Creating the Virtual Band

If you’ve been making music for more than a few years, you’ve probably partaken of the “band experience” in one form or another. There are few things in life that come close to the sheer magic of a great gig, with those special moments of interaction when the chemistry’s just right on stage and the audience is right there with you. Unfortunately, most of us have been through the ugly side of bands, too. Whether the conflict is artistic, ego-based, financial, personal or professional, there are times when many of us decide that, for the short or long term, it’s preferable to go it alone.

Of course, in this multitrack world of ours, it’s no problem to develop and record our ideas without a band. But until recently, taking those songs on stage still meant assembling and rehearsing at least a few backup musicians. Foregoing a live band for anything more than a solo acoustic gig meant being backed by cheesy MIDI sequences, typically played by a rack full of hardware modules that your audience might mistake for a band—provided they closed their eyes, had a few drinks and talked loudly amongst themselves.

Thankfully, the technological advances we’ve become accustomed to in the studio have been making their way onstage. The current generation of virtual instruments and digital audio software—and the processing power of the computers running them—have finally reached the point where portable is viable. These days it’s infinitely possible to find audio applications that can be programmed to sound human, load them with virtual instruments that sound good, and put together a computer that can run it all.

BUILDING THE PERFECT BEAST

Like any other instrument, having a computer that’s up to the task of performing is critical. Typically, a machine built for web surfing and word processing isn’t the best choice for serious music use. “The biggest mistake most musicians make is buying a generic ‘Big Box’ computer and trying to use it as a music PC,” explains Jack Conrad, owner of Los Angeles–based Canyon Computers. Conrad’s company specializes in building custom PCs for southern California film composers and songwriters, and he’s heard his share of horror stories. “Those machines are a bargain for the average consumer, but they don’t have the horsepower to run a DAW application and multiple soft-synths, and they’ve got no upgrade path.”

There are a number of specialists, from small, locally-based dealers to larger national companies like Alienware and Shoutmedia, who build laptop and rackmount PCs specifically designed for music applications. Many of these companies even offer maintenance service to keep your machine in good running shape. “It’s amazing how many musicians who would never do a gig without a tuner or spare strings will overlook the importance of tuning their computer,” Conrad remarks. “Having your machine crash during a performance will make you sweat far more than breaking a string.”

These days any decent audio software can be programmed to play very humansounding parts, making it easy to spend a bit of time creating workable backing tracks. Many programs, like Ableton’s Live, Propellerheads’ Reason and Sony’s ACID, can even be “played” interactively, bringing the computer itself into the performance. The intuitiveness of today’s DAW software makes it easy to quickly compose and create great sounding tracks.

“The comfort level that a program like ACID or Live affords is a major plus for the musician putting together a live gig,” Conrad offers. “Not only do we have a nearly endless supply of loops and sounds, but there’s a degree of interactivity that actually makes the computer part of the inspiration process. People complain—justifiably—that programs like ACID or Live have made it too easy for people of limited talent to make mediocre music. But it’s like anything else—put that kind of power into the hands of a talented musician and the results can be amazing.”

The other side of the software revolution is the quantum leap taken by software synths. Forget the age-old image of the keyboardist surrounded by multiple keyboards—today, a single MIDI controller is all you need to drive a virtual rack of software synths. Soft-synths like Tascam’s GigaStudio, and offerings from Spectrasonics, IK Multimedia, Native Instruments and Arturia are so powerful—not only in terms of realism, but in terms of the level of control their user interfaces give you—that they can, and are, replacing live musicians. It’s not always a good thing, but with the budgetary concerns that rule today’s arts community, it’s a reality.