Kenneth Makuakāne

I am doing a solo gig at Formaggio Grill in Kailua tonight 9pm – midnight. If you have nothing to do and want to come and relax to some original music, please join me.

In 2006, I released my first secular, solo CD entitled “Makuakane.” I was over at UH-Hilo professor Keola Donaghy’s home on the Big Island one day and we were discussing my solo release. It was such a wonderful experience to have the benefit of a collaborator to bounce ideas off of.

Over the years I have written a large number of Hawaiian songs with other writers, however, the collaborative efforts only extended to the point of them writing the lyrics and sending it to me to write the music. I had no input on changing or retooling the lyrics a bit to fit my music. I had to make my music fit their lyrics. Because of this method, there are a bunch of lyrics I still have that I’m not able to put music to. These pieces of literature have flaws in them, which I am not able fix and I don’t have the skill to rework the words with the respective writers.

Since working with Keola, I have found a renewed love for the Hawaiian language and a respect for the correct pronunciation of each word. In addition, I have learned to place diacritical marks and punctuations in the right places. In essence, I have become more adept to the syntax structure of phrases and sentences. He has trained me to take my time in discerning the songwriting process of collaborative works and has allowed me to interject constructive changes on the subtle nuances of each of our works in order to get the piece to fit just right lyrically as well as musically. In the end, the piece benefits and becomes a collaborative work of art. The more we hone the inadequacies, the more the song stands out. It is a true joy to create with no ego.

The lessons I’ve learned from Keola have been a mutual respect for each other’s craft and the understanding that we are not encroaching on the other’s territory, but are working towards to same goal of creating a masterfully crafted song. I truly believe the songs we are creating have so much commercial hit potential because we have taken the time to write, then rewrite, then rewrite until each of us feels that the song sits well and doesn’t make us uncomfortable to listen to, much less sing.

I just read this neat article in the paper of how technology has brought the recording studio into the hands of the masses. The Recording Article states that you can get in to a whole recording system for about $3500, an incredibly low price. Prior to this technology there were the ADAT and DA-88 MDMs, mostly for project studios, but in the hands of capable engineers they were wonderful tools. I opted for the later and bought four units at a price of $3500 each, not including a 32 channel mixer, tons of outboard equipment, wires, speakers, etc; a pricey venture to say the least.

It is wonderful to get the equipment, but remember the adage “the clothes don’t make the man”, well the “equipment don’t make the engineer.” Like any other skill, it takes thousands of hours to begin to make a difference. Yeah I can see everyone rolling their eyes.

I liken this degradation of skill to that of the mp3 player world technology. Everyone is so used to the sound of a 128kbps compressed song that the value of a 1411kbps uncompressed song at ten times the file size is meaningless to them. In the recording realm we are hitting 24 bit enhanced multi-bit 128x oversampling 192khz conversions and constantly raising the bar high – for what? Just to bring it down to an inadequate level? Oh well, I could go on and so could my way-more-qualified engineer colleagues.
The point is the acquisition of equipment is only the starting point, not the end goal.