Do We Really Appreciate What We Have?

RUST( i )K

@ajmiller said:
@LinearLineman I’m with you all the way. Just today recorded some trumpet on a track I’m working on as a birthday present for a friend. Used Cubasis. Last week I sent the backing track to a nephew in France and he put the piano down and his wife did the vocals. They sent the tracks back and I’m at the mixing stage. Fantastic. This is probably nothing to a generation brought up on this accessibility and ease. For me it’s a wonderful time to be making music.

I used Cubasis today and wow I forgot the ease of it all.

The quality instruments just wow

I barely used AU FX factory and IAP so amazing.

CracklePot

I remember dropping off film to get developed, waiting excitedly for like a week or so, and then getting back an envelope of crappy photos.

Man, those were the days.

Tones4Christ

Yeah just had some major fun with Cubasis and AB3! AB3 Midiflow keyboard controlling the Cubasis built in synth! Amazing sounds in there man!

We are sooo blessed!

@RUST( i )K said:

@ajmiller said:
@LinearLineman I’m with you all the way. Just today recorded some trumpet on a track I’m working on as a birthday present for a friend. Used Cubasis. Last week I sent the backing track to a nephew in France and he put the piano down and his wife did the vocals. They sent the tracks back and I’m at the mixing stage. Fantastic. This is probably nothing to a generation brought up on this accessibility and ease. For me it’s a wonderful time to be making music.

I used Cubasis today and wow I forgot the ease of it all.

The quality instruments just wow

I barely used AU FX factory and IAP so amazing.

Spidericemidas

Nice topic!
I came from the generation who were happy and accepting to wait excitedly but patiently 15 whole minutes for a video game to load from cassette. And then after 14 minutes...Boot Error....rewind and start again with fingers crossed and breath held! It often took about 30 minutes of attempted loading before we got to play our 48KB games! Now I can download a 48MB app over 4G on a small hand held device in a matter of minutes!
When I started out with music making, I had a Fostex 4-Track cassette recorder, a Korg mini 700, a Korg Poly 800, a Korg DW6000 and an Alesis SR16 drum machine. I thought it was incredible to be able to midi sync the one track sequencer of the Poly 800 to the SR16. The rest I had to play and overdub by hand...take after take after take due to mistakes half way through recording!
Now I have the equivalent of a whole recording studio and a warehouse of synths and fx packed into a small flat device that fits inside a shoulder bag and comes with me everywhere I go! And I am making music that I thought was impossible for me.
I am certainly excited and grateful for today’s technology everyday I boot up my iPad. It is still a marvel to me, compared to what I had in my youth!
@MonzoPro nice one on the MS20. I still have an old MS10.

kobamoto

I am... I starved for all of it.

kobamoto

@LinearLineman said:
I made a track with Cubasis last night. I stopped in the middle and marvelled at what I had in my hands. The sonic power of it. The technology that allows foolproof recording. The relatively easy leaning curve. The vast array of instruments, synths and effects. MIDI. The iPad Pro2. The connectivity. The affordability.

My mom saw the first lightbulb in her faher's store. Folks came to marvel at it. They hadn't even invented the lampshade! It must have been like going to a planetarium. A naked bulb dangling by a wire. A primitive sun to dispel the night forever. And a little over a hundred years later I sit writing on my iPad, connected to the entire globe. Able to hear and share music with every corner of the planet. I am 70, so I sit somewhere between my mom and a twenty year old. Too often I forget the miracle of it all... me, who thought Dolby sound suppression was the second coming. When I was twenty technology for me was hooking an old pump organ up to a vacuum cleaner. And now I sit in the cockpit of a supersonic machine that can take me anywhere I want to go musically. And it weighs less than a pound.

If you are young do you fully realize what power you hold (not to mention video!)? Do you marvel at it, or is it too often "just" a lightbulb?

luv this

Multicellular

@LinearLineman said:
I made a track with Cubasis last night. I stopped in the middle and marvelled at what I had in my hands. The sonic power of it. The technology that allows foolproof recording. The relatively easy leaning curve. The vast array of instruments, synths and effects. MIDI. The iPad Pro2. The connectivity. The affordability.

My mom saw the first lightbulb in her faher's store. Folks came to marvel at it. They hadn't even invented the lampshade! It must have been like going to a planetarium. A naked bulb dangling by a wire. A primitive sun to dispel the night forever. And a little over a hundred years later I sit writing on my iPad, connected to the entire globe. Able to hear and share music with every corner of the planet. I am 70, so I sit somewhere between my mom and a twenty year old. Too often I forget the miracle of it all... me, who thought Dolby sound suppression was the second coming. When I was twenty technology for me was hooking an old pump organ up to a vacuum cleaner. And now I sit in the cockpit of a supersonic machine that can take me anywhere I want to go musically. And it weighs less than a pound.

If you are young do you fully realize what power you hold (not to mention video!)? Do you marvel at it, or is it too often "just" a lightbulb?

In my early 40s. But I grew up in a musical family and was in a pro studio at age 15. So my first recording experiences were reel to reel and we had to (due to budget) record the whole band in a single take.

My first midi experience was Steinburg Pro Twenty Four on an Atari.

So each step in tech around music from there, man I have enjoyed the ride.

Through a nice home studio with an early DAW but mostly hardware effects, to a largely in the box setup than completely destroys the old tech for quality, diversity, and price.

From an analog pedalboard with 3 pedals and maybe 10 knobs. To a midi controlled digital/analog hybrd pedalboard than remembers all my song settings, with probably 20 virtual knob settings per song and can pull them up with a single +- aux pedal, and with which I can control almost any parameter with expression pedal per song. CNC machines have helped make better guitars for a third of the price than the vintage ones I inherited from my grandpa. 🎶

And this, very recent for me, deeper dive into more electronic music, I stare at my little portable drum machine, sequencer, synthesizer with pure excitement.

audiblevideo

Dunno about you guys but I had wooden blocks and Lincoln logs to play with before I ever had legos.

And a time some point I resolved to getting and playing with die cast toys.

Now most of my toys exist in some virtual realm outside of normal existence whose output models physical things with electrical impulses and computational power.

I really appreciate what I have.

I appreciate it even more when realizing how much (overseas/outsourced) labor and rare earth minerals on top of the electronic design it takes to create such a thing.

JohnnyGoodyear

...used to get up, 24 hours before we went to bed....

AudioGus

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
...used to get up, 24 hours before we went to bed....

...in a cullydough? (Hard to make out those bleedin accents as a kid)

oat_phipps

One of my favorite memories ever will always be using dial-up to download a bootleg mp3 off of Audiogalaxy (possibly very well because some slick rich producer guy didn't understand that he was allowing his files to be vulnerable), and happily waiting 20 minutes to download ONE song.

I think sometimes I am TOO consciously grateful for the technology I have that I don't actually push it or use it to its fullest. There's some sick part of me that says 'you can't use this feature' or 'you can't auto-punch in this time' because I haven't fully realized my potential by spending every spare moment I could learning my instrument.

So there's a flip side too, though it's probably something better suited for a psych doc's office.

Gaia.Tree

Im a younger lad (33) but I just had a moment like this today playing with Rozeta driving multiple things in AUM. I started when I was 16 with turntables and a mixer, and thought that was the coolest thing ever. If I would have known Id have a device half the size of my mixer that would have multiple synths,DAWs, drum machines, samplers and FX boxes (and AUM omgggg) I wouldnt have believed it. Such a marvel.

ajmiller

Heh, still use film, own darkroom here!

@CracklePot said:
I remember dropping off film to get developed, waiting excitedly for like a week or so, and then getting back an envelope of crappy photos.

Man, those were the days.

simonnowis

i think, as others have said, there is a generational divide at this technological wonderment - i feel it in myself, like 2 different people, pre- and post- internet me.

i think this split allows me to still marvel at this magic in my hands, whilst for those newer to the planet, the bird was already out of its cage, the internet was ere (www - the age of aquarius?)

i think it's also true, that as a species, we can tend to take for granted those things closest to us - so thank goodness for gratitude ∞

[Deleted User]

@JohnnyGoodyear said:
...used to get up, 24 hours before we went to bed....

I was just about to post something from that 😆

AndyPlankton

CracklePot

@AndyPlankton said:

@AndyPlankton said:

Hope they have the phone numbers memorized. Or they remembered their lil’ phone book.

oat_phipps

@CracklePot said:

@AndyPlankton said:

@AndyPlankton said:

Hope they have the phone numbers memorized. Or they remembered their lil’ phone book.

I can still remember all my friends phone numbers from growing up, no problem. Nowadays I know two phone numbers, my mom's and my dad's, and from time to time I honestly have trouble recalling them.

AndyPlankton

@oat_phipps said:

@CracklePot said:

Hope they have the phone numbers memorized. Or they remembered their lil’ phone book.

I can still remember all my friends phone numbers from growing up, no problem. Nowadays I know two phone numbers, my mom's and my dad's, and from time to time I honestly have trouble recalling them.

I can remember my parents number and 2 others....the Indian and Chinese takeaways

Jomodu

Good grief. I remember my parents home number from 65 years ago -Cheadle Hulme 141. - and you told the number you wanted to an actual operator at the local telephone exchange. Enough of this, I am feeling really ancient now.

JohnnyGoodyear

@Jomodu said:
Good grief. I remember my parents home number from 65 years ago -Cheadle Hulme 141. - and you told the number you wanted to an actual operator at the local telephone exchange. Enough of this, I am feeling really ancient now.

Erm. You are. Bless you

Jomodu

@JohnnyGoodyear ...not really. I am actually 21 with 52 years experience.

1nsomniak

@AndyPlankton said:

Haha I thought this was going to be like an infomercial with annoying exaggerated incompetence but they seemed quite genuine in their confusion!

knewspeak

@AndyPlankton said:

@oat_phipps said:

@CracklePot said:

Hope they have the phone numbers memorized. Or they remembered their lil’ phone book.

I can still remember all my friends phone numbers from growing up, no problem. Nowadays I know two phone numbers, my mom's and my dad's, and from time to time I honestly have trouble recalling them.

I can remember my parents number and 2 others....the Indian and Chinese takeaways

In gud’o’days we used carrier pigeon here, not that new fangled thingie’m’jig, no need to remember the Indian or Chinese, I live above one and a few doors away from the other.

AndyPlankton

@knewspeak said:

@AndyPlankton said:

@oat_phipps said:

@CracklePot said:

Hope they have the phone numbers memorized. Or they remembered their lil’ phone book.

I can still remember all my friends phone numbers from growing up, no problem. Nowadays I know two phone numbers, my mom's and my dad's, and from time to time I honestly have trouble recalling them.

I can remember my parents number and 2 others....the Indian and Chinese takeaways

In gud’o’days we used carrier pigeon here, not that new fangled thingie’m’jig, no need to remember the Indian or Chinese, I live above one and a few doors away from the other.

I'd still ring for delivery when there's something good on tv

AndyPlankton

@1nsomniak said:

@AndyPlankton said:

Haha I thought this was going to be like an infomercial with annoying exaggerated incompetence but they seemed quite genuine in their confusion!

They got so close too....

purpan2

I wonder if we’re using all this fabulous gear in a daring enough way. I think of the Beatles pushing new ground out of mutitrack, Hendrix exploiting the musical possibilities of electricity, early acid house subverting the Roland boxes. By contrast, I just do the same things I always did, only with less effort. It’s probably a generational thing, but are we only using this wonderful innovation to facilitate and not to explore?

LinearLineman

This thread keeps recurring to me during the day. I posted with just iOS in mind. But the bigger issue, how we get used to everything, keeps coming back ( like a bad dream!). I guess the thing I keep forgetting to appreciate is my own consciousness and self awareness. Although it often seems like a curse, everything flows from that point. Something I am quick to lose sight of. The flip side, of course, is the subjective duality of realizing I am alive. The constant struggle with the judgements of right and wrong or good and evil. Things would be a lot simpler just with the concepts of truth and falsehood... like in mathematics... but even those absolutes become questionable when our cleverness is applied. Animals (other than ourselves) usually are not troubled by good and evil, or their own mortality.
They are the ones who should be grateful. But it never occurs to most of them!

Everything is so subjective. Just today, as I was walking our doggies in the environs of Istanbul I remembered that the universe is about fifteen billion years old.... well, damn if I didn't think to myself "Well, that's not a very long time!" WTF happened? I always used to think a billion years was a very long time... and now it is not! At least not for a universe. Why? Eisenhower said... a million here, a million there, soon you are talking a lot of money! That was seventy years ago. Now 26 multi billionaires have more money than the poorest 2.8 billion. My generation was a millions generation. The millenials are used to billions being bandied about. So with a multi trillion dollar US national debt, fifteen billion years no longer seems, well, very long. I mean can't the universe at least be as old as the national debt?!

So, maybe appreciation of what I have is more than just generational. Maybe to fully appreciate our strange situation I need to be not only grateful, but increasingly more self-conscious... and I mean that in a good way. I can appreciate the miracle of the iPad, but embodying, consciously, the miracle of consciousness ( who needs it?), that is another more difficult matter requiring different tools to master.

Multicellular

@purpan2 said:
I wonder if we’re using all this fabulous gear in a daring enough way. I think of the Beatles pushing new ground out of mutitrack, Hendrix exploiting the musical possibilities of electricity, early acid house subverting the Roland boxes. By contrast, I just do the same things I always did, only with less effort. It’s probably a generational thing, but are we only using this wonderful innovation to facilitate and not to explore?

That deserves its own thread.

I definitely think I am not. I also think I'm just doing what I always did. I have sounds in my head and I try to approximate them with the tools at hand. Often guitars, basses, drums, and where now I can create tons of that on an iPad or in a DAW versus I used to more often resort to sampling and mangling.

Now that is all endlessly fun and fulfilling, but my default process is not pushing me beyond just the new ideas for songs that I have.

Some of the tools in the iOSpace are helpful to push me a little though, if perhaps just because I can use it so mobile and thus spend more time just experimenting compared to my default, as noted, of just having the idea and creating it. E.g. messing with Ruismaker Noir a lot lately. Really is a realm of sounds I less think of naturally, but are very pleasing.

RUST( i )K

@Tones4Christ said:
Yeah just had some major fun with Cubasis and AB3! AB3 Midiflow keyboard controlling the Cubasis built in synth! Amazing sounds in there man!

We are sooo blessed!

@RUST( i )K said:

@ajmiller said:
@LinearLineman I’m with you all the way. Just today recorded some trumpet on a track I’m working on as a birthday present for a friend. Used Cubasis. Last week I sent the backing track to a nephew in France and he put the piano down and his wife did the vocals. They sent the tracks back and I’m at the mixing stage. Fantastic. This is probably nothing to a generation brought up on this accessibility and ease. For me it’s a wonderful time to be making music.

I used Cubasis today and wow I forgot the ease of it all.

The quality instruments just wow

I barely used AU FX factory and IAP so amazing.

I am blessed and need to remember it more often.

We all are and those who aren't I hope they are.