David McMullinApr 25, 2023

Last week @terjefjelde asked me about my #composing techniques, use of #musicTechnology, and thoughts about #musicProduction, and I promised to reply when I had more time. Here’s a too-long thread about this and other things that came to mind…

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@composers @contemporarymusic #composers #ContemporaryMusic

https://mastodon.social/@terjefjelde@mastodon.social/110220685067926603

Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
In terms of my #composing methods, I’m basically a dinosaur. I scribble sketches with pencil and paper, check them out on a piano, and I used to prepare scores and parts in careful calligraphy with a fountain pen. No tech involved except what’s been around for centuries.
2/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
For the last 20 years or so, I have at least used #musicEngraving software. This isn’t so much faster for score entry, and it doesn’t especially look better: what it gains in crispness it loses in personality. But it makes extracting parts much easier and less error prone, and it facilitates editing. If I decide a certain phrase needs two more measures, I can just stick them in. In my fountain pen days that would have meant recopying everything.
3/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
One thing I do appreciate about #notation software is the playback feature, which can be helpful for judging questions of pacing, or identifying phrases or ideas that need a little more or less time. It also helps me protect against a worst-case, overly literal, unfeeling interpretation—by demonstrating just what that would sound like. If I can get even the #MIDI playback to sound okay, it’ll surely be safe in the hands of a sympathetic human.
4/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
So playback is good for checking pitches and harmonies, pacing, and a robotic reading of rhythm. Surprisingly, it’s not that great for tempo. The tempo at which I hear music in my head is almost always faster than the tempo that feels right when it’s carrying the weight of real sound. #MIDI playback also tends to sound better faster than live instruments do—I guess because it’s also somehow not fully “real” sound.
5/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
And until recently, the timbres available for #MIDI playback have been consistently horrible. That hasn’t bothered me much, because I’ve only ever used it as an aid to aural imagination. Sometimes I even deliberately set the mappings to something cheesy and terrible, so I can’t accidentally get used to the MIDI version and let my imagination get lazy.
6/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
One disadvantage of using software playback as a compositional aid is that it discourages the use of non-standard notation that the software wouldn’t know how to interpret, even if it might communicate more clearly or elegantly to #performers. I try never to let my musical choices be funneled one way or the other by what’s convenient for a software program. But what’s convenient and helpful to the performers is always a main concern.
7/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
Everything I’ve said so far is about composing for live #performance, and specifically about preparing music (on paper) to be brought to life by #performers who are trained to interpret it. That’s most of what I do in music. But I would love to work more with #improvising players and explore that side of my musicianship again. Either way though, I’ve always depended on performers, and #liveMusic has always been my focus.
8/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
I can’t express enough gratitude to the players who have made my musical life possible. I’ve had wonderful performances, many of which were recorded. And that’s what nearly every recording I have is, except for one proper studio track and a couple of demos where I was able to get a few takes and edit them together. I’ve always thought one of these days I should make a real studio album, but it’s very expensive and complicated, and that’s not where I’ve focused my attention.
9/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
Most of my listening has been live too; in the last 10-15 years, I found myself getting out of the habit of listening to records, but I would hear two or three live performances every week. I live in a city with a very active musical culture, and I used to work at a conservatory, so there was always something good to hear. But now we’re in year 4 of the pandemic, I’m caring for vulnerable immunocompromised family members, and I haven’t heard a concert since 2019.
10/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
I’ve got nothing against #electronicMusic, but I respect how difficult it is to do well. When you #compose for a good #musician, you don’t just get back the right frequencies, durations, intensities and timbral spectra. They come connected, shaped, and imbued with centuries of oral tradition and thousands of hours of individual practice on the instrument.
11/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
Not to mention personality and individuality. A #tenorSax is a tenor #sax, but you can still tell Lester Young from Coleman Hawkins from Sonny Rollins from John Coltrane based on a few milliseconds of their raw sound. Every player has their own voice.
12/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
Using pure #musicSynthesis, you either have to forego all that, and settle for a characteristically sterile sound, or else make up for it by your own painstakingly detailed efforts, which I haven’t had the patience to learn to do. On the other hand, the possibilities of #algorithmic processes (not “AI”) and live interaction (e.g. #MaxMSP) are quite attractive. And using #samples rather than synthesis can preserve the organic complexity of sound that I like—as long as you don’t overcook it.
13/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
Okay so what about #musicProduction? I agree with @terjefjelde that #liveMusic and recorded music are two different things—even when it’s a #recording of a live #performance.
14/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
Many times I’ve had the experience of being really pleased with a #performance when I heard it live, and then a little disappointed when I heard the #recording of the same performance. And I think that’s because there’s a kind of magic to a committed performance that evaporates from the recording, leaving me bugged by minor flaws that didn’t bother me at the concert.
15/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
I’ve participated in professional #recording sessions for #contemporaryClassical music, where the goal is to capture the natural ensemble concert sound. Typically, instruments may be individually mic’d but they’re not isolated, and tracks aren’t separately recorded. And I’ve used Samplitude (years ago) and Reaper (more recently) to touch up and edit my own live recordings, but there’s no #multitracking, no #mixing to do, basically you get what you get.
16/18
Show threadDavid McMullinApr 25, 2023
I have no experience at all with #musicProduction techniques developed from the pop side of things. When people I follow here talk about their #mixing and #mastering methods, the effects they use, the gear… I honestly have no idea what you all are talking about. But I’m curious! Because I see a lot of people making polished #recordings at home, using #VST, #MIDI, their own instruments, I don’t know what else—and I’d like to be able to do that too. Where do I start? What do I need to know?
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Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 25, 2023

@mcmullin Where do we start with a reply?? 😂

I choose a metaperspective!

In a way, I think this is comparable to the way we first get into music. Most of us will probably agree that the musical drive and curiosity was always there – and since we were toddlers, music has been a constant, magnetic force that constantly pulls us back, whether we want to or not. (1/4)

Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 25, 2023

@mcmullin And that's how we've learned everything we know about music, and what leads people to believe that surely musical talent is something you're born with. If anything, I think we were born with the *curiosity*!

I think it's the same with mixing/production techniques in the sense that if the drive is there, you will know what to look for, you will find your answers, and you will learn a lot about it, and possibly become very adept at it – certainly in this age of YouTube tutorials! (2/4)

Show threadTerje FjeldeApr 25, 2023

@mcmullin I finally discovered this obsession, but much later in life than music, which was always there.

If, on the other hand, the drive isn't really there, and you do it for practical reasons, you can still learn techniques that will be helpful in your work. But I think there's also a risk that you'll end up spending a lot of time on stuff that you *don't love*, and that will steal attention from the thing you really want to do – compose! (3/4)

Show threadTerje Fjelde

@mcmullin But you'll never find out if you don't dip your toes into the water. Perhaps you could start a side project where the production is the end goal, and call it "How I Learned to Sidechain, or How Compression Changed My Life" And when you reach the hurdles, look it up on YouTube! Or ask us! *

* (Please bear in mind that I write all of this as an amateur – amateur composer, amateur mixer, ex-decent tubaist and *terrible* live pianist) (4/4)

Apr 25, 2023 at 10:31amWeb