazon, which is one of the lowest prices you would pay for a modern synthesizer. These prices of hundreds of pounds are enough to deter anyone from making music, whereas in the 1960s all you needed was a cassette with a recording of a particular song and only one machine that could change the speeds, reverse or forward the track and splice parts of the song to give birth to a completely new song.

So in conclusion, I believe that the proliferation of hardware and software has been beneficial to the music industry and has improved production practises. Although there are multiple downsides to this new technology I think it has been more of a help than it has been a setback. I also believe that the majority of modern music fans will agree that the availability of new technology has positively impact production practises and is allowing us to evolve and move forward.