Technology’s accessibility has tossed the gift of recording into the hands of the masses. I’ve had the privilege of recording several CDs now; a decade ago that would have required access to a recording studio. Now it can all be done right in our rehearsal space, with a separate recording track for each player.

Jazz One can crank out pretty good performances, but we face challenges during recording just as any university band would; players make mistakes, and we must record several takes in order to capture the song well.

But if someone misses a note, plays out of time, or forgot to come in, it’s all right — with digital magic, all of those mistakes can be corrected. In fact, I wasn’t even in the state the last time we recorded a CD; instead I just overdubbed everything when I came back by myself. Few people would be able to guess that I wasn’t actually there during the recording process.

The big question raised as we magically fix problems, of course, is of ethics. Are we misrepresenting ourselves by fixing a wrong note here or there? Probably not. If we fix an intonation problem? No? What if we fabricate entire phrases? The ground gets shaky real fast.

Our director subscribed to this philosophy: There’s no problem when we splice together multiple takes, because splicing multiple takes just takes the best from what we are fully capable of playing. It isn’t misrepresentation if we can, and have, played the music at the same quality as the recorded version.

Pop stars do this all the time with AutoTune and the like. Sometimes digital alterations become part of the music itself, as in Cher’s Believe.

Digital editing isn’t going to go away; it will only get easier to modify and fabricate music as technology improves and becomes more accessible. I don’t think it’s immoral, nor do I think it’s harmful for music, as long as people don’t misrepresent their own abilities in cases like audition tapes or taped competitions.

Technology is here to stay; we shouldn’t fight it. We should use its benefits to bolster music in the world. To try to shun digital manipulation would be a losing battle.

Incidentally, I’m writing this while waiting for the Mac Pro in the recording booth to cool down. It was glitching when we recorded the last two takes, so we’re letting it cool for a bit to see if that’ll fix the problem. If not, we might be out of luck. Technology isn’t perfect yet.