If you had sat down with a musician in 1976 and told them the entire way they approach recording, tracking, and ultimately releasing music would be down to a single device, they’d scoff. The recording industry was fairly set in its ways in the 1970s and 1980s alike. However, the later part of the 1980s and the 1990s saw a massive shift: the computer.
Early Digital Hiccups
The early introduction of digital equipment into the realm of music was something special but often maligned. Digital controls offered up the ability for mixing and recording engineers to recall projects and special settings on desks, but that’s only part of the equation.
There was no shortage of cheap and chintzy digital effects processors that hit the market. They were cheap, offering a facsimile of the real deal. This is the era of cheap Casio keyboards and expensive devices like the Fairlight CMI.
This was an era where the possibilities seemed endless, but the sophistication behind the technology wasn’t quite there. Digital instruments like the Yamaha DX7 were best-sellers of the 1980s, but the recording revolution wasn’t quite there yet.
That would change in 1983, with an initiative spearheaded by industry luminaries like Dave Smith and Roger Linn.
The Microcomputer and MIDI
MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface, was one of the first major lynchpins that would accelerate the digital revolution in modern music. You had the means to record events in music, like notes on a staff, and play them back through any instrument you had available.
This opened up the ability for digital automation in recording studios, more expressive effects for the likes of guitar, bass, and keyboard instruments, and opened up the door for electronic music to waltz right through.
Microcomputers like the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga democratized the process of making music for hobbyists. MIDI was a major boon, especially for those in more dance-oriented segments of the recording industry.
The Digital Revolution
The 1990s and 2000s saw the final nail in the coffin for the days of tracking to tape in any recording industry. By the time I recorded my first demo in 2004, it was all digital, and it isn’t hard to see why. Computing power had increased exponentially since the days of the Commodore Amiga, and you could record in real-time to CD quality audio.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that the recording industry sprang on this. Early digital audio workstations like Pro Tools and Cubase helped to spearhead things as well, giving the power of a recording studio in an application that ran on a commercially purchased computer.
Modern music perhaps lacks the warmth and vibe of yesteryear, but you don’t need a specialized employee on hand for splicing tape by hand. It echoes the same revolution happening in film. Analog mediums were on the way out, and the extreme cost of things like film and tape in tracking weren’t missed.
Conclusion
So, is modern music directly impacted by the advent of increasingly powerful computers? I’d certainly say so. Further, we’ve seen modern artists like Billie Eilish who have broken into fame with just a computer, a microphone, and a generous sprinkling of talent.
Artists reap the benefits of decades of technological development, and now we’re receiving more music daily than was recorded in a single year in the 1970s. You don’t need a tape deck and a vain hope that you’ll impress a record exec, instead, just a laptop and a dream.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©"File:Will this lo-fi studio work?.jpg" by Jonas Ahrentorp is licensed under BY-SA 2.0..