A NEW ART FORM

Factory Preset is an album of electronic instrumental music representing one of the earliest examples of a brand new art form. All of the music contained in this exciting album is produced using a personal computer and electronic instruments. Many of the rich, diverse sounds you will enjoy on it have the texture and power of traditional orchestral instruments, and many of the composing techniques are derived from traditional practices. However, this similarity in sound and approach is where the comparison to traditional orchestral music ends. Never before has so much power to create music been placed directly into the hands of the composer/musician.

DID THE COMPUTER WRITE THESE PIECES?

Did the computer make me do it?

No, a computer doesn’t think, doesn’t write, and – even more important to art – a computer doesn’t feel. A computer is tops at doing repetitive, menial tasks accurately such as: remembering what you just played on a keyboard, playing it back exactly (as many times as you like), allowing you to make changes and then playing the “new” version again and again. All the while, it will keep track of and replay your performances simultaneously on a host of instruments. You are free to add instrument upon instrument until you’ve established an entire “orchestra” at your fingertips.

DID THE COMPUTER MAKE THE SOUNDS?

The computer used in making Bob Fugett’s Factory Preset, by itself, makes none of the wonderful sounds heard on the album. All the sounds come from synthesizers. A synthesizer may be thought of as an electronic organ; but, one that provides much greater ability to alter its sounds, and one which doesn’t confine the musician to only those sounds provided by the manufacturer.

Probably the best analogy is that the computer acts as a “piano roll.” It plays the various synthesizers and controls their various performance functions without the computer actually making any of the sound. This is similar to a piano roll playing a player piano, while the sound comes from the piano itself.

Of course, with a computer based "piano roll,” it is much easier to make changes than with the old-time paper rolls that had to have holes cut in them to produce a performance.

SO WHAT MAKES THIS A NEW ART FORM?

On first listening, it may be hard to tell just what makes this music so different. Of course, the pieces themselves are unique and charming, and they still retain the sound and feel of the orchestrated music of various styles we’ve heard and loved before. Many of the “instruments” sound totally familiar. We can hear a flute, an oboe, drums, and violins – among other familiar sounds – plus intriguing sounds that are obviously electronic yet somewhat familiar. So what is the large difference that makes this a new art from rather than a fine example of a form already established?

The radical departure from tradition is found in the process of this music making. Before, music with this type of emotional and aural impact has always been put together by committee. The person who composed was not the person who conducted the performance. The person who conducted was not the person who performed it. If the music was to be recorded, a whole new group of people took over from there. The intent of the composer passed through many channels before coming to the audience with interpretation and changes made all along the way—changes made by very able and skilled artisans but changes just the same. Now technology has delivered the whole process directly into the hands of the composer/musician.

For the first time ever, a musician can sit down with an incredible range of sound and tone colors at their finger tips and create in much the same way as a novelist or painter would— working directly with the exact materials that will communicate their ideas. The composer and listener have never been so close.

WHEN IS A FIDDLE NOT A FIDDLE?

When is a fiddle not a fiddle?

When it is sampled!

Many of the sounds used by Bob on Factory Preset are sampled sounds. In the simplest terms, a sample is a short recording of a basic sound from a real-world instrument stored electronically so it may be played back at different pitches with a keyboard or other controller. In this way, a single note played on a violin can be sampled (recorded) and that sound made available to a keyboard player as a new "organ” sound.

This sampling process, along with the process of generating electronic sounds with synthesizers, has been central to bringing a whole new world of creative power to the individual musician. It has democratized music-making, but this power comes with its own artistic difficulties.

A sampled violin may basically sound like a violin, but there are subtleties of performance which come second nature to the violinist which are lost in the translation to its electronic equivalent. So what sounds like a violin is really not a violin, and the problems involved in making it expressive are not the same either, nor will the outcome be the same. The composing artist has to understand that a totally new instrument is being explored and not the traditional instrument it may resemble. This new instrument has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. Here is where this new art is most exciting and challenging. The work has just begun.

HOW DID BOB FIGURE IT ALL OUT?

Examples of Bob Fugett’s work are now heard throughout the United States and around the world. He served his apprenticeship writing songs, playing guitar, and singing a wide variety of music in clubs and restaurants throughout Westchester and the New York Metropolitan area, both as solo performer and as free-lance sideman/vocalist in many working bands. He has studied guitar, voice, piano, bass, harmony and orchestration theory with top private teachers for many years.

Bob has worked in various capacities: as instrumentalist, recording engineer, arranger, and consultant for numerous bands, organizations, and solo artists. Among them are Mary Ann Bew, The Brimstone Mountain Cracker Jacks, John Cal, Suzanne Clute, Stella Crispo, Descender, Excommunication, Danny Freeman, Mark Giamarco, Swami Janakananda, The Solictors, Star Bird, Theatre Grottesco, Orange County Community College, Fred Ungar, Usher [not the one you know], TriTech Light and Sound, and his own band – Road Work.

As owner/operator of Fantasy Factory Recording Studio he has become proficient with a wide range of music and recording technology, along with keyboard/synthesis technique, computer music applications and has been involved in testing Voyetra Technologies Sequencer Plus ver. 2.0 (a premiere computer music program for MS-DOS computers).

Every bit of this experience was useful and necessary for the production of Factory Preset.

WILL COMPUTERS REPLACE MUSICIANS?

No, of course not! Computers can’t hear music and don't feel human emotion.

Computers will replace musicians at about the same time typewriters replace novelists.