Upgrading To The 21st Century

Life tends to evolve, shift, and upgrade right before our eyes. Sometimes it even does it when we’re not watching, so the next time we turn around its as if we’re living in some strange, new existence. I’ve always tried to keep up with the times. I never wanted to be left behind, yet it seems over the last few years I’ve looked around and, well, that’s exactly what happened. It’s been subtle shifts here and there, and both macro and micro changes that feel like little tweaks in the machine. Sometimes the overall machine runs better for these changes. Sometimes, it feels that I’m just being told the changes are for the better, yet I struggle to see how.

The world shifts and morphs, taking on new means of artistic and personal expression. There are a lot of changes very close to me that I’m in the midst of, and while these are good, healthy changes I find myself feeling left behind. They’re not my changes to share here, but they do affect me as a parent and I’m still trying not to feel bad for feeling a little sad about them. When I’m sad I look for something tangible and tactile that I can put that sadness into in an attempt to stop the endless cycle of running things through my brain obsessively.

Yes, I distract myself with a new toy.

Over the last weekend I did some rearranging and set up a corner in my wife and I’s bedroom where I could tinker with making music. Set up an old corner desk that used to be in my 20-year old’s bedroom, then brought up my ancient standalone digital audio workstation. I’ve had the Korg D-1600 since 2002, when I bought it online from someone on Ebay. My cousin bought his at Woodwind and Brasswind in South Bend the year before, and I knew I wanted to upgrade from my Fostex digital 8-track to it.

At the time it was the top of the line in terms of home recording. 16 tracks, with up to 8 tracks of simultaneous recording. Onboard CD-drive, and ample effects and even mastering effects. It was an all-in-one studio in a box and I made many, many albums on that recorder. I felt it took me a few years to get completely comfortable in that operating system, but once I did I could get some pretty decent sounding songs out of it.

Over the last few years it’s gotten to be harder to make things on it. For one there’s no way of transferring tracks from it to a computer where I can master and load online. No USB or SD card slot. You have to burn songs onto CD, then load the CD into your computer’s drive. It’s got a SCSI port, if that tells you how old this thing is. Plus, the effects are pretty dated nowadays. Oh, and buttons keep breaking from 20 years of use. One broke on me just this weekend.

So after setting things up I sat down to work on something. I did get something recorded but I just felt pretty underwhelmed. This thing is big and loud and heavy, and it just wasn’t inspiring me to make anything. I know the last month and a half is a part of that, but if I had something a little more intuitive and easier to record on I’d find inspiration a little easier. Yesterday at work I was perusing Sweetwater’s website and came across a Tascam DP-03SD 8-track digital recorder. It was 8 tracks less than my old recorder, but I don’t need all those tracks like the old days. Plus it’s got a USB input so importing digital tracks is a breeze(like programmed drums), and it’s got and SD slot so I can easily pull tracks from the recorder and load them into my desktop for mastering or loading onto Bandcamp. It also has mastering effects if I’d want to go that route.

So happy really early birthday to me. Should arrive today or tomorrow and I’m pretty excited about that.

Does this fix everything else I’m currently in the midst of? No, it doesn’t. But it’s a nice distraction, and hopefully a means of kickstarting the old songwriting bug in me. Or at least just the right amount of inspiration to get my spooky season instrumental tracks going. I have two on the old recorder now that I recorded over the last two weekends. And really, there’s nothing that needs “fixing”. Other than my own brain.

I’m just not great with change, so that’s on me.