32bit Compositions (part 1)

My next idea for a CD is to create a body of music based on 32bit plugins using a laptop which is 32bit. I have collected a few over the years, but as technology moves on, and everything is becoming more “powerful” energy consumption is increasing, and our devices are changing to compensate; the old devices and programmes are becoming obsolete.

These days if you want to make music using a virtual instrument you will be installing a 64bit instrument (64 bit) a decade ago it would of been x32 & 64 bit, and in the 90s and early 2000’s it would have only been x32; i guess in time… and not too far away, the music being made will not be on computer software at all, but done on mobiles/apps.

I am not against this technology, but, I do wonder why have they stopped producing virtual instruments/software that uses less energy and takes up less space on ones devices? And why is it not part of todays commercial landscape? I mean, why did they get rid of the record player… the cassette player… the CD player… why not produce less of them for those who choose to use them? But to cancel production seems like a business strategy… and a stupid one.

Today it is normal to install a software that is 32 Gig in size, where as a x32 bit equivalent 10 years ago, might be 3 Gig in size (normally x32 plugin would be less than a gigabyte) using less CPU and requiring smaller processors. The whole x32 bit experience is an energy friendlier, less expensive composition.

By cancelling out the old technology, there are less instruments to choose from, and the markets become narrower. The old Atari computers that produced music for gaming software in the 80s and 90s are now a “specialist” hobby, the “cassette” for specialized web groups and forums, and the Cd disk is becoming harder to find. Streaming is the fad for today, but for how long? Instead of marginalizing these creative formats, why not have it all together, all open for choice? Instead of narrowing the way we listen and make music, why not have the field totally equal and wide open? Instead of markets being dictated by narrowminded accountants, why not let the market be determined by the consumer? This might be a naive way of looking at things, but these redundant music making tools have never gone away.

This is the reason for my next musical project. To try and source and use old software’s and plugins on an old laptop. To see how music was made a few decades ago on computer, to learn how the plugins were used and to create something new from them.

I am using a small “emachines N270 laptop” what was 100 uk pounds roughly 10 years ago (it was given to me 2nd hand). It was one of the laptops you bought in a supermarket, for to do simple tasks. Not for gaming or for making music. 1 Gig of Ram, and 1.6GHz, 130 Gig hard drive, and not much bigger than my hand. But the way I see it, the processor and RAM with this machine is still more powerful than the early “Trackers” and Atari computers with floppy discs and cards. So if this laptop can hold x32 bit plugins and DAWs then why not give it a go?

I am working with “limitations: the size of the screen, the processor not being powerful enough, the RAM not big enough, the sound card being of poor quality… so these limitations need to be recognized and dealt with. i am not trying to reproduce old music on old equipment, but I hope to produce new music on old equipment. Like you would with an old violin, but playing new music. I am not into recreating the past… but the technology can teach us things about the present and the future.

I also want to use the Volca Sampler, it is a small digital Sampler that is modeled on older samplers due to its storage capacity. The maximum storage is 4Mb, all of the audio samples can not exceed 4Mb, so a little has to go a long way. The audio samples have to be small, and recorded in 32000 Hz, not 41000 Hz (CD quality), nor 48000 Hz which I normally would use for a good quality audio recording. I have to programme it myself, and make the rhythms. In fact I intend to use my own samples where possible (not to use bought pre-made samples).

Other than this the music I will produce will be done with virtual instruments, drum machines, and DAWs, e.g. the ones I have installed onto my laptop include: Ableton 4 (todays version is Ableton 12); Reason 5 (today is Reason 12); Reaper 4.22 (today – Reaper 6.9). I am using FM8 and Absynth 5 from Native Instruments as they are not in production any more and work very well with x32 bit (Reaktor and Kontakt did not work too well.. or I did not find a version old enough)

I am using Renoise’s Tracker 2.8 (today – Tracker 3.4), an older version of the software. Steinberg’s “Hypersonic 2” which I think is not made any more either. And I am using Xfer Records’s “Nerve” virtual drum machine; and ReFX’s Alchemy and Vanguard as they are x32 bit and low in CPU.

There will be others I am sure… and I will expect to loose some already installed if they are too powerful. It is an experiment with limitations and how to create with those limitations.