Latest / Arroe Collins Like It's Live / Shaping Sounds From Musician And Music Engineer Robert Margouleff

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Shaping Sounds From Musician And Music Engineer Robert Margouleff · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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  Speaker 1: Here's something I want you to check out Ero dot net,
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  Speaker 1: A r r oe dot net. It is the power
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  Speaker 1: of choice, right there in the front seat of your
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  Speaker 1: car or right there at work. Twenty different podcasts on
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  Speaker 1: one network, one of the biggest one. Something our parents
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  Speaker 1: would say, you know, all those crazy things. Even your
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  Speaker 1: friend said it. It's got history. It didn't just come
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: into their life last week. Something our parents would say
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  Speaker 1: only on ero dot net A r r oe dot net.
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  Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration, Robert. I got to tell you something.
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  Speaker 1: This is very special to me, and I know that
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  Speaker 1: you're going to be talking to a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: that actually live this moment. I was first introduced to
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  Speaker 1: the mogue in God when I was in high school
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  Speaker 1: because that our course teacher said, it is the future.
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  Speaker 1: We are growing there and it's like they totally understood
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  Speaker 1: where you were. And it just amazes me how many
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  Speaker 1: people of music became because of people like yourself taking chances.
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  Speaker 2: Oh well, thank you. I'm just glad I was here
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  Speaker 2: to be of vehicle for the higher power.
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  Speaker 1: So was it something that that was so was it
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  Speaker 1: something so new to you that that even you were
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  Speaker 1: like you were liking Christopher Columbus mode in just discovering
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  Speaker 1: different things all the time.
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  Speaker 2: No, it was I was a music student. I started
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  Speaker 2: as a voice major. I took piano lessons, I learned
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  Speaker 2: how to this a little boy. I started playing the
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  Speaker 2: cello and it became a voice major of Manhattan School
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  Speaker 2: of Music. But I never was able to find my
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  Speaker 2: voice as a musician. I knew I'd never be a
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  Speaker 2: great tenor like Corelli or Caruso. I knew I'd never
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  Speaker 2: be a great concertiennist like Rubinstein or Yo Yo Ma.
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  Speaker 2: As a cellist, I knew I wasn't there. But I
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  Speaker 2: knew that I needed to find my voice as a musician.
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  Speaker 2: And when I discovered the synthesizer, I ran with my
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  Speaker 2: arms wide open into the arms of the electronica because
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  Speaker 2: that is where I found my voice. I've lived inside
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  Speaker 2: that my entire life.
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  Speaker 1: That is so funny that you say that, And the
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  Speaker 1: reason why is because the interesting part about this is
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  Speaker 1: that as we jumped into the digital age, I swear
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  Speaker 1: to God, Robert, that I thought of you as we
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  Speaker 1: went into digital, because you had all of those tools
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  Speaker 1: that were available to you. And then now in digital
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  Speaker 1: we have all of these tools and I just feel
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  Speaker 1: like that that we've been given an opportunity to go
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  Speaker 1: through what you went through in the way of making
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  Speaker 1: sure that sound has a vibration to it basically and
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  Speaker 1: very creative sound at that.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know it really is digital is not in
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  Speaker 2: some ways with electronica is not as interesting as analog.
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  Speaker 2: There's a imperfection in analogue. I guess the music you
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  Speaker 2: would call it robotto, okay, I get music speeds up
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  Speaker 2: and slows down. You know, it's not all he's in
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  Speaker 2: by clock. You know, music is not boom boom boom
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  Speaker 2: with the clock. Real great classical music. For example, a
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  Speaker 2: conductor in the front of the audience, he comes out
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  Speaker 2: there and looks like a penguin and he puts us
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  Speaker 2: back to the audience yep. And he turns around to
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  Speaker 2: the orchestra and he speeds the orchestra up when it
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  Speaker 2: comes into a section, and he slows it down. That's
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  Speaker 2: for bottle. It's to change slight change in speed. And
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  Speaker 2: with an analogue synthesis we were able to do that.
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  Speaker 2: For example, if you listen to something like with Stevie.
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  Speaker 2: For example, if you listen to like Superstition or any
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  Speaker 2: and you time eight bars. You can see that the
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  Speaker 2: eight bars at the beginning and not the same exact
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  Speaker 2: speed is at the end. There's difference, there's a variety,
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  Speaker 2: there's motion, and I think that we're going to start
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  Speaker 2: to see that motion in electronica now that we have AI.
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  Speaker 2: I think that music's going to become more natural, strange.
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  Speaker 2: I think, you know, I always say that technology drives
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  Speaker 2: the art. Yeah, and I think that we're at a
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  Speaker 2: place now where we're seeing we need to embrace and
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  Speaker 2: understand AI and how it affects art and music and culture.
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  Speaker 2: I know it can affect medicine and insurance, and we're
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  Speaker 2: learning many new ways to kill each other who PLAYI
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  Speaker 2: and drones and stuff. But when music and art face AI,
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  Speaker 2: this is not the time to put your head in
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  Speaker 2: the sand.
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  Speaker 1: That's so interesting that you're bringing that up properly. The
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  Speaker 1: reason why is because I think that in using AI technology,
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't give me room to just settle. In other words,
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  Speaker 1: it gives me the idea. It says, no, we're not settling,
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  Speaker 1: this is the idea. Let's build upon this idea, let's
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  Speaker 1: make it greater. Whereas in the past, especially with digital,
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  Speaker 1: we would just settle and we would go, Okay, that's
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  Speaker 1: good enough for right now. And I think that we
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  Speaker 1: paid for that price. That it's like that, it wasn't it.
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  Speaker 1: The quality wasn't there like it was in sixties and seventies.
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  Speaker 2: Well, there's something to be said for imperfection in music.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we go to concerts because people
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  Speaker 2: are playing live, and when they play live, it's not
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  Speaker 2: the same from one performance to the next, and that
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  Speaker 2: variety and slight change in the song is what makes
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  Speaker 2: the song happen, which makes it compelling to us, is
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  Speaker 2: when we see something and hear something different than what
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  Speaker 2: we expect, and when the music spans up or slows down.
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  Speaker 2: That's important element in making and creating a music. In
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  Speaker 2: a song, we can't just have marching music, which is
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  Speaker 2: what dance music is to a clock, to a machine.
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  Speaker 2: We're not machines. We're humans and we need to be
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  Speaker 2: able to attach our emotions and feelings to our songs.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that we're going to start to see
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  Speaker 2: how technology is going to change. I always like to
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  Speaker 2: say technology drives the art. I mean, you know, Bach
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  Speaker 2: wrote for keyboards, but the piano wasn't invented when Bach
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  Speaker 2: was writing music. For example, the keys were intervolic. Now
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  Speaker 2: we can play in between the keys, We can very
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  Speaker 2: pitch in between the keys. We can bend notes, yes
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  Speaker 2: and things which but both never heard of piano forte,
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  Speaker 2: But now his music is played, you know, on pianosts,
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  Speaker 2: on pianofortes, and the music lives beautifully there. Technology drives
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  Speaker 2: the art we're going to see. AI embrace it, understand it,
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  Speaker 2: and do not fear it.
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  Speaker 1: Please don't move. There's more with Robert Margo Left coming
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  Speaker 1: up next. The name of his book, Shaping Sounds. We
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  Speaker 1: are back with a man who has actually lived that sound,
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  Speaker 1: Robert Margolef. I always look at Bach or even Beethoven
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  Speaker 1: if that if they were engineers in today's modern day world,
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  Speaker 1: would they be like the rest of us we drop
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  Speaker 1: something down recorded, well, let me say we just drop
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  Speaker 1: it into pro tools, and then do we rush out
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  Speaker 1: to the car and hurry up and listen to it
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  Speaker 1: in the front seat. Because they were perfectionists, they knew
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  Speaker 1: what they were listening for and they knew how to
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  Speaker 1: get it. But in today's engineering it's almost like it's
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  Speaker 1: readily available. Would they be happy with where we are now?
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  Speaker 1: And would they be proud of the fact that they
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  Speaker 1: took those early steps for the rest of us, because
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  Speaker 1: I will always credit both of them.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we'll never know, Oh, you're right, you're right,
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  Speaker 2: You're right. We'll never We'll never know what they were thinking.
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  Speaker 2: But all I did was they translated their music into writing,
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  Speaker 2: into using a pen and paper and writing music down
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  Speaker 2: in some sort of way that it could be remembered.
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  Speaker 2: We have other kinds of memories now, you know, with electronica,
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  Speaker 2: but you know, we were embracing a whole new way
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  Speaker 2: of making music and making art, and you know the
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  Speaker 2: places in our souls that mean something. Music is just
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  Speaker 2: not marching music to jump up and down and rhythm
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  Speaker 2: everyone together. Dance music is fine, but writing serious music,
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  Speaker 2: I mean even classical music that has nothing to do
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  Speaker 2: with four minutes of jumping up and down on the radio. Right.
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  Speaker 2: You know, our music is universal, and you go around
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  Speaker 2: the world to hear a lot of different kinds of music.
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  Speaker 2: But we have music as a human race. There's always
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  Speaker 2: been music, no matter what the flavor, and that's what
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  Speaker 2: makes it so beautiful and intense.
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  Speaker 1: You're so right about that, because I was just with
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  Speaker 1: somebody yesterday that that's from Germany, and we were talking
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  Speaker 1: about the different vibes between Germany and the United States,
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  Speaker 1: and that man took great pride in telling us that, hey, look,
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  Speaker 1: all music begins in Germany. I wanted to argue with him,
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  Speaker 1: but because you have lived that path, does all music
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  Speaker 1: begin in Germany?
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  Speaker 2: Know? It begins in a cave somewhere with a bunch
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  Speaker 2: of drums and sticks, That's where it begins. Western music
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  Speaker 2: is one kind of music. But if you go to India,
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  Speaker 2: there's another kind of music. If you go to Mexico,
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  Speaker 2: there's another kind of music. This music is just universal
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  Speaker 2: and the fact that we're the only species on the
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  Speaker 2: planet that has music and uses music. But it's based
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  Speaker 2: on the culture and experience, and there's all kinds of
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  Speaker 2: music for everyone. If you think of you know, Bach
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  Speaker 2: writing music, do you think he could ever imagine hearing
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  Speaker 2: it on a piano? The piano wasn't even invented when
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  Speaker 2: in Bax time, right, So you know, somehow music changes
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  Speaker 2: and evolves over time and the technology we use, like
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  Speaker 2: AI for example, it's it's he had a another turn
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  Speaker 2: of the wheel. I don't know where it's going to go,
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  Speaker 2: but I do know this that it's pretty interesting on
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  Speaker 2: some levels. It's like having a conversation with a vending
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  Speaker 2: machine on one level, and you get a lot of
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  Speaker 2: you get a lot of AI slop. But there is
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  Speaker 2: stuff happening that's good and interesting, electronic and live and
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  Speaker 2: music of all kinds, from acoustic guitars to computers. And
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  Speaker 2: I think we need I think we need to accept
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  Speaker 2: it and understand that the technology is going to change
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  Speaker 2: the way we make music. But that's a good I
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  Speaker 2: think that's a good thing too. I don't want to
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  Speaker 2: listen to listening to Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman right now.
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  Speaker 2: You know that music's changed, music's changed. They're poisoner any
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  Speaker 2: of the big hair rock and roll bands where music
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  Speaker 2: got twice as loud as it was. We started making
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  Speaker 2: rock and roll in the seventies, we had to listen
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  Speaker 2: to music at one hundred and twenty dBSPL. That's as
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  Speaker 2: loud as a that engine. You know, we were listening
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  Speaker 2: to guitar music at maximum thrust. You know what you know?
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  Speaker 2: Where you know? Music is a wonderful universal language. Bach
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  Speaker 2: couldn't speak English, but his music touches everybody.
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  Speaker 1: True, so true, so true. You know, you bring up
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  Speaker 1: a very interesting point about the evolution of music, because
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  Speaker 1: I mean, throughout the years, the past forty fifty years,
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  Speaker 1: we've all been told that van Halen, the van Halen brothers,
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  Speaker 1: basically you know, they listened to Bach, they studied Beethoven,
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  Speaker 1: and yet you never really I mean, when you listen
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  Speaker 1: to it, you're going, I don't hear it. But yet
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  Speaker 1: when you listen to what you're sharing and what you're
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  Speaker 1: planting inside this book, of course it's part of the evolution.
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  Speaker 1: They were the seed starters. But that's what music is
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  Speaker 1: all about, and they understood it in the very beginning
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  Speaker 1: that we're going to explore, which is where we are
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  Speaker 1: right now. There'll never be another van Halen, but they
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  Speaker 1: might get a Bacher Beethoven comparison.
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  Speaker 2: You're right, You're totally on the money. It's it's a
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  Speaker 2: universal language. No matter what the music sound like, we
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  Speaker 2: can relate to it. You know, it's a beautiful thing.
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  Speaker 2: And I mean I listened to a lot of classical
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  Speaker 2: piano music because my predilection as a little kid. My
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  Speaker 2: sister used to be seven years older than I am,
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  Speaker 2: and she went to Juilliard in New York, and you
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  Speaker 2: had masters in keyboard. And as a little boy I
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  Speaker 2: used to play with my dinky toys under the grand
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  Speaker 2: piano in our living room, you know, and she was
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  Speaker 2: playing Bach Brahms in Beethoven. So now I'm habituated to it.
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  Speaker 2: Here I am eighty five years old and still listening
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  Speaker 2: to the listening to classical piano music. It's a part
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  Speaker 2: of my I guess it's a part of my epigenetic history.
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  Speaker 2: You know. We have these little codochrome slides running through
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  Speaker 2: our brains of the experience of our ancestors. You know, Oh,
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  Speaker 2: your father was a musician and you're a musician. Or
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  Speaker 2: your great grandfather was a painter, and my father was
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  Speaker 2: a painter, and now I'm a painter. Somehow, all our
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  Speaker 2: life experiences come from our past. That's called up a genetics,
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  Speaker 2: a little like these little coder chrome slides rolling around
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  Speaker 2: in your genome somewhere and say, Oh, your whole family's
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  Speaker 2: fit into this and that, and that's why you were
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  Speaker 2: into it our music.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, you're so right about the program. Yep, you're so
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  Speaker 1: right about that.
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  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, you know what's really interesting about this book,
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  Speaker 1: and you totally set up the tone of this book
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  Speaker 1: with the index, because it reminds me of the jukebox
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  Speaker 1: that was always waiting for us at the dining room
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  Speaker 1: table inside a restaurant. We would be there and then
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  Speaker 1: that jukebox was there, or if we had to get
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  Speaker 1: up and walk over to the jukebox. Was that the
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  Speaker 1: purpose of it? Because I've got the vibration of a jukebox.
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  Speaker 1: What did you foresee in bringing that forward that index?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I can see the variety of styles of music,
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  Speaker 2: and also juke boxes were wonderful the juke boxes. Jukeboxes
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  Speaker 2: have huge history. Of course, now no more jukeboxes because
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  Speaker 2: the jukeboxes in your brain, in your in your headphone,
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  Speaker 2: so whatever you your earbuds. But h it used to
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  Speaker 2: jukebox business used to be run by a bunch of gangsters.
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  Speaker 2: It was a really interesting time in music. You got
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  Speaker 2: into the jukebox. Yeah, there was a whole bunch of
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  Speaker 2: gangsters ran the music that part of the music business,
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  Speaker 2: putting jukeboxes in restaurants stuff. God, yeah, it was the mob.
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  Speaker 2: It was interesting.
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  Speaker 1: Orlokzer when when you're giving the opportunity to create with
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  Speaker 1: someone like Stevie Wonder and then you also have Billy
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  Speaker 1: pressing in there. We're talking about two different keyboard players,
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  Speaker 1: two different people with different sides of soul in inside
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  Speaker 1: their heart. How do you step into that moment and
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  Speaker 1: bring them forward?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the real job of a producer or associate producer,
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  Speaker 2: a co producer, whatever you want to call what we did.
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  Speaker 2: Stevie called this associate producers. Billy called me his co producer.
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  Speaker 2: Devote you know, all the thing is this, what's your
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  Speaker 2: job as a producer. Your job is to get the
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  Speaker 2: artist to perform to the limits of his potential. Right,
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  Speaker 2: That is your job as a producer. It's not for
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  Speaker 2: you to put your time stamp and your signature. Oh
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  Speaker 2: this is a record, you can tell it's a Robert
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  Speaker 2: Margolev record. If I did that, I would fail. My
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  Speaker 2: job was to get Stevie's stuff to be pure Stevie
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  Speaker 2: and not to stand in the way of that, And
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  Speaker 2: to make sure that the technology served the art. Technology
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  Speaker 2: drives the art, technology drives the art. Wow. As the
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  Speaker 2: technology changes, the art changes. And that's the truth, and
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  Speaker 2: that's the bottom line.
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  Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for putting this book together.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty minutes with you is never going to be enough.
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  Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, when people dive into the book,
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  Speaker 1: they're going to get so close to your creative flow
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  Speaker 1: and understand exactly what you're bringing forward and inspiring in
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  Speaker 1: this brand new generation of AI growth. Dude, you're in
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: the right place at the right time with this book
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  Speaker 1: and I can't thank you enough.
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  Speaker 2: Two things to remember with Inspiration, there's one another edition.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: It's called Perspiration. They go hand in hand.
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  Speaker 1: God, I love you. You have yourself a wonderful day today, Okay, sir,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: you
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  Speaker 2: Too, and send my greetings to your wonderful listening audience.