When creating and mixing your music, do you listen (“monitor”) through headphones or speakers? For several years now, I’ve monitored my music using a pair of flat headphones made by Audio-Technica, pretty much exclusively. (I’ve heard that Sony also makes great monitors for mixing.)
“Flat” monitors were recommended to me in the beginning, especially for mixing, since the flat sound doesn’t artificially add EQ, as many sound systems do. In other words, flat monitors give the purest picture of what the music actually sounds like. So theoretically, a flat listening environment offers the best chance to create a balanced mix.
I was also advised that monitoring through a dedicated set of flat speakers was more ideal than using headphones. The reason I’ve heard most is that headphones are an artificial listening environment in themselves, and do not represent what sound “sounds like” in the real world. They don’t account for the fact that, in the real world, sound travels to our ears through the air, from different distances, and at various frequencies. Furthermore, these variables are affected by factors such as other sounds clashing and interacting with the music. (Traffic noise, white noise, crosstalk, echos, other songs, etc.)
In fact, there have been several instances of my listening to a song while driving in the car with the windows down, and hearing different notes—at least in my head—from when the windows are up. This real-world feedback may give me the idea to create a whole new section of the song, or to chop off a section—or just inform me that the bass is too loud.
Since 2014, I’ve been a diehard LogicProX user. LPX has served me solidly, and it’s been a great source of creative inspiration, for the past five years. But what did I do before Logic? I was a “diehard†Garageband artist, of course. Heady times...
Around the time GB came out (year?), I had been suffering big-time from creative withdrawal. For several years, every cool synth/workstation I’d drooled over had been financially unattainable. (How could I justify spending thousands on a toy, when I could barely keep my rent paid?) GB was a godsend because Mac-based amateur keyboardists like me could finally afford to move into the modern era of music making.
From 2006 to 2014, my “home studio†basically consisted of a Mac running Garageband; a M-Audio 49-key controller; and a M-Audio USB interface with a cheap Radio Shack mic attached. Although the sounds I could get out of GB were basic—especially compared to its more capable, big brother, Logic—I wrung the most I could out of them. I can truly say that Garageband brought on a new era in my creativity.
This page is an homage to my Garageband Years. I chose to feature at least one track from every year during the period. The music itself is not particularly impressive or moving, as one will hear. (Much of it is based on simple melodies I’d created as a teenager, pecking around on the piano; or just sonic experiments that explore a certain style or instrument.) In fact, a more interesting listen would span my creative development from childhood to now, in four distinct stages—but maybe more on that later. For now, I hope you enjoy listening to these selected tracks from my Garageband period.