David Manson
Musician and Composer
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As a composer, I welcome new technology that helps me complete the steps from A to Z in composing, as well as music production, where I can deliver a finished audio product.
Back in the early days of laptops, I worked in live performance environments integrating computers and acoustic instruments. That often required that I write code, as well as setting up sound systems. To be honest, it was too much work and I found that I was always fighting the static nature of processing live sound through a computer.
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Achieving actual compositional development in a hyper instrument environment was a bit frustrating for me, so I returned to composing for acoustic instruments. . . “old school” in many ways.
I currently teach Sibelius and Pro Tools in the MIRA (Music Industry/Recording Arts) program at St. Petersburg College and encourage students to create music while utilizing technology.
It’s a balancing act of creativity vs. technology, as one can be overwhelmed by ever-changing innovations in technology and the inherent learning curve. On the other hand, many new creative possibilities are available with the assistance of technology for composing and music production.
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Sibelius is a notation program that captures what I enter at a musical keyboard, often using a click track. The notation can then be edited for accuracy.
The beauty of the program (and others like it) is that individual parts are easily generated. In the age before these notation programs, a composer or arranger would have to write out (in hand manuscript) separate parts for instruments, including those that were transposing instruments. That was VERY time-consuming and prone to errors. In Sibelius, transposed parts are quickly extracted from the score.
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Valuable “old school” skills for composers and arrangers included an understanding of how combined instruments sound, the ranges of the instruments, their timbre or sound quality in those ranges, as well as their facility in differing ranges. That knowledge is only acquired through study and listening.
I routinely hear MIDI-based and sound library compositions from students (and professionals) that sound decent through the computer – but are not playable when performed by musicians on actual acoustic instruments. Every instrument has its own unique characteristics and limitations that sample libraries and computers cannot faithfully replicate.
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Pro Tools is a DAW (digital audio workstation) program that allows non-linear composition and treats sound as a plastic medium that can be molded and manipulated. It’s a great program for music production and even composition, but it can lead to problems in terms of development.
There is much to be said for the “old school” process of carefully thinking through a composition sequentially rather than copying, pasting and haphazardly composing in pieces, then reassembling.
In addition, I frequently remind students to avoid the Pro Tools trap of setting up every new session with a default tempo of 120 beats per minute. As artists, we need to be mindful that technology can influence or even dictate our creative process.
The writing out of parts and scores in beautiful hand manuscript has become a lost art. On the positive side, the time that was spent in that laborious process can be dedicated directly to composition.
