Is the DAW doomed?
"DAW" is an abbreviation for digital audio workstation; it's basically defined as any computer that can record audio digitally and has features to edit that audio, such as cutting/pasting, EQ, nominalization and so on. And yes, this technically means any PC or laptop can be a DAW as long as it has the right software such as Audacity.
The traditional definition of a DAW heavily leans towards software. I've always thought that odd because "workstation" has always meant multi-function hardware, but for some strange reason everyone thinks DAW = software now when it doesn't and never did.
For example, a "synthesizer workstation" literally means a synth that can perform on-board editing and sequencing functions. The modern Korg Krome-61 is a great example of this, and is in fact called a "workstation" right in its product description.
But of course everyone now thinks workstation means software, i.e. Pro Tools or like software title.
That being said, the real question is...
Is the PC-based software DAW doomed?
Yeah, I think this is true for three reasons.
First, the PC is dying, and anyone who thinks otherwise is just fooling themselves.
With self-contained multitrack recorders like the Tascam DP-008 that have direct-in 1/4-inch and XLR inputs (which is something the PC definitely does not have), this makes the PC-type DAW inconvenient at best.
Third - and this is the biggie - DAW software is way too difficult for most people to operate (it's so complicated that even seasoned pros hate them) and you can't justify the cost for a software DAW either.
Here's what that means in plain English:
To run Avid Pro Tools, you need a really fast PC or a really fast Mac, so that's at least $1,300 right there (regardless of whether it's Mac or PC). Then after that you need the Pro Tools software and interface. That's another $1,000...
...and that's before you even spent anything on guitar effects.
So yeah, you've spent $2,300 even before recording your first track.
It should be no wonder why so many people illegally download DAW software via torrent to save anywhere from $300 to $600, but... could you use it? Doubtful. You would think that "pro" software would mean "easy-to-use". Wrong. "Pro" means "powerful", meaning "insanely difficult to use".
Let's just say for the moment you have a fast PC, and illegally downloaded pro-grade DAW software to do your recording stuff. You're feeling good because you just saved a ton of money by stealing the software, but then you go to actually use that software, and.. whoa.. you're presented with this ridiculous amount of options when all you want to do is mash the RECORD button and, you know, RECORD SOMETHING.
Let's compare this to the DP-008 I mentioned above.
Yeah, you have to spend the money to get the DP-008, however it's well under 300 bucks. And even if you didn't get the DP-008 specifically, there are plenty of other multitrack recorders out there that are available for cheap. The older Fostex MR-8 for example is well under $200 new. I personally don't recommend that one because it uses CompactFlash cards, but the point it that it's out there and cheap.
Here's the difference between the standalone multitrack recorder and a PC DAW:
With the DAW, it will take you at least 3 days if not a week before you can figure out how to lay down a few tracks in one of those with any sort of effectiveness (meaning quickly and easily with no nonsense involved).
With the standalone recorder, you're recording music easily the day you get it. Plug in, arm a track, record, finish, disarm track 1, arm track 2, record, finish, etc. You're doing the recording thing and getting it done with no problem at all and with very little learning curve.
What about the tablet?
That's an option, but it hasn't matured enough to the point where it's as easy as a multitrack recorder...
...but it is getting cheaper.
A good example of this is the Alesis iO Dock. The price is fair for what it is, and it can turn an iPad into a pretty good audio workstation. But of course it's not compatible with iPads that have a "Lightning" connector...
...and that brings up another point I want to make concerning tablets. Every time a tablet design change comes along, something in your audio workstation setup will then suddenly be obsolete and totally incompatible with newer hardware.
Difficulty level ruined the PC/Mac-based DAW
Using a PC or Mac based DAW was at one point not that difficult to use. I'll admit they've never been totally easy as they were always designed for audio professionals, but the deal is that DAWs these days are difficult for the sake of being difficult just to make a sale.
The best example of how much a PC/Mac-based DAW sucks is what happens when you throw one in front of a 16-year-old kid. And bear in mind that teens today are very technically adept, meaning they know a lot about computers, so it's not like today's teens don't know their way around computer environments.
Let's say I took a brand new Mac loaded with Pro Tools and the proper audio interface, plopped it in front of a 16-year-old, provided him nothing but the owner's manual and said, "Record a few tracks with this." That teen wouldn't have the first clue what to do and be very intimidated by that setup. And even if that kid was the nerdiest of teenage guitar players, it would take him a good 2 to 4 hours before he actually got the thing figured out on a very basic level.
Now take the same situation, but instead of the Mac and Pro Tools, I plopped a DP-008 in front of him, its owner's manual and a set of headphones (you'd need that to hear the 008's output). How long it would take for him to lay down a few tracks? About 15 minutes. Maybe less.
Here's why: The 008 or like multitrack recorder makes it very obvious how to actually record something. Arm a track and a red light illuminates. Disarm a track, the light goes out. How to adjust levels? There are physical knobs right in front of you which makes that super-easy to do. That teen would very easily be able to figure out the 008, get stuff done and done fast. In fact, it would get done so fast that he'd probably say, "Yeah, that expensive Mac with Pro Tools is nice and all that, but... the Tascam is just way easier to use. And I can use it at band rehearsal too which is pretty cool."
When you compare digital to what was around before it...
The point of digital audio recording is simply this: To record audio in the "cleanest" and most convenient way possible.
But the only way to actually do that is with a little digital multitrack recorder.
I'll explain.
Imagine for a moment it's 1975 and you have absolutely no options to record anything digitally because the technology wasn't available yet. So how do you record anything that would sound any good? You would use a reel-to-reel machine like the Ampex 354 using 1/2-inch tape; this was a huge, bulky unit.
To use something like the Ampex 354 required a good amount of knowledge. You had to know how to load the tape properly, know how to have your levels set absolutely right before laying down a track (remember, no "undo" here!), and so on.
In other words, using a reel-to-reel multitrack system back in the day was difficult, expensive and you really had to know what you were doing so you didn't waste a bunch of time and money.
Fast-forward 25 years to 2000.
Digital recording has been around since the 1990s by this point, and is now available and dirt cheap compared to the old reel-to-reel method. Anyone with a moderately-powered PC or Mac can now use a "virtual studio" to do the same stuff the reels could, plus a whole lot more. Now you can punch-in/out of tracks with ease, directly edit audio after being recorded since it was all data and not on physical slack, and even write your finalized mixdowns to MP3 or CD. Things were going great.
Fast-forward to the late 2000s (around 2008).
Software DAWs have been around for a while, but they have "progressed" to the point where any sense of it being easy-to-use is gone. The companies who make DAW software titles realized that they are running out of reasons to release new versions, so they keep adding in crap that nobody needs, labeling it as "innovative" and then selling it to the masses. Those that didn't know any better kept buying this crap.
Now in 2013:
There is no such thing as a pro-grade DAW software title that's easy-to-use anymore. Every one of them is - by design, mind you - insanely difficult to use. One of the only software DAWs left that's not a total pain in the ass to use is a "consumer-grade" title called GarageBand for the Mac. But of course the Mac doesn't have anything on it to plug a guitar into, so you either have to spend extra for a proper audio interface, or optionally use a USB-equipped guitar like the Epiphone Les Paul Ultra III - assuming you even like that guitar.
Taking all of the above into consideration concerning DAWs, ask yourself this question:
Are we better off now compared to what we had before?
Concerning the software DAW, no we're not. Concerning the standalone recorder, yes we are.
When you talk about progress, you have to compare what we have now to what we had before.
Is a PC/Mac-based DAW easier to use than reel-to-reel? No.
Can you record more quickly with a PC/Mac-based DAW compared to reel-to-reel? No.
Is the cost of a modern pro-grade PC/Mac-based DAW cheaper and better (keyword there) than reel-to-reel was? No.
The only place for a PC/Mac-based DAW these days is in a professional studio, because the guys and gals running one of those are the only ones who can use it properly (they probably went to school and took classes on it) and make their money back (maybe) for what they spent on the stupid thing.
Conversely, the standalone digital multitrack recorder is exactly where we should be with modern digital multitrack audio recording. It's small, easy, quick to learn and most importantly your recordings sound good, which is to say they sound better than they would with the old analog rigs.
Any guitar player can learn a DP-008 or like recorder in a few minutes and record to it easily; that is progress; that is the promise of modern technology working for us and not us for it. We went from the big, bulky, difficult-to-use reel-to-reel machines of before and condensed that into a small super-lightweight rectangle with buttons and knobs on it and can even run that rectangle off AA batteries.
As for the PC/Mac-based DAW, leave that to the guys in the pro studios. They can afford it and moreover actually know how to use those things. For the rest of us, stick to the little digital multitrack recorders; you'll be glad you did.
death race 2000
Death Race 2000 is something I watched for two reasons. First, the title of the movie is just plain cool, and second, it was made in 1975. I have a thing about movies from the '70s. For some reason, there's a lot of movies from that era that I really like.
DR2000 is a B movie, but not your typical kind where it's just shy of a soft adult movie. This flick is a B because it's low-budget. Very little nudity. And yeah, it's got some, but nothing really risqué. Not by today's standards, anyway.
I had absolutely no idea Sylvester Stallone was in this movie until I watched it. When I saw him suddenly as one of the lead characters, that surprised me. I did not expect that. And he acts exactly as you would expect him to.
So anyway, this flick is about a dystopian future where the national pastime is a cross-country race where racers can actually score points for hitting and killing citizens. While watching this, I thought it was just going to be totally stupid all the way through, but the funny thing is that I actually started getting into the plot. And strangely enough, it wasn't really that bad. For some reason this flick strikes the right balance between being totally dumb yet keeping just enough twists in the storyline so you keep watching to find out what happens.
I think what I liked best is that every time you think you know who the bad guy is, in comes a twist, things change, and you're kept guessing, but in a good way. And then at the end it actually all works out in a satisfying way.
I liked DR2000. I mean, it's not great or anything like that. But I liked it.
Guitar Tremolo Picking 101
Tremolo picking, sometimes called "up and down" picking, is someting that's a little difficult to start with only because many beginner players aren't instructed what not to do, which the video covers. Things like what not to do for palm position, what not to do for strength of picking and how not to use your whole arm to pick when your wrist can do 99% of the work.
The only thing I didn't go into detail about are the picks used.
On electric guitars you can use whatever you want, but generally speaking it's easier if you purposely use a thinner pick such as Fender 351 picks in medium thickness.
On acoustic guitars it's a different story because you may not want so much "flap", as in pick noise. To decrease the flap, using a pick made of delrin with some good flex to it helps out a great deal, such as the Dunlop Tortex in .60mm size (the "orange one").
You'll have to experiment to see what works best for you depending on what type of guitar you're playing. With electric, the pick noise can be masked somewhat by the use of light overdrive/distortion. With acoustic there's nothing to hide behind, so to speak, so you'll have to use different picks to get rid of pick/flap noise.
if i had to own a typewriter...
One of the interesting parts of being born in the '70s is that in my elementary school days I saw no typewriters whatsoever. The school I went to had Apple II computers, as in the green-screen kind where everything was in upper-case letters whenever you typed on it. The only real typewriter I ever saw growing up was the one my dad had, and I barely remember it. I have fuzzy memories of him using it only twice. For the time it was one of those ultra-moderinzed typewriters where everything was totally electronic, including the carriage return; there was almost nothing manual about it. I can't remember the manufacturer but I do remember it being off-white colored, similar to the putty color of PCs in the early 1990s.
I have never typed up a document on a real typewriter in my life, and if you sat me in front of one, it would take me a few minutes to even figure the thing out.
There is, admittedly, a part of me that would like to own a typewriter just because it's a very organic writing experience. And of course it's a lot easier on the eyes.
Okay, I have to explain the eyes thing. Even if you type up all your stuff on a laptop (like I do) and dim the screen during long haul writing sessions, your eyes simply get tired and everything starts to blur; this happens to people even with the best of eyesight. However, on a typewriter you are basically only limited to how long your hands can hold out until they cramp up from writing so much. In other words, you could spend 6 hours typing on a typewriter if you were suddenly inspired to do so. But can you do the same on a laptop or PC with a backlit screen? No way. Yeah, I know there are gamers out there who can play for 10 hours at a time, but this isn't gaming, this is writing. Totally different. And if you're wondering how you'd get what you type on paper into digital format, that's not a problem as there is free OCR (optical character recognition) software you can download to do just that. Plunk down the paper on the scanner, scan, software reads it and translates into editable digital text. Yeah, I know that sounds like a pain, but for some it's an amicable solution.
Amazingly, new electronic typewriters are still made today, and that's cool. The cost to get one is under 120 bucks. One is the Brother SX-4000. And there are, incredibly, manual typewriters still available for sale new, which costs a little more at just under $140. But I'd go with the electric.
If I had my choice of whatever I wanted, I'd go with a 1980s-era Smith-Corona electric in blue with the sterling cartridge just because of how awesome it looks.
Before the electrics came around, this same typewriter in manual form had white keys and the electrics had black. Yeah, I'd prefer the white keys but heck, I wouldn't refuse it. :-)
Getting one of those 70s/80s era Smith-Corona electrics isn't a problem because they're actually pretty cheap. What is a problem however is getting one that works 100%. It's totally possible that a $35 Smith-Corona of the 1980s bought today would need $200 worth of refurbishing just to get the thing working right. Worth it? Yeah, I think so because when refurb'd it can last 20+ years. I mean, they still work today even though some were made 30+ years ago, so refurbishing one should easily last a few decades. But it's an investment, no doubt about that. You'd have to find someone that actually knows how to completely refurbish/restore one of those things from top to bottom and everywhere in between.
Anyway, even though I've never actually typed up a complete document on a typewriter, I'd like to someday because it's just a different way of writing.
What would I use a typewriter for? Not for blogging because that's inherently an internet thing and always was. But I would use it to type up letters to send to others in the mail. As in postal mail. I could set up a PO box for people to send me letters, and then I could send reply letters back.
Why bother doing that (especially since it costs money for paper, envelopes and postage)? Because it's a lot more personal and genuine. Yeah, we have email and Facebook and all that and it works pretty well, but at times electronic communications are a bit impersonal. To actually get real mail on real paper that was manually typed out is just plain cool. You're excited to receive something like that. It makes you happy; that's why you do it.
"I can't get that guitar in my country"
Something that genuinely makes me feel bad is whenever I feature a guitar - especially one that I own personally - and get a comment on this blog or my YouTube channel from a fan that says, "I like the guitar you're playing, but I can't get it in my country."
Now I'm not talking about just expensive axes here. But just for the sake of example, if I had the money and wanted a Fender American Standard Stratocaster, I could go buy one tomorrow (I'd go with Olympic White, personally). And you could probably do the same in the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Germany and several other nations. But what about the low-cost guitars like the Epiphone I just bought?
Why do these guitars seem to be mostly here in America and nowhere else?
The answer is Guitar Center.
GC gets all the good guitars both for expensive and cheap before anyone else because they're the #1 instrument retailer in the world. The way they've become huge is by acquiring a bunch of other companies over the years. They own Musician's Friend and Music & Arts (the largest school music dealer in the US) to name a couple of them.
I'll put it another way. GC has 10,000 employees and has a revenue report of 1.78 billion. Yes, that's billion with a big fat B.
To put this in perspective, I have my choice of not one but three GC's I can shop from in Florida, that being Tampa, Clearwater and Lakeland. And that's not even including the other GCs or competing instrument retailers in Tampa Bay.
I am very aware that I'm really lucky to have all this wonderful gear be so accessible and so close right where I live. But at the same time I'm also very aware that players who live in countries without a GC presence literally have to fight just to get the guitars they want, and usually pay triple the price for them (usually because of shipping fees and import duties). And yeah, I know, that's not fair at all. Not for a second.
I'm not Mr. Money, I don't drive a fancy car and I don't live in a mansion. But I do have the luxury of having three GCs within driving distance of me, and that's why I have so much gear that I can go and try out at a moment's notice. And it's also why I can get said gear for so cheap.
No, I'm not saying any of this to brag; that's not my intent whatsoever. It would be really nice if the guitars I can readily acquire could be available anywhere in the world for the same price I can buy them for. But as small as we like to think the world is, it's not. The world is huge and the major instrument retailers like GC only spread out to where they can make the most money. America happens to be one of those places.
The only advice I can really give to anyone outside the US to save a bunch of money on guitars here is to actually come here to buy them.
Here's the strange-but-true facts about flying over here to get the guitars you always wanted:
Even with the cost of travel and the shipping/duty fees to ship the guitars back to your country, chances are pretty good you'll still save a bunch of money.
First of all, GC usually offers 15% right off the top when you buy in person. That's big cash saved right there.
Second, when you're here you'll have access to all the used gear. You can search by particular store for the ones you plan to visit. Used stuff doesn't stick around long, but it gives you more buying options.
Third is access. The biggest problem buying guitars outside the US is actually getting to play the thing before buying it. When you're here, you can touch it, play it, plug it in and do all the stuff normal players do when trying out guitars.
Combine all these things together, plan your trip out accordingly, and you can save a ton of money while getting the guitars you always wanted.
When you find what you want, you can either have GC ship it direct to you, or buy and then head over to a local UPS Store and have them do it (which will cost more but sometimes it's worth it for the extra insurance you can add in).
Yeah, I know it sucks that non-US guitar players have to go through so much crap just to get the axes they want, but that's unfortunately how things are.
However if you're planning a trip to America and think buying some guitars while here is a good idea, you can at least project how much you would spend before even coming here. When you have GC and UPS shipping readily available while on our shores, it makes the guitar buying process while in the US a whole lot easier.