Do You Even Need a Band Anymore?
by Alec Plowman
Back in the day, if you wanted to make music, you needed a cohort to do it. Unless you were an acoustic singer/songwriter, having a band behind you was part and parcel of recording, performing and pretty much doing anything.
Today, things are very different. When it comes to recording, virtual instruments are more abundant and accessible than ever. And, as I’ve discussed in a previous post on this blog, when it comes to playing live, pretty much everything is up in the air at the moment thanks to the pandemic.
Which begs the question; “do you even need a band anymore?”
Ten years ago, the answer to that question was a pretty solid “yes.” In 2021, though, the answer isn’t so clear-cut.
In May of last year, plugin manufacturer Toontrack made headlines with the release of their EzBass software.
“Meet Your New Bass Player”, the copy for EzBass ads promised. And to be fair, they weren’t wrong. The plugin is pretty much an instant bassline generator for your songs. As Music Radar notes:
“Smart features include the option to tap in the rhythm you want so that bass can search its library for matching grooves, and the ability to choose an existing drum or keyboard MIDI part for the bass line to follow. You can even take an existing audio recording - one of a real bass guitar or other instrument, for example - and let EzBass convert it to MIDI.”
Bass simulators aren’t anything new, but the intuitiveness and realism of EzBass make it something of a game changer, as Sound on Sound noted in their review:
“Toontrack's virtual bass player should have its human counterparts very worried indeed… whether it's bedroom producers, media composers or high-flying producers who, for whatever reason, can't get access to their usual bass session player, EzBass is going to be a very attractive option.”
Combine EzDrummer with one of the myriad drum designing solutions out there – Toontrack’s own Ez and Superior Drummers or XLN’s Addictive Drums, for example – and you’ve got an on-demand rhythm section to lay down the foundations for your tracks.
The advantages to working with these tools should be immediately obvious to any bedroom producer. Worries about room acoustics, sourcing and setting up mics, plus the time constraints of getting a good take instantly disappear. Getting to the end result of producing a finished song is quicker. And, when it comes to getting paid, there are fewer people with whom you have to split the pie.
The implications of this are wide-reaching, and even before the pandemic, the availability of this software was already changing the way people worked.
You’ve only got to look at rock music to see that. Traditionally, making rock music was entirely dependent on the ensemble. With a couple of notable exceptions, a three-person act (usually a guitarist, bassist and drummer) was the minimum requirement. But, many of this generation’s guitar heroes are YouTubers, bolstered by software to create full band productions in a solo-working environment.
Now that the traditional means of jamming are impacted by lockdown restrictions, you can expect the number of one-man bands using social media as the platform for their work to increase exponentially.
No, you don’t need a band to make music anymore. But perhaps the next question should be “is that a good or bad thing for the future of music?” As for the answer to that one, only time will tell…
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