Technical challenges: the digital audio workstation (DAW)

I am taking a class on music recording and production at my local community college. We are learning the software used in professional studios, Pro Tools. Most music and sounds are now recorded using software called digital audio workstations (DAWs), like Avid's Pro Tools, Apple's Logic Pro, or Ableton Live. Apple's GarageBand is a simplified DAW that comes free with all Mac computers, and I have been dabbling on GarageBand for a few months now.

Our professor, Dr. DC, introduces the class by saying that modern musicians must master three aspects of making music: performance, composition, and technology. He tells us that the DAW allows anyone with a computer to make music. The DAW can make sounds that would have been physically and technically impossible before. The DAW releases us from any physical constraints. If we imagine the sounds, we can use the DAW to make the sounds. I find this revelation both liberating and upsetting. This upsets me because I have spent over a decade learning to play my musical instruments. Yet my musical imagination is liberated because I can make any sound I would like using the DAW.

Dr. DC goes on to say that the key for any musician is musicality. Since anyone with a computer can make music now, your musicality will make your music stand out.

One recent assignment is to make a musical sounding version of Für Elise by Beethoven. We are given two musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) clips with errors and missing notes as our starting point. We will make a one minute (32 measures), professional quality  recording of Für Elise. I am terrified when I open the MIDI clips and see how many problems need to be fixed, and I barely know how to use Pro Tools.

For comparison, if I record an analog version of Für Elise by playing it myself on the piano, I would estimate that the process would take one hour. I can play 10-12 takes of the piece, then pick the best version as the final recording.

Guess how long it takes to make a one minute version of Für Elise using MIDI on Pro Tools? One to two hours? No, it takes me just over five hours. As I am using the editing tools on Pro Tools, the tools misbehave and do things like add extra notes or delete notes. I waste about 1.5 hours fighting with Pro Tools' editing tools. I finally slow down the tempo to 50% and fix each note one by one. After I have double and triple checked the MIDI tracks with the sheet music for accuracy, I go back over each note, each measure, and apply sustain, adjust the velocity (the force applied to each note) and the tempo to make the one minute track sound musical to my ears. I listen over the entire track several more times, adjust the parameters that I know how to control.

I have to stop adjusting since the music lab is about to close, and I am starting to find Für Elise grating. It is an unfortunate coincidence that the garbage trucks in Taipei, Taiwan, announce their arrival by playing a jangly Für Elise through loudspeakers.

Main lesson: I must love the music I produce because I will have to fix it note by note and listen to it many times when using the daunting DAW called Pro Tools.