Falchion's Edge

Very late post again. Meh.

Guess since this was so late, i shall make it a long one. Might just occupy one enough until the next one.

What I have been busy with over the last week or so, is research into my latest hobby/fad/craze. Yes yes, I know you have heard it all before. Like whatever happened to all those photos that I was to take with my digital camera? Well I do take them, just haven’t really gotten around to finding a good place to host all of them. Not to worry, the camera is still being put to frequent use. On top of that, the research is not just for selfish reasons, as I will explain later.

It all began with an article I came across in Wired.com middle of last year. It spoke about how this “world-famous” (only if you like techno I gather since I have never heard of him before) DJ was using Mac G4 laptops and, in particular, software called Ableton Live in his sets. I found it interesting that software had reached a point where techno music composers where using it, but then again, they have always been known for using sounds from almost anything that beeps into their stuff. Since I don’t like techno, it didn’t arouse my curiously that much, on top of that, it was running on a Mac (not that I have anything against Macs…oh wait, I do…) which are way out of my price range. So I made a quick link to the Ableton website but didn’t visit it then and, of course, I promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward to late November, and I was just going through my favorites links folder when I came across the link to the Ableton website. I said “what the hay!” (Cause I felt like horsing around) and visited the website. I took a tour of the features of the Live software and listened to the samples of what it could do. In short, I was totally blown away. I never knew that audio software had reached such a level (and best of all it has a PC version) and could be such a factor in what I always thought was dominated by hardware. So I grabbed a download of the demo version tried it out a few times and once again forgot about it. This time school distracted me, so that’s not really such a bad thing. But the software had made an impression on me and I told myself that I had to go back and look deeper into it when I have the time.

Late December, always a busy time of the year, and I was presented with News that I was to fully take over the handling of the Audio and Sound Ministry in Church. Scary. But that’s the case for any increase of responsibility, just have to take it and run with it the best you can. First thing that came to mind was how to improve on what we already have, of course first focus was on how to make full use of the hardware we already have, but my thoughts turned towards the software side and what better time than now to find out what is really out there that can help. Boy was I not prepared for what I would find.

After searching the Net for sometime (finding dead ends at all the Djing and beat mixing sites) I came across this site, which focused more on the recording, composing, editing and producing areas of music. Very much more my can of coke. But going through the “guides” and reviews, I was overwhelmed by the load of information. There seemed to be different categories of software involved, combined with obscure hardware modules and its own brand of jargon that is not really explained. Usually stuff like this is no problem for me, I mean I find it equally relaxing and entertaining going over the rules and concepts of RPG books and reading a normal novel. And anyone who knows RPGs know the sheer amount of jargon that goes along with that as well.

So even as I went through the information put forward in the website and in the accompanying forums, I decided to keep a look out for other sources of information.
A chance visit to Tower Records at Suntec, because Da Man wanted to buy the Love Actually soundtrack to go along with his Love Actually screenplay novel (it’s strange how I completely blew past the hype surrounding the movie, I guess my romantic spirit has taken a more cynical and less naive outlook on relationships), had me stumble across the magazine section, where I came across the Digital Music Maker series of special edition magazines that focus on one particular software at a time. In this the first issue, the focus was on Steinberg Cubase SX 2, which from my research is said to be one of the most popular and well-known software Sequencers currently on the market.