I'll be posting a couple of fresh tracks to the website in the weeks to come. They were all created in the "traditional manner", that is to say with hardware sound sources recorded through an analog desk.

I've had a new PC in the studio now for close to a month, and I'm getting my head around learning the various software applications I've collected. Making music on a computer is a completely different experience I'm finding than with the traditional synths and samplers I've been using for years. For some reason, even though I haven't physically changed anything else in the studio, there is a sort of disconnection between my creativity and the actual process of sound manipulation and recording. By all accounts, using a computer should simplify the whole process, and perhaps it's doing the job a bit too well.

The software has the ability to make everything sound excellent very quickly, but in doing so leaves something to be desired with the actual content. Things that are accomplished with a turn of a knob with the old setup are frustratingly hidden behind pages and menus. By the time I wade through the endless parameters I've lost the original inspiration for whatever I was doing.

It will take some practice, of course, to get to know the strengths and weaknesses of the various systems. So far, my "old" method of composition seems to suit better than using the latest soft synths and VST plug ins. The only advantage gained so far for me is in the area of recording and overdubbing material. Computers excel at this sort of graphical representation of sound. Great for editing and compiling finished works, but I personally don't want to be looking at a screen when I'm composing music. You start looking for patterns on the sequencer page instead of listening to what is coming out of the monitors. That's like dancing about architecture.