I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called ‘Count Me In’ which looked at the importance of the drummer in bands such as Queen, The Rolling Stones and The Damned, as well as many others.
The art form that is the drummer in a band is elevated far beyond being a simple timekeeper. They glue the group together, set the tone and pace of the music, especially in a live performance. As the tagline of the programme states, “You can have rhythm without music but you can’t have music without rhythm.”
‘I may know when a piece of music is excellent, I may even be able to verbalise what makes it so good, but I am nowhere when it comes to trying to use that knowledge to emulate it myself.’
The breathtaking, almost unearthly, craftsmanship of Keith Moon (The Who), Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters), Cindy Blackman (Santana, Lenny Kravitz), Stewart Copeland (The Police), and Jess Bowen (The Summer Set) among many others, makes you realise a fact that is obvious when you think about it, that it takes real talent to make something complicated look so easy.
Through the eyes of great drummers we get an insight into some of what is going on with rhythm, drum tuning, syncopation and a host of other techniques and effects. And here’s the thing – the non-drummers of us may be capable of understanding these aspects when they are pointed out to us as examples by great protagonists of the art, but there is a huge gulf between that limited understanding we get and being able to even begin to replicate it. I may know when a piece of music is excellent, I may even be able to verbalise what makes it so good, but I am nowhere when it comes to trying to use that knowledge to emulate it myself.
In 1982, Linn Electronics launched the LinnDrum, also known as the LM2,
(See Dr Mix putting it through its paces here) – an improvement on its original LM1, (and less expensive too). This was an early drum machine, and at the time regarded somewhat as an industry standard. It was used on many tracks in the ‘80s including those by Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Michael Jackson and Stock Aitken Waterman. A quick check in eBay reveals a refurbished one available today for a whopping £5,000 (c. $6,370)!
The ‘Count Me In’ documentary explains how the sound from the drum machine was particularly punchy and, of course, entirely, repeatably, consistent.
The LM1 features in Sam Kemp’s @SamWKemp article for Far Out Magazine’s feature: ‘The 5 drum machines that changed music forever’. This also included the Maestro Rhythm King used by Sly And The Family Stone way back in 1971 and a Roland used by Blondie in 1978, an Akai MPC used by Kanye West and Busta Rhymes, and probably the most widely known of all, the Roland TR-808 (known by many as just the 808) ubiquitous throughout the ‘90’s and early 2000’s.
There were genuine concerns at the time that the introduction of technology would be the end of music and would threaten musicians’ livelihoods. So much so that, as www.musicradar.com reported in an article earlier this month, in 1982 the UK Musician’s Union passed a motion to ban synthesizers and drum machines.
So, did The Human League’s release of ‘Don’t You Want Me?’ in 1981 with its punchy LM2 drum track signal the end of the human drummer as we know it? Of course not! Did the drum machine change music? Well yes, it sort of did.
‘We cannot stop the tide, uninvent or prevent the march of technological progress.’
What happened of course is that the development in technology did not remove drummers from bands, the two exist side-by-side, each with their own set of advantages and disadvantages, complementary rather than combative. This is what I foresee happening with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and voiceover artists.
We cannot stop the tide, uninvent or prevent the march of technological progress. Neither should we be complacent just because AI voiceovers are a bit clunky and not very convincing currently. This will inevitably change, the technology will get better.
But will it ever completely replace the human voice? We can learn a lot from the use of technology in music, the drum machine being the obvious analogy. As time has moved on, whilst artificial drum technology has got ever more sophisticated and convincing, the performance and skill of the drummer, especially at a live event, is as important as ever. The two exist in parallel, each bringing something unique and important to the music they are an intrinsic part of.
Drum machine technology has moved to being more software-based, but even with the advances in that area, there is still a difference in the sound between a software generated drum beat and one produced by electronics. Indeed, many plug-ins now seek to emulate the classic sound of bygone physical technology of equipment such as the LM2.
So, it is certain that the future will look different (doesn’t it always?) and that AI is here to stay, and will only get better. But there is no need to hang up your Neumann or RØDE microphone just yet. As with drumming, it takes talent to create something professional that looks so easy. There is a future where AI voices and human voiceover artists will both have their place, each bringing something unique to the table.
There is no doubt, however, that a willingness and open-mindedness to adopt and adapt is most certainly going to be necessary.
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