Every few years, I invite readers and colleagues to contribute guest columns in the series Technology and my Hobby/Passion. A couple of hundred have contributed since 2009 on their birding, charities, cooking, music, sports and every other passion, and how it keeps evolving with technology. Click here and scroll down to read them all.
This time it is Ed Maguire who has worked in equity research since 1999, both as a publishing equity and supervisory analyst, with a focus on software and innovation at CIBC, Merrill Lynch, CLSA and SMBC Nikko. He is also a musician and composer, recording and performing on bass, violin and mandolin. He is profiled with a 5 string Vecchio workshop violin.
"I like to make music whenever I get the chance. I’ve released three albums in 2021-22, with more on the way in 2023. I’ve included links to a few recordings below.
A Little bit of Background
Growing up in a household where both parents were musicians (father plays piano, mother sings), I was immersed in music from the beginning. Parental tastes ran towards classical music, so from very early on I was familiar with Chopin, Scarlatti, Beethoven, Rachmaninov and others. Violin lessons began at age 7, followed by piano, with participation in school and youth orchestras a constant activity. At age 13, rock and roll beckoned with a far cooler social cachet, and I took up the electric bass as my main instrument.
By age 16 I was playing in bars and clubs with different bands in the DC area, playing rock, funk and blues. A summer session at Berklee in Boston before 11th grade introduced jazz - and as I explored jazz fusion bands like Weather Report and Return to Forever. I was hooked. Majoring in Music at Columbia rounded out the classical theory and history foundation, while I pursued bass in R&B bands, played mandolin and fiddle in country and bluegrass bands. In my senior year I started working with computer sequencing (Voyetra Sequencer Plus on early DOS PCs).
In the 90s I worked in the music business for a distributor of indie labels and worked with an amalgam of diverse bands – African, Brazilian, Flamenco, jazz and funk with a variety of musicians. In 1997, I released my first solo album “Jasmine” – with the synths and drum programming recorded on a Mac with Opcode Vision. I overdubbed bass, violin and mandolins and had a number of guests overdubbing percussion, guitar, keyboards, sax and bass clarinet.
In 1998, I started my MBA and with a career transition to finance and starting a family in 2000. I set aside playing music for the next decade. Working as a tech equity analyst covering software and innovation at Merrill Lynch and CLSA was a lot of fun but a polite nudge from an old friend induced me to get back into playing actively. When I bought a new Macbook to start recording with Logic in 2011, much had changed: no longer did I need the rack of hardware synths, mixers and effects that I had relied upon in the 90s for recording. Everything went virtual, putting the power of music making in hand for a fraction of the cost a few years prior.
Some Musical Influences
Having spent years exploring many different genres of music, there are a few standouts that characterize my musical taste. Fundamentally, music that appeals to me has to stimulate one of three areas of the body – the head (intellectually interesting), the heart (emotionally rich) or the booty (the groove). My favorite music checks all three boxes. A few representative favorites include Stravinsky, Bartok, Prokofiev, Mahler, Steve Reich, Earth Wind & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Chaka Kahn, Take 6, Prince, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, Jaco Pastorius, Marcus Miller, Ivan Lins, Marisa Monte, Salif Keita, Esperanza Spalding, Jeff Beck. Van Halen, the Beatles, Steely Dan, Snarky Puppy, Jean-Luc Ponty, Didier Lockwood, Eric Dolphy, John Scofield, Milton Nascimento and many many others.
The Process
Since the early 90s my approach to music creation has involved tracking multiple instruments, often a one-man band, sometimes bringing in soloists and percussionists. My more recent music incorporates keyboards, percussion and drum samples, basses, violins, mandolins and guitar. I like to characterize my music as “funky jazz” = funky on the bottom, jazz on top with R&B influenced grooves and complex harmonies
Usually I will sketch out chords, melodies and form with pencil and music paper as a guide. This generally starts with a core rhythm, with harmonies and chord changes blocked out with keyboards. Bit by bit I like to add textures, whether using keyboards or live instruments. For melodies, I will often double up a lead instrument with two or more different sounds to get a richer tone. Bass lines are usually multi-tracked and doubled – one of my favorite sounds is the combination of fretless bass playing low roots doubled with a clavinet, with finger style and/or slap bass filling out the bottom end.
One of the fun parts of recording is creatively using effects to find a good sound. This may include some kind of compression, delay, modulation (chorus or phase shifter), some reverb, and sometimes pitch shifting or stereo panning effects. The goal in mixing a final version is to place the different elements of the composition in the mix so there is clear separation of distinct parts and blending of different sounds to enhance specific voices. Mixing is a bit of an art and science, and the product improves with practice. Since most of what I create is multi-tracked I do the engineering myself. However for the final versions to be released on streaming services, I use a professional mastering engineer, who provides great feedback on balancing the different elements of the mix and polishes the sound so that it renders clear on playback.
Gear – an Evolving Collection
Over the past few years, I have been incrementally building up my home recording capabilities. A bit about my gear: I use a 27” iMac with 68GB of RAM to run Logic Pro X, which provides both sequencing and digital recording capabilities. The digital interface is a Universal Audio Apollo X4, which converts audio to digital and back again, through a Yamaha mixer and powered monitor speakers. I use an array of third party virtual instruments and effect plug-ins from Roland, Korg, Spectrasonics, Arturia and Eventide.
Generally, I run electric instruments direct into the interface, though sometimes I will use a Fishman preamp for acoustic instruments to get a good recording level. Apple has done a fantastic job with Logic – there are a bunch of great sounds (including Alchemy synth sounds) that come out of the box, along with some great effects and music loops. I’ve also invested in third party royalty-free percussion and drum loops, which make the music sound “almost” live.
Instruments
Since the pandemic hit I have upgraded my collection of instruments. For electric bass I have several 4, 5 and 6 string instruments both fretted and fretless from the likes of Fodera, Alembic, Godin and Fender, along with a couple of boutique makers.
I have several violins both acoustic and electric, from a variety of different makers. Recently my go-to instrument is a carbon fiber 6 string violin made by Glasser (there’s a low C and F string that extends the range over an octave below a traditional violin); I also have a 5 string Realist acoustic with electronics built in and a Zeta 5 string Jazz solid body with a synth pickup (I can connect to a Roland GR-55 guitar synth). I have several electric mandolins, including a 5 string Kentucky I got in 1989 and played in the band Chainsaw Jazz. I recently have been playing 5-string baritone mandolin (tuned an octave below a traditional mandolin with a high B string) from Jonathan Mann.
One of the fun things to do with electric instruments is to run the signal through effects and loopers (to get a one-man band layered sound live). The effects chain includes compression, distortion, pitch shifters and wah filters. After cycling through a few different makers, I’ve found that the Boomerang looper offers the most musical options. I like to combine different delays from Strymon and Universal Audio (with tap tempo controls) to create textures that can be combined into jammable sequences. Next project I am looking to capture some of this live and with other musicians.
When I was working in the 90s, one could still monetize music by selling physical media – CDs mostly – while chains like Tower Records prospered. With the advent of P2P file sharing (Napster’s piracy) then streaming services, the economic payback from recorded music has been eviscerated for all but the most globally popular music creators. Of course there are royalties from airplay and licensing, but per stream revenues are de minimis at best for the vast majority. As a jazz influence musician creating instrumental music whose appeal is “highly exclusive” to say the least, there’s not a commercial incentive to the music I make. Ironically the cost and quality of home recording equipment has made it possible to replace professional studios that used to cost $100/hour and up 30 years ago to record (and you had better have a big budget or be able to get it right in a few takes).
So the journey becomes the destination with home recording. I still love to play live with other musicians but it can be so rewarding spending time to focus, create and polish music for its own sake. I’ve been studying music with a fantastic teacher, Kenny Werner the jazz pianist and composer since 2021 and he has opened up so much new language that I am looking forward to using in the future. I hope everyone can find similar paths to personal reward.
Here are some links to some of the music I have written and produced: Jasmine (1997) on Apple Music
Game On (2021) – Music written from 2015-2019
Passages (2021) – Music written largely during the pandemic in 2020
Where The River Flows (2022) – Music written in 2021-22
You can find links to his most recent albums on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon and other streaming services at https://edmaguire.hearnow.com/
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