When I first learned how to play drums, all I had was a Ludwig Speed King bass drum pedal. It was squeaky and weird to play with. The first thing I did was replace the pedal. I had several different ones. After a while my bass drum pedal was always packed up with the live kit so I used the speed king to practice with. I forgot how much I really liked using it. The squeak not only made it fun to play, but it was this part of the sound of the kit. You can hear one on Led Zeppelin records.

It got me to thinking about how so many of the good musical instruments are old and about how much of the new musical instruments are crap. Why is it that they can’t manage to improve of the old instruments? And why is this the case mostly with analog instruments? Today’s digital synths sound better than the one’s of just five years ago. Newer computers work faster and more reliably than those of just a few years ago.

But, today’s Les Pauls don’t sound as good as the ones from the early 70s. Nor do the newer pianos, or drum sets, or or or.

It seems like maybe technology is better now at PRETENDING to be what the analog stuff actually was.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not some analog snob. Having lugged a Rhodes 73 and Roland CP70 and 4×12 guitar cabinet etc. around for thousands of miles with my 140-pound frame I’ll be the first guy to tell you to get a lighter keyboard and you don’t need a huge amp to sound huge. But why does the modern stuff have to be so good at imitating the old stuff, but not as good at producing the sounds?

I’ve always had this theory about analog mediums and how they are more readily apprehended by the human body. Pigments, sounds, papers, etc.; they just seem to be more human friendly. I wonder if maybe our chemicals in our brains don’t make us better able to receive information conveyed in an analog form.

If that’s the case, why are you reading this on a computer screen and not talking to me about it in person?