Dear RAM

Dear RAM,

I'm going to keep this particular letter short and sweet because I currently don't have a lot of positive things to say about you, and I would like to write you another letter in a few days when I DO have some good things to say, RAM. That said, I shall say a few things right now.

I don't have enough you. More specifically, my COMPUTER doesn't have enough you (the all-important "memory" of computer necessity). Now, this was never a problem back in the good ol' days of using amateur software and limited effects and instruments in my music-making. But in all of my upgrading, I have ended up putting myself in a position where my computer's limited amount of you, RAM, really matters.

Which is funny, because I have over a GIGABYTE of you, currently. I upgraded my laptop a while back to make sure that I had (what then seemed like) TONS of you. I wanted to make sure I had plenty left over to do whatever I wanted to do with my computer - and it seemed like I had achieved that by installing a whole extra gigabyte into my laptop. And a gigabyte used to be a whole Hell of a lot of you, RAM. A whole Hell of a lot. But times have changed.

And in these modern times, a man can produce relatively high-quality (at least in terms of technology - talent is another thing) music and audio from his bedroom. His BEDROOM. And that's a pretty amazing thing. I don't have egg cartons or foam padding all over my walls. I don't have a special room tucked away in my "studio"/basement. There is no sound-proof glass. I just sit at my desk in my freaking BEDROOM and create, record, and produce my own music that is of a higher quality than most eight-tracks from around the time of my birth. That's a lot of progress in a pretty short time (an analogy for my own musical progress in the last couple years, I would say). And that kind of progress is an amazing, fun thing. The only problem is that this kind of progress affects things like the need for you, RAM. And so, now, as I am able to perform some pretty cool auditory feats, I am also in need of more you to keep up.

So what does it mean that I need more you? In layman's terms: I can't make my sh-- come out right without it. Currently, when I try to record my music, everything is all good for the first two or three tracks I lay down. No problem. And if I only made three-track music, I'd be fine.

But I don't. Oh no - I don't make no nimbly-pimbly three-track music in MY bedroom. No - I lay down AT LEAST five tracks per song. At least. Because the better I get, the more tracks I need to put down. I need backing vocals (at least one or two extra on top of the lead track). I need at least one drum kit (these days, I like to play around with more than one). I need some sort of lead instrument (or two). I need a bassline. I need rhythm. And that's it only if I decide to keep it simple.

Of course, if I were to lay down those six (or more) tracks without any effects or tweakage, I could make it work. That's pretty much what I used to be doing not too long ago. But that's also why my music didn't sound as good. Because now I have all sorts of different filters and amp-simulators for my bass and electric guitars. Now I have some good adjustments I can make on the vocals. Now I can be making my own ridiculously over-the-top beats with better-sounding software instrumentation over the top of it all. And that uses you, RAM. A LOT of precious you. So much so, in fact, that it causes my program to crash mid-recording, and I can't even play back songs that have more than a couple tracks which effectively kills all of my productions mid-song.

And that's why I haven't posted anything recently. I had this goal of a song per week, and I've been productive enough to have kept to that goal - if it wasn't for my you problems, RAM. Had I enough you, I would have posted at least one song last week, and another finished one today. But that wasn't meant to be - because of you, RAM. Because of you.

However, there is a solution: order more you. Another gigabyte, in fact. My computer is capable of being boosted up to TWO gigabytes of you, and I have decided to go through with it. The only other solution is to buy a new laptop, and I'm just not going to do that (between recent music investments, my trip to Hawaii, and my taxes - I'm looking at a slightly-sickening hole if I don't get my monetary ish together). And so I have ordered extra you, and it should be in the mail as I type this. Hopefully, I will get it by Thursday, and then I can post a finished song within a day or two of that.

However, I don't want to keep my Loyal Reader waiting any longer, and so I am making an unfinished song available. This one is a tribute to my somewhat-Asian-ness, as well as my steady improvement in the tinkering with making my own beats on my software drum machine (I didn't end up purchasing that other one I mentioned before I left for Hawaii; and in my current fiscal state, there will be no such impulse buys in the near future). The drums are Taiko. The choir is all electronic. There is a missing bass-line, the choir sounds are not as I want them, and there is likely more to be added, but this will have to do for now:

http://download.yousendit.com/8812F37904CBBD67

As for you, RAM - you and I are going to have a serious talk in a couple days when I get another gigabyte of you in the mail. A SERIOUS talk.

Imagining Some Finished Products,
CVT