Monday, December 31
Laptop Composing If there’s one thing the Internet has taught us, it’s that new technology rarely destroys old ways of doing business. Similarly, the rise of virtual studios probably won’t mean the end of big-name producers who put together songs on two-inch tape using mixing boards the size of pool tables. And while more singers and rappers might be tempted to try producing their own tracks, Chad Hugo doesn’t recommend it. ‘‘Most artists should just worry about what they do best – the vocals,’’ he says. But even if the virtual studio doesn’t turn every recording artist into a producer, it has already turned at least one group of producers into recording artists. The globetrotting Neptunes recently used Pro Tools to add live instruments to some of the keyboard tracks they’d been working on, and the group’s debut album is due out early next year.
