# What He Twat... - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2009-05-26 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2009/05/what-he-twat/ As I spent a lazy afternoon munching on the soft pretzels my wife made today, I let my eyes glaze over as I stared at Twhirl, with its never-ending parade of "I am here, doin this" comments. (Guilty as charged.) Then this twat from William Gibson floated by and woke me up: _Very creative people get atemporal early on. Are relatively unimpressed by the "now" factor, by latest things. Access the whole continuum._ I was, like, huh. While I was chewing on that, he followed it up with this: _Less creative people believe in "originality" and "innovation", two basically misleading but culturally very powerful concepts._ I'm not entirely sure how to phrase what I'm thinking when I read those two statements, but the fundamental truth of them rings fairly loud to me. One of the things that bothers me about hanging out with musicians is the Gear Knowledge Ass Sniffing that goes on. Al Jourgenson's old engineer Critter was the fucking _worst_ for this. "OMG, I can't believe you don't know about the new Phattmatic Pro! You're still working with the original Phattmatic? Didn't you read the latest issue of Mix? It has like 12 extra nanowebbers!" That sort of shit. (Of course, all my conversations with Critter predated the inventions of "OMG" and "phatt" but I've put the statement in to modern vernacular for poetic effect.) I'm guilty as charged in that, as well. I'll drop some science on a motherfucker if he shows his belly in any way. One opportunity I missed that I greatly regret is when the keyboard salesman at Apple Music was trying to sell me on a CS70 they had in there, and told me it had new tines. I uncharacteristically shook my head and just walked away, but that's exactly the sort of opportunity I normally relish. And you do too, admit it. And that right there is the rub, isn't it? I think I've misread Mr. Gibson's point nicely, but you see where I'm going with this. Our quest for having (or at least knowing about) the absolute bleeding edge of our business at all times blinds us to the existence of a fairly gigantic wealth of software, hardware, and technique that is right behind us. While it is true that, if you're a professional, this is a competitive business, you also know, if you're professional, that very little "latest and greatest" can make up for technique and imagination. I like to think that, while it's nice to sit down next to this $15K rack of high end convertors and effects every day, I'd be perfectly capable of making a song with just about anything. Whether that's true or not is up to others to judge, but sometimes it's good to reflect on the fact that a bigger modular or a better A/D/A convertor or a MIDI controller with more knobs or a guitar with more... uh... strings? won't take the place of knowledge, and knowledge in this age of marvels is free as the air. ## Comments (10) **inteliko** (2009-05-26): Guilty as charged... The stupidity to be using the CPU on board audio card for weeks unknowingly and the courage to admit not hearing the difference. **quantize** (2009-05-26): amen! **Taxist** (2009-05-26): Love those quotes. I always found William Gibson a bit hard to read for all the Jargon, but that makes me want to find one his books from storage and take a second look at it. **synthetic** (2009-05-26): I use this phrase to talk myself out of gear purchases lately, but it seems to fit here: "A new word clock generator? Is that what's holding you back?" It seems to cut through the bullshit pretty quick. **coyoteous** (2009-05-26): I would contest that knowledge is free. I think it is earned or bought with time, study and understanding... and then there is the practical implementation of that which is learned - pure science vs. engineering (and art). It's nice to have good gear, though. I've been investing in X-Rack modules and have an X-Desk on order... probably should have been upgrading my conversion instead - oh, well! Obviously none of this stuff makes a song. OTOH, you at least need an instrument to write with... maybe just your voice, etc. unless you're like my friend that can compose straight to paper or in his head, for that matter. Then you need some gear, hired or otherwise to record. Welcome to the entrance of the slippery slope! - Barry **Chris Randall** (2009-05-26): Knowledge is, in fact, free. _Wisdom_ is hard-won. And imagination? I don't know if that can be learned. Chance-taking can be, I guess, then all you need is luck. -CR **Taxist** (2009-05-26): Knowledge may be free, but you aren't going to go about acquiring it without a time investment. **elxicano** (2009-05-26): Hey great post/quotes to reflect on. I always like to think of Bo Didley and his home made guitar. Sometimes it's just about the music and nothing more. **Chris Randall** (2009-05-26): @Taxist: to quote the late, great Blues Brothers - "Whaddya want for nothin'? A rubber biscuit?" You're gonna have to invest _something._ TANSTAAFL. -CR **BirdFLU** (2009-05-26): The second quote hit me like a mallet. I've been thinking about originality a lot recently and my need to feel original. But it is holding me back because anything I do I can compare it to something else. I know all my own reference points so I can never be free from it. Reading his quote made me try to remember when I didn't care about being original. It was a while ago and it coincides with the last period where I got any music done. So starting right now I won't care if what I do sounds like something else to me, I'm doing it anyways.