| First,
let me try to take away some prejudice that
people have concerning the process of
creating Dub with computers.
Computers are
no magical machines, and although there are
programs such as "Band in a Box",
supposedly creating tunes based on a few
chord progressions, the computer will not
make the music or the mix for ya. A computer
is a machine, that you give commands to, and
the machine does the commands. It will not
be creative, it will not give you tips and
tricks, and if it does, it is put there by
another human.
A second prejudice I have to
take away, is the idea that the right
software will lead you to the right musical
productions. The same applies for soft- and
hardware, it is neutral, it has a few things
YOU can do, one is fast and the other is
slow, but it doesn't carry any creativity in
itself.
Why do I start this introduction
with taking away prejudice? Simple. If the
start is wrong, then the result is also
wrong. There are many people I know that
seem to think that the right combination of
soft- and hardware will enable them to
"create" the greatest music. So
they keep looking for the right software and
the right computer. But then, after they
spent lots of money getting what they want,
they will find out that they have spend a
lot of money for nothing at all. You can
tell an artist to make art, but you can not
tell the computer to make art.
I also think,
that when you want to make music "the
easy way", and you think computers can
do the work for you, you are seriously
limiting the development of your own
creativity. Music, regardless the used
techniques to create it, will always be hard
work. This is an essential part of music and
people appreciate music because they know an
artist puts his heart, soul, and sometimes
even well-being in it.
All these
things I just mentioned are/were reason for
many producers to disregard the computer as
a serious tool in the studio. After all, the
previous lines were written somewhere around
the turn of the century and this line is
written in 2014. So yes, while it is the
case that the computer will not give you
anything magical it can provide you with the
means to create (DUB) Reggae music.
Many
producers used to have the prejudice that
computers pretended to give a magical thing,
but things have changed a lot in these 14
years of this 21st century. The computer has
become a major tool in most studio's, and
productions created with just a computer
have entered even the mainstream many years
ago. Genres like Dubstep are even known to
be predominantly created on laptops.
Still,
essentially nothing much has changed when it
comes to this tutorial. Reggae Music was
created in studios in Jamaica in the 1960's
somewhere, decades before computers entered
the living rooms and studio's. Creating that
kind of music with a computer requires a
certain view on the computer and that view
will stay the same, even when times come
that there are virtual musicians in 3D that
you can tell what to do.
Yes, the
computer has turned out to be a very useful
tool for the producer whose budget and space
does not enable her or him to actually build
a studio, hire musicians and what have you.
The computer has enabled millions of people
to create their own music, and there are
literally thousands of online (DUB) Reggae
producers all over the Internet releasing
their computer-based music to an audience
that likes to listen and feel to these
heartical, non-industrial productions.
In the
1970's, 1980's when Reggae became the world
wide favorite music of people all over the
world, there was also a movement called
Punk. This movement had many connections
with Reggae but for this tutorial it's
relevant to mention the mentality of the
Punk. That mentality was and still is an
inspiration to me. It's summarized in the
following cartoon:
Now that I have set
the tone for this section, I would like to
invite you to read on to the next chapter,
in which I will tell you a bit about how I
see the computer.
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