In the mid to late 1980s, I was in a band. We were not good. Our keyboard player and songwriter went on to be SJD… but even with that pretty spectacular advantage, collectively we were terrible. Really, really bad.
Don’t bother looking for recordings. We covered our tracks pretty well. I knew which way up to hold a guitar, so that was how I fitted into a group of people with widely varying levels of talent, creativity and technical proficiency. And I lowered the average.
For that reason, I was never all that fond of playing live, and vastly preferred the studio – where mistakes could be – if not completely avoided, at least managed.
Trouble was, even at the affordable and value-for-money Montage studio in sunny Grey Lynn, 7-piece pop bands containing a bizarre mix of capable performers, inspired creatives, Eno-esque Svengalis and remedial musicians could spend an awful lot of money making something they could barely tolerate playing to sympathetic family members.
As a result, I’ve long been in favour of a DIY approach to making music and, as time went on, radio programmes. I think some of the most interesting stuff happens that way (obviously, interesting stuff happens on a big budget in big studios – but the point is that it also happens elsewhere).
The rise of the personal computer in both of those fields has been an absolute godsend for me.
I have delusions of adequacy on the music-making front these days, but only because the performative aspect has been entirely removed from the equation for me.
Which brings me to the first of a few sites I want to point you to today.
Engadget has a great article about how to build a low-cost recording studio using a Mac Mini as a starting point. I haven’t had a great deal of experience with Garage Band – the free music-making software recommended – but it seems to be pretty powerful.
I’ve had a play with a number of music-making devices – and while I loooooove the Akai MPC, I’ve defaulted to software solutions like Reason and Acid.
That said, I’m also a real fan of ProTools, and the M-Box is definitely a cheap, intuitive and impressively powerful tool for making music – and for making radio programmes. That’ll work on your PC as well as the Mac.
I love making radio in any situation, but the freedom to laptop it has meant that I’ve been able to try new ideas and make programmes in a very organic way (translation: I can mess about with it late into the night without worrying about the studio cost).
The jazz show on George is assembled in this way, and I’ve made everything from documentaries to dramas with little more than a mic, a minidisc and a PC.
And so… another website I want to send you to: the source of all knowledge and wisdom about DIY radio programmes is Transom.org (hint: read and listen to everything).
I’ve long been sending my students to this website – but I’d happily stretch that to anyone with a story to tell of any kind.
Finally, make sure you spend some time at the Third Coast Audio Festival website.
This is the home of the best programme-making in the world, with hints and tips about how to make better radio – as well as entire recorded seminars (provided free in Real Audio) in which the people who are best at this let on how they do it.
The last few years of the Festival conference panel discussions are available. I particularly recommend sitting through Ira Glass’s ‘These are a few of my favourite things‘ from 2002.
I still want to be Ira Glass when I grow up.
Radio, like music, can be made in the bedroom. Get your hands on a laptop, a minidisc, a microphone and some guidance – and what you can accomplish these days is incredible – even if your presentation resembles my guitar playing.
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Yesterday:
103. Elektric Music – Esperanto Atlantic 1994
Today:
104. DJ Dangermouse – The Grey Album EMI (2004)
The catalyst used to get what we want done for anything is always what we strive to make easier, better, cooler, ‘phatter’. The blessing of living in this age of classically trained technophobes, is that we still appreciate the value of ‘doing it the hard way’ and ‘using the old gear’ AND getting benefits from it.
Digital Editing vs ADat vs Multitrack. Portable Drives vs CD vs Dat vs Cassette (vs Carts vs…). Recording 80’s 8bit samples into new 32bit sessions.
I also want to be Ira Glass when I grow up. And I think more people should want to be him also.
thisamericanlife.org’s great for realaudio, but thankfully where I live the show is also broadcast on access radio.
I can’t imagine life without it… nothing comes close.
The Chicago Public Radio fest looks fantastic.