Evil Science / January 15 2008
Computers, like cars, are entirely problematic creations.
Yes, I know that without them, the world in general, and my life specifically, would be, in many respects, a far less remarkable place. I would not be writing this blog, for instance, if it were not for my PC; and I would have to maintain very bulky and very expensive analogue equipment in the studio if it were not for the many benefits and conveniences of digital recording devices. But when such things fail or act randomly and unpredictably, one does often feel as if one is on trial in some way, being made to answer for some gross and unspeakable crime committed in a previous life.
When the hard-disk recorder in the studio decided, quite arbitrarily, to reboot at about 4pm yesterday, I sank back in my chair, exhaled deeply and said to the room: ‘I’m going to kill myself. Again.’ I also toyed with the idea of stepping outside and killing someone else but decided against this as I feared that it would only bring bad karma on me and lead inevitably to the same thing happening again on another, equally inauspicious occasion.
I felt sick as it dawned on me that the main hard-drive had failed and everything I had been working on since about 9am had just disappeared into the digital ether. Try as I might to retrieve two amazing guitar solos, three-songs-worth of backing vocals and a whole drum track, it was all to no avail. Everything was lost, had expired and gone to binary heaven. (I’m trying really hard not to swear here.)
Lesson learned: I should adopt a more stringent back-up policy.
Although it is, of course, an absurd and fanciful notion, I do sometimes wish that recording technology had evolved in a different direction and that the main piece of apparatus in the control-room was perhaps an abacus or something equally as straightforward and uncomplicated, something with simple elegance and purity of essence.
I find myself, at times like these, wandering into the spare room and staring dewy-eyed at the trusty old Tascam MSR 24-track 1inch tape machine, now a clunky old remnant of the past, an oversized and redundant beast covered in dust. It used to make a lot of noise and took up most of the room, but it would never f***ing reboot in the f***ing middle of a f***ing session. Awww . . .
Filed under Blogging / Recording Studio
Comments
4 comments on “Evil Science”
Nelson Galaxy / January 16th, 2008 at 12:04 am
Oh no Napoleon, nightmare. I hope you can recreate what you spent all day doing. Computers, you can’t live with ‘em and you can’t live with ‘em.
Jo Beaufoix / January 16th, 2008 at 4:16 am
Oh that’s bad. So sorry. If it’s any consolation, I love the demos you sent Mr B. Fabulous.
Despina / January 16th, 2008 at 11:09 am
grrrrrrrs gnikcuf computers!
Napoleon Fantastic / January 16th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Jo,
Wait till Mr B drums his magic all over them - they’ll be on their way to being classics then.
Despina,
I concur.
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