EL MANIFIESTO REVOLUCIONARIO DE WICASTA LOVELACE DE LA MANCHA
I intend to ...

Record music independently.

Today, modern technology has made it possible for musicians to not only reject the traditional record label system upon which the music industry is based, but to reject recording studios and producers, as well. Assuming, of course, that the musicians takes upon himself the responsibility of learning good recording techniques. Advances in technology has removed most of the technological limitations that have kept independent musicians from creating their own works without outside help (though not the necessity of gaining the knowledge of how to do so).

As I write, sitting above me on my desk is an old Fostex 8-track reel-to-reel recorder. It's gathering dust. I bought it only to re-master some 25 year-old recordings from an old band I used to be associated with. Other than that, it's practically obsolete. I'm struck by the fact that The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album was recorded using 4-track machines, and that they didn't start using 8-track machines until the recording of their White Album. And yet on my computer I have software that will allow me to record a theoretically unlimited number of tracks. The technology has sufficiently advanced to a point where the machines The Beatles recorded their amazing albums upon are considered primitive by comparison.

Needless to say, I don't see the need to go into a studio and pay exhorbitant sums of money to record. Not only has recording technology advanced, but every aspect of the process has advanced. I have software on my computer that allows my guitars to be played through virtual versions of dozens of different amplifier and speaker cabinet combinations. I have software that does the same thing for my bass guitars. I have software that recreates the old Korg M1 synthesizer that I owned in the 1990s. I have sampling software that opens up the entire world's instruments to me, and a hard drive full of so many sounds that I hardly know where to begin.

Let it suffice to say that I believe we've reached a point where the record labels falling by the wayside, and taking the recording studios with them. We've reached a point where musicians can record professional quality music in their own homes using relatively cheap equipment. I intend to do just that, and to distrubute, through the Internet, my works to my audience (such as may exist).

The artist and the audience no longer have to be separated by the corporate interests of record labels and recording studios. A direct dialoque can now exist between them.
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