I, like many other composers, have for quite some time been recording my tracks as they reach a state of completion. Over the years these recordings have changed format for me several times, from four-track cassette tape recordings on a Tascam MF-P01, to digital hard disk recording on dedicated units such as a Roland VS-880, to recording audio direct to computer via Firewire. My primary synth workstation the Yamaha Motif XS even allows on-board mixing and output direct to USB as a WAV file.

These are just the means of recording audio that I have personally used over the years. Of course there are many more alternatives...

The point of this is that recording music these days is incredibly easy. So easy that much of what is heard in current popular music can be created readily in the home studio, bedroom or garage (read my blog post on AutoTune for more on that). The process of getting a composition idea from your head and into a recorded form is child's play. 

But what is the longevity of these recordings? I have many cassettes of original music I recorded only 15 years ago. I have 6 stereos in my home and none have a working cassette player. But I don't need one - I stopped listening to music on cassette years ago.

So what of the music I recorded on that format? Some of it I have continued to perform over the years and could still sit at a piano and play now. Other pieces I vaguely recall while several more songs and song ideas have been lost to time.

From cassette, to CD, to mp3 - the times will continue to change. The next generation of digital formats are just around the corner. Then what will become of all the music currently committed to mp3 or CD? Will that music's fate be the same as my old cassette recordings?

Music notation - sheet music - however, is a relative constant. The same music written hundreds of years ago, well before any form of audio recording was developed to capture the performance, could be performed today from sheet music.

As well as longevity, sheet music has an additional benefit. Many people long to read a great story in a book rather than be presented the story in film, allowing their imaginations to conjure the scene, characters' faces and surroundings. Music notation allows the performer to add his or her own interpretation to the music. This allows the music to truly live.

After a recent request from a client to provide piano notation for his wife as an anniversary gift, I have a renewed commitment to score all of my own compositions.

One day my great grandchildren may pick up a box of old things and with a puzzled look cast aside cassettes, CDs and mp3 players - but I can image a feeling of pride when they see an ancestors' name printed at the top of some sheet music. They'll just need to find a musician to perform it...

When I was a teenager I listened to the usual bits and pieces that were on the radio at the time. Before too long it all seemed a bit samey and going in a direction that was no longer interesting.

Around that same time a friend lent me a cassette full of great classic metal, Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax – the "big four" – among others. From then on, I was in…

I loved, then and now, the energy of metal music. The pure heaviness of it was energising. A lot of this of course comes from huge distortion, flat out and powerful drumming, break-neck speed and precision. Very little could ever be attributed to the presence of a keyboard player.

Faith No More were an early inspiration for me. Roddy Bottom’s atmospheric synths, strings, and piano added something extra to the sound. But metal? Not really…

Deep Purple had the rock power and energy, and the brilliance of Jon Lord’s overdriven Hammond organ was certainly a defining element of their sound. But metal? Hmmm…

It has only been since the early 90s that I’ve really found the keyboardist’s contribution stepping up to become an irreplaceable element of the metal mix, primarily through “progressive” bands such as Dream Theater, Symphony X, and the many projects of Arjen Lucassen. The tide had turned. Keyboard players could play metal.

Partly through the need to do something different, partly because I thoroughly enjoyed it, and partly tired of the age-old keytar jibes at being a keyboard player interested in the heavier side of music, I recorded an album a short time ago titled "Keyboard Players Can’t Play Metal".

Every note and rhythm on this album was created by myself as a keyboard player, using only a keyboard. Sounds lame, right? Keyboard players can’t play metal. Really….?

Having been a fan and avid user of the Yamaha Motif XS keyboard for several years, I wanted to post on one of its basic functions: quantizing.

For those who don’t own a synth or other audio editing tools but are interested none-the-less, quantizing is essentially the process of “rounding off” the timing of notes you have recorded to ensure they are more in time than they may have originally been recorded. This can be useful if correcting slight issues of losing the beat here or there, however should be used sparingly to ensure your music remains human and musical, rather than exact and robotic.

For anyone wishing to do this on a Motix XS, as I was asked tonight on Twitter, the process is as follows…

Once you’ve recorded your music, follow these steps:

- Press the track number of the track you want to quantize
- Press the Job button
- Press F2 for the Note menu
- Select job 1, Quantize
- Choose the start and end point of the selection you would like to quantize
- Select the quantize amount i.e. quantize to the nearest 1/4 beat, 1/8 beat, etc
- Press Enter to complete the quantize

If the result is not quite what you wanted, you can straight away undo (still in Job mode) by pressing F1 for the Undo / Redo job, and pressing Enter.

It can sometimes be trial and error to get the result you’re after. You may not need to quantize a whole phrase, but only a few bars within in. Also, if you’ve tried various quantize amounts (1/4 beat, 1/8 beat etc) and it’s rounding the notes a bit too far apart or a bit too close together no matter how you do it, it may be best to go back to basics and rerecord the take.

Trust this is helpful!