One Man’s Tedium Is Another Man’s Play

(As a play on Paul Simon's One Man's Ceiling Is Another Man's Floor)

I watched an interview a while back with Todd Rundgren and they were going through his period where he was doing the Acapella album. At the time, I believe he was using one of the early samplers (or the Fairlight), and was recording each voice separately. One of the interviewers was incredulous: "What drove you to do something like that--something so tedious and manual?" But that's the way it was back then: we didn't think it was tedious and manual--it was something that was kind of enjoyable.

My first sequencer was a Yamaha QX7, a black brick thing I used with my Roland Juno 106. The first thing I did with it was to step-input the first movement Ravel's Sonatine in F# Major. Step entry is where you select the note value and play it on the keyboard. (That's what sequencers do--sequence) It took me quite a while. There was no hard drive on so you'd save your data onto a cassette tape.

People might say, "why did you do that?", but that's what we all did with new gear. I wonder the same thing about people about the same age I was who are making elaborate videos. We're just doing it for the pleasure. We like to be involved in making something even if it's tedious.

 2/6/2022