Recording - June 2016 - 72

By

M
ke
Mi

ay
etl

Less Noise, More Soul:
The Search for Balance in the Art, Technology, and
Commerce of Music
Edited by David Flitner. 226 pages, trade paperback,
also available in iBooks and Amazon Kindle editions.
Hal Leonard Corp., 2013. ISBN 9781617130984. $18.99
paperback or Kindle, $14.99 iBooks.

As I've commented in recent editorials, these can be
really tough times for musicians and engineers trying to
make a living. The Internet pervades everything we do,
and the music industry has discovered just a bit too late
that the very nature of the Internet makes it essentially
impossible to keep music from going everywhere at
once instantly, whether or not it's being paid for. (See
my April 2016 Fade In editorial for more on this.)
But as tough as it is to turn modern musicmaking into
money, it's even tougher to do so while still saying something worth listening to. We now have pitch and timing correction software, editing and comping at near-microscopic
levels with no need for a razor blade, sample replacement,
72

RECORDING JUNE 2016

and other technologies originally designed to take the drudgery out of routine engineering tasks. They've done that... but they've also made it possible
for people with no talent and no ability to suddenly sound almost sorta
kinda okay. Between the Internet streaming songs by the millions with only
pennies paid to the people who made them, and the abundance of cheap
tools for turning diet soda into fake champagne, music isn't just free... it's
becoming worthless.
At this point, a lot of musicians are wandering around sounding
very much like characters from a sitcom, saying over and over in different tones of voice: "We're doomed. Are we doomed? We're
doomed, aren't we... Are we doomed?" There are many ways to
answer that question, and that's what this book is about.
Less Noise, More Soul is a set of fifteen essays on (at least) fifteen
topics, all loosely related to the complex and frightening problem of
where modern music is going. It's been edited deftly by Dr. David
Flitner, an author and composer whose op-ed piece of the same title
in Billboard Magazine was expanded into this book.
Throughout its pages, we hear from music professionals in every
facet of the pro audio world, discussing bits and pieces of this big
complicated puzzle. The list includes guitarist and Windham Hill
Records founder Will Ackerman, beloved mastering engineer Bob
Ludwig, drummer and educator Kenny Aronoff, award-winning producer and engineer Cookie Marenco, and many others.
The death of the album in favor of the single, the death of radio,
the problems of online music, the Loudness Wars, the homogenization of music quality, the impermanence of digital tools, the ephemeral nature of both stardom and of the current music that leads to said
stardom, and the spreading malaise among listeners who don't like
what they're being given and are desperate for something better...
it's all in here. There's history, philosophy, technology, social psychology, blatant industry-apologist marketing, a whole lot of "things were
better in the good old days", and several attempts at satirical humor,
some of which work better than others.
There are certain obvious punching bags, chief among them the Big
Bad Music Industry, which everyone agrees is finally getting its comeuppance for a long list of crimes. What's really refreshing, bizarrely
enough, is that there are also a lot of less obvious targets. It's fun to
see how many different directions The Finger is being pointed: it's the
consumers' fault, it's the music industry's fault, it's the broadcast
media's fault, it's Apple's fault, it's the musicians' fault, it's the
Government's fault, it's our fault (whoever "we" are). Equally refreshing: the diversity of suggested solutions to our collective problems, and
the fact that many of the essayists agree on at least some of them.
Not all of the essays are gems; I found a few of them anywhere
from disingenuous to downright idiotic (and that's not from the perspective of a 2016 reader perusing a 2013 book-technology may
change rapidly, but some forms of stupidity are as eternal as the
stars). But the beauty of this book is that it is meant to inspire thought
and discussion. You will not find pat answers here, and you sure as
heck won't find a consensus on anything... but you will find things to
think about that have direct relevance to the battles you fight every
day in your studio. Whether you're fighting your gear, fighting an
industry that doesn't seem to care about you any more (if it ever did),
or fighting clients who think it's your responsibility and obligation to
turn their excretions into gold, you'll find inspiration in these pages.
Some of the conclusions are as predictable as deciding who the
Big Bad is; we all know (?) that music will be saved (?!) by groups of
emotionally connected musicians playing together and turning their
creative interaction into meaningful songs, which may not have technical perfection but will hopefully have power and resonance and
depth. Knowing that going in, however, doesn't mean that you no
longer have to read this book. It's a fun and thought-provoking
read... and while I'd love to tell you in advance which essays to skip
(or at least only attempt after a stiff drink), I'm pretty sure you'll figure out for yourselves which ones they are. After all, you're a vital
part of this dialogue, too.



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - June 2016

Contents
Recording - June 2016 - Cover1
Recording - June 2016 - Cover2
Recording - June 2016 - 1
Recording - June 2016 - 2
Recording - June 2016 - 3
Recording - June 2016 - 4
Recording - June 2016 - 5
Recording - June 2016 - Contents
Recording - June 2016 - 7
Recording - June 2016 - 8
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Recording - June 2016 - Cover3
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