Midisphere

I continue my collaboration efforts with Jan Fischer, someone I barely knew before the launch of the Redline Project. Jan is quickly becoming a musical colleague and, even better, a good friend. He has helped me with so much already, from mixing tips to solid critique and feedback, even laying down some tasty electric guitar tracks for a couple of my songs.

He asked me to return the favor with a little keyboard work on one of his latest songs. Though I am glad for the opportunity to show my gratitude in this way, it is overwhelming to select from infinite possibilities. Logic Pro ships with roughly a bajillion keyboard and synth instruments, all of which can be customized until one is blue in the face. Add 10,537 plug-in effects to the mix and you have one entirely overstimulated musician.

I used to think that playing a set of drums afforded me endless sonic possibilities, and in a sense the nuances are vast. In fact, I used to revel in pulling a broad array of sounds from a fairly basic instrument. Turns out, I do pretty well with a limited set of options, like three drums and two cymbals for instance.

In a digital world there are a multiplicity of hats in the ring, and there seem to be as many rings. How does anyone narrow down the plethora of options to one sane choice? I find it much easier to select sounds for myself, but choosing some instruments for Jan was certainly a challenge.

He may very well dislike the choices I made, and I am comfortable with that. Whether he keeps each of my notes or discards every last one, I continue to marvel at the fun of putting music together with a fellow in a vastly different time zone.