Re: [linux-audio-user] Miscellaneous hardware/software questions

i don't agree, but i would be happy to be proved wrong. i believe, taking a cue from Donald Norman, that interfaces have certain kinds of inherent (often unexpected) properties that we end up using efficiently. in the case of visual UI's i don't believe that our skill is the dominant factor, rather its their ability to represent vast amounts of information very efficiently. you can get very good with a table saw and a router, but you will never be manipulating as much information. and with all due respect to js bach, as complex as his fugues are, the task of playing them from memory is made much easier by the fact that its a *flow*: you deterministically move from one part of the fugue to another, from one bar to the next bar, from one note to another. you are *not* composing when you do that; if you are, you are probably improvising a piece in which the final result doesn't "matter" in the sense that there is no correct answer. but trying to find the right arrangement for a multitrack piece during editing and mixing is potentially a much more complex task, requiring a whole different skill set, and the management of lots of information. of course, if your music is mostly recorded in single takes, then a lot of these issues fade away. i am thinking of more complex compositions. as a counter argument, why don't gamers use the keyboard? i suggest that its because the keyboard's own particular properties are *never* as good as the controllers they prefer, and so even though it would be cheaper (and maybe offer more possibilities), they don't do it. --p