I drag the headphones off my ears, wondering if they're bleeding from so much sound being pounded into them for hours. I've been staring at Abelton Live 9 Lite (the cheapest / entry level version of one of the best music editing software programs) for the better part of Sunday and listening to the same song over and over and over. Adding in drums. Deleting drums. Adding in different drums. Deleting them too. Eventually, I think it all sounds great. I've done it! I've created a professional sounding song. I take a pee break and when I sit back down at my computer and listen with fresh ears...fuck, it's terrible. It's messy and cluttered. I only thought it sounded good because I was so deep in the hole that everything blurred together. My musical brain isn't trained enough; my ear isn't sophisticated enough; I don't hear the little subtleties that the expert producer can pick out in their sleep. I'm at this beginner/intermediate level where I know enough to actual make something that sounds like real music (finally!) but I don't know enough to make it sound like professional quality music and I can't see the line the connects A and B yet. My vision feels short sighted. For the first time, I feel limited by my equipment. A few months ago I was just figuring out how to click record so the Lite version did the trick but now I'm experimenting with new tweaks and tricks and the software gives me that little warning box "Must upgrade for that feature" and everything I want to click on is faded out...untouchable. So I'm excited by progress and potential but a little frustrated by lack of clarity and limited equipment. There's only way through to the other side though... keep creating until that ear get's trained (I went through the same learning process when becoming a professional photographer) and keep saving pennies until you can upgrade to the fancier software. Until then...it's back to the basics. // Cha
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