Our Future Letter by Letter

Our age is passing away. The generation brought up on television rather than radio is about to be replaced by a digital generation. There will be no more analog TV signals or analog anything else. All our media will be digital and the world we know will be consigned to history.

Of course the leading figures in that world will be different from the leading figures now. It is ever thus. When radio replaced the stage as the main medium great performers found themselves out of work and newcomers who were suited to the more intimate style of radio supplanted them. Talking pictures made the careers of many understated actors and ruined those of gesturing silent stars. Several people who were big on radio did not have the looks or presence for TV. We do not yet know the full implications of going digital. But already there is one development which anticipates our coming age and has been designed to take advantage of it.

For centuries singers relied on their own voices to project their notes. A singer who could not be heard in the back row would not last very long. Then came the microphone and recorded music which could be sung with tiny voices. Now those analog microphones have been replaced by digital systems. No longer are the notes of singers cast on the air and either caught by the microphone or not. Now they are stored on computers in small pieces and broken up and reassembled at will. As always singers will have to adapt to this new technology. Consequently the first Digital Singing Academy was opened last week in London. This radical organisation challenges all the accepted conventions of singing. It is also exactly what is needed if singing is going to survive the welter of computer generated noises seeking to supplant it.

Singers of our generation sing notes. Everything is supposed to be contained in each note. Digital singing separates the different parts of the note and each of these is performed individually. First there is thinking about the note. The quality of thought that goes into notes separates good singers from bad and only on digital systems can this difference be captured in its fulness. Then there is the prebreath before embarking on the breaths of the note. Then the primary and secondary breaths of the note are produced. The first acts as a magic carpet for conveying the sound and the second is overbreathing which needs to be tidied up and applied to the resonances of the auditorium. Then there is the movement of the vocal chords which produces the sound. This can now be precisely calculated by reference to the singer's throat dimensions and required pitch and thus produced by strapping a special device called a Croakometer to the singer's larynx. Then there is the force applied to the note from the front of the throat which again is produced scientifically by means of the self-correcting and self-calculating Gobophone. Then there is the explosive breath after the note is expelled which provides a platform for the next prebreath and a framework for the thought of the next note. No longer does a singer have to combine all of these elements perfectly in every note. Indeed there are now specialists emerging who will produce only one element of the note. A group called The Miserable Breathers is currently touring digital clubs in the Midlands demonstrating its ability in this niche area.

Of course the digital singer differs from the analog singer in one major respect. Digital singers no longer produce the notes. After each element of the note is laid down separately the computer mixes them together to produce the sound. In the hands of the right engineer this can be perfect every time. No longer do we have the imperfections which make singers ultra-critical of their own voices. The new breed of digital singers will surpass all who have gone before. Furthermore digital singing is open to all who have the technology. No longer are talent and a voice required. True democracy has come to the arts at last.

Here we see the ultimate benefit of the digital age. If everyone can do anything through digital technology no one can be better than anyone else. Indeed there is no reason for humans to do anything except operate the computers which take every initiative. Soon they will operate themselves and we will no longer have a reason to exist. No existence means no responsibility. Bad people can do what they like without ever being called to account for their actions. Truly we have all wished long and hard for the digital age to come. We have all achieved justification and can quietly leave the stage.