[LAU] Chris McCormick

[Rob]

On Saturday 25 August 2007, david wrote:
> I, on the other hand, think that live is the "real thing" and
> studio recordings the "fake". The musician can spend days endlessly
> recording and recording, until they've got every single note
> exactly right, and splice all the "right" notes together into the
> "right" phrase. 

Yes, exactly.  A composer in a studio can make his composition sound 
just the way he wants to, with enough tweaking (and perhaps time and 
money, if he does have to hire people.)  A musician on stage is at 
the mercy of his own chops and those of the people working with him, 
not to mention the compromises of live sound.  And then you can't go 
back and fix the rough spots, though they often do when they put live 
CD's out, sometimes resulting in a listenable recording.

I guess it all depends on whether you think composition/sound design  
or performance is more important to a piece of music; I'm pretty 
firmly in the former camp.  Never been to a concert whose sound 
didn't disappoint me, however good (or bad and noodly) the 
performances were.  But some sounds still can't be generated well 
enough in software (and more still if you limit yourself to free 
software.)  I'm looking forward to the day when they can be.

Rob