How has making a track changed?
The difference between building a track from scratch now compared to the late 90s is huge. Where once a roomful of tactile hardware was needed to fashion sounds, now you can lock down a release-ready track on a smartphone. Let’s detail the major differences
“The past is a foreign country,” a wise man once said, though when you compare the different methods used to record music at home between the 1990s and now, it may as well be Mars. As we established in the first part, the music production sphere was predominantly hardware dependent, even as we entered the early 2000s, we only had a mere handful of computer musicmaking software tools (which we were eager to spread the word about!).
Work from home
Though Pro Tools was an increasingly commonplace standard in many high-end recording studios throughout the early 1990s, it was simply too expensive or CPU-dependent for many home musicians, as the average computing power in 1998 was around 64MB of RAM, with around 400MHz on a good day, a far cry from the 8-16GB of RAM and 3.5 to 4.2 GHz, single-threaded processor speeds of modern computers. Essentially, everything was much, much slower in the 1990s, and more prone to system lock-ups.
So, in a less computer-dominated world, the technology required to make release-quality music was widely different depending on what genre you operated in. Electronic music was first birthed from a special alchemy of hardware synthesis and sequencing, and this was still very much the case in the 1990s. Building up fresh beats required a hardware drum machine, such as the Linn LM-1 Drum Computer, and the iconic Roland TR-808, these hardware behemoths might have come at a price, but they were widely used by numerous huge artists, for their distinctive sounds and genre-affiliations.
Today of course, software sample drums come in all shapes and sizes, while software drum machines such as Xfer’s Nerve allow incredible levels of customisation, and huge drum suites such as Toontrack’s Superior Drummer provide the modern composer with a breadth of control that would leave our 90s predecessors in awe.
For classic drum machines, a degree of rhythm was required to program your drum parts inside the unit’s on-board sequencer. The 808’s 32-step sequencer was divided into 16 A and B variations, selecting the instrument sound type by means of a physical knob. Programming required you to click the buttons in tempo with the beat you wanted to create. These days, the easier quantisation and grid-snapping architecture of software, not to mention the more intricate levels of control (and plethora of drum sound types) provide significant advantages. For many though, the spontaneous creative potential of hardware drum machines still gives them the edge, while others who still want to inject their own rhythmic sensibilities into beat programming use external pad-based machines (which can interface with a softwarebased ecosystem with ease) we’re thinking of enjoyable tools like Elektron’s Rhythm MK II; a mighty beast which melds analogue percussion with a digital sample bank.
Making waves
For dyed-in-the-wool synth heads, hardware will always trump software. Even today, with a plethora of expertly modelled virtual versions of classic designs available, people still fork out hundreds, and often thousands, of pounds for gigantic analogue totems.
Many argue that the fundamental tone is discernible between hardware and software, while others emphasise the performing benefits of a keyboard and turning those satisfying rotaries. What can’t be argued is that the world of synthesis has got far easier to jump into. For many, it was seen as an expensive, techdependent sideline to music-making, but with the ubiquity of soft synths forming a key part of the modern production landscape (not to mention, those that are bundled with your DAW) the arcane world of oscillators, waveforms and modulation is suddenly an inviting new world for novices.
As synths themselves were pretty pricey for many home producers in the 1990s, many would use samplers to emulate the synth sounds. For those electronic musicians who’d taken the plunge into computer music, a basic Atari or PC setup which relied on a prototype DAW such as Cubase, was a staple hub, coupled with a sampler such as the legendary Akai
S950-S1000. Stabs of synth sounds from contemporary powerhouses such as the Korg M1 and the Roland 303 led to some of the era’s biggest tracks. Today, of course, we don’t need to spend time getting an external sampler to sample the sounds of synths we’ve borrowed, as software synths are capable of peerless digital emulation of hardware classics (Arturia’s V Collection and Softube’s Model 84 are particular examples) or present complex, innovative approaches to synthesis in their own right. Native’s Razor is one such example (using complex additive synthesis to weave sounds a hardware synth would be incapable of making), while Rob Papen’s Blade 2 provides nearlimitless control over every parameter.
Rack and roll
Effects units were still largely rackmounted affairs in the 1990s, with the acceptance of plugin reverbs, delays, phasers, compressors and preamps still many years ahead. Generally, rackmounted gear is now synonymous with more pro-level studios. Even rackmount synths like the Yamaha TX81Z were commonplace in the home studios of many a music-maker in 1998. By 2005, and in tandem with the increasing normality of DAW-based recording, plugin effects had a discernible domination of the home market, after their increasing influence in professional studios. Waves’ L1 Ultramaximizer, first released in 1994, was a major indicator of the shape of things to come. The big milestone came with the development of Steinberg’s VST (Virtual Studio Technology) – the earliest plugin standard which would eventually pave the way for Pro Tools’ AAX and Mac’s AU formats. This ushered in a new era of virtual effects units, all stored within your DAW ecosystem, and largely negating the need for external effects.
With the development of computer music, the hardware world is now largely the province of aficionados, tech-heads and those hankering for an ‘authentic’ production experience. Most music-tailored colleges will have banks of computers, running Logic, Pro Tools or Cubase as standard, as opposed to the weird and wonderful gear combos of yesterday. Regardless of which side of the hardware/ software fence you stand, it’s undeniable that here in 2021, making a track is extraordinarily more straightforward.