[LAU] The democratization on music might not always be a good thing...

[drew Roberts]

On Wednesday 03 November 2010 19:28:29 Leigh Dyer wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-11-03 at 21:24 +0100, Lorenzo Sutton wrote:
> > Mark Knecht wrote:
> > > What is the Windows world coming to?
> > >
> > > http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/powered-by-rea
> > >ktor/the-mouth/?content=1412&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_
> > >campaign=The+Mouth
> >
> > It's just a piece of good (or bad? I'm not sure because I'm not a real
> > expert) marketing... Nothing you couldn't do with sooperlooper a bunch
> > of effects and, maybe, some hardware controllers... Or you could also
> > set everything up in Pd...
>
> Definitely -- in fact, I'm sitting here at the office thinking about how
> I could do something similar under Linux. I'm thinking:
>
> * run audio from mic in to Rakarrack's pitch-to-MIDI converter
> * run the MIDI in to a synth
> * run the synth audio and the mic audio in to a Rakarrack's vocoder as
> carrier and formant, respectively
>
> Sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to me! I can't wait to try it out :)
>
> I don't think there's any point worrying about music production getting
> "too easy" or "too accessible" -- the ship probably sailed on that when
> Tascam released the Portastudio, or when Dave Smith and friends created
> MIDI. People have been making trite music with the best equipment money
> can by for years, and others have been making interesting music with
> toys and junk for just as long. If this helps people express musical
> ideas that they'd been unable to express beforehand, then that's
> fantastic.

To me, one of the problems comes down to the split between musical 
appreciation and creation and the technical abilities needed to perform what 
is imagined / conceived.

Imagine if a novelist or poet had to practice for years to gain mastery over 
the pencil or keyboard in the same way a musician has to practice to gain 
mastery over their instrument.

Tech that makes it easier to produce what is conceived are no more dangerous 
to good music than is to move to a pencil from a stone chisel and hammer.

Just a thought to ponder and improve on or shoot down.
>
> THanks
> Leigh
>
> > Bests
> > Lorenzo

all the best,

drew