Creating Music in an Apartment

I am an old school musician and pretty much prefer the realistic sounds of my youth like the power of the Hammond B3 organ and the sound that only a Steinway piano has like the one in used by Native Instruments to create the so realistic digital versions that they do so well (so well that Steinway does not let them use their name, it seems, since it could possibly cut into sales of that fine instrument).

Living in an apartment pretty much means that one cannot find the space to even begin to set up the equipment and secondly no neighbour would put up with the sound for very long, no matter how good one's chops might be (and mine are so-so). And even just one is more space than one has so having a multitude of these vintage and classic instruments available to play or practice whenever one likes is just amazing and one of the niceties of today's technology.

Add to it the ability to hear them through wonderful sounding and comfortable headphones (Bose are my choice always now) is just another amazing feature of the modern electronic music world. I still play a conventional electric guitar since modern technology can only go so far in recreating that fine instrument. The problem is that the only real interface would be just another guitar so why try and reinvent the wheel here.

The keyboards are another thing since they can recreate the feel of the keys on a controller board and then it is up to the technical wizards to sample the death out of a real instrument to get that sound. It is impossible to get the spacial warmth of playing a piano in just an apartment but when you use the tools available in Native Instruments various collections, well you just can't do much better than that really in such a small physical space like a 1-bedroom apartment.

Now if I can only get past the part of trying to be my own recording engineer, I might actually get some of the stuff I have written recorded since that is all there thanks to Cubase Artist but it is still too much like work yet since it is pretty much the same thing used in the professional studios.

Meanwhile, I have a grand old time just practicing and seeing how the higher quality sound also makes you become a better player at the same time because now you hear the subtle differences that a top quality instrument can bring out in the player and, might I add, at a fraction of the cost of the real thing. My hat is off to the folks at Native Instruments. You continue to outdo yourself in the field of vintage instruments and for others that want even more with new creations that digital can provide, they have those too.