Re: [LAU] off topic (was: Re: ableton live in vmware)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Rob schrieb: To have a handfull presets, that demonstrate, how an app works, ist important. But just to choose an entry in a given list of "cool killer-leads" and record it, yields in 9/10 cases to those boring Cubase-beginner tracks, we all have heared before and nobody is really interested in. Jaron Lanier (I know, he is controversal and I do not consider him a "guru" or something... still he is brilliant sometimes) has told an anecdote in a speech he gave in the 1990ies, that sums up the matter quite well. In short it says: A industry-guy said to him: "Well, take a violin, for instance. I mean, a violin has a crummy user interface. It's so hard to play. With computers we can build a better user interface for the violin, and then kids will be able to play it, everyone will be happy..." Lanier commented this lengthily but came to a brillant conclusion in the end: "Playing the violin is actually that mystery, it's the end of the line, it's not for any other reason." get the whole story: http://www.exhibitresearch.com/kevin/nyc/jaron/index.html Music is a complex work of art and it demands care and effort and most music-loving people like it exactly because of that. It does not need to be a Mahler-symphony or a Bach-partita - a simple structured song can be the same as worthwile listening to but it needs to be made with passion and care and inspiration and it will never be easy. Still I agree, that software made for complex work should be as usable as possible. But there is a difference between usability and cheap shortcuts to standard-sounds. best regs HZN