From Kent Williams Sent Tue, Jul 21st 1998, 18:16
From Kent Williams Sent Tue, Jul 21st 1998, 18:16
After all this to-ing and fro-ing over autechre gear list, secrecy, etc, a thought occurred to me: As software technology for music production progresses, it is already possible to make music entirely in the computer, and there are several programs that do a decent job of emulating actual instruments. Are we reaching the point where it really doesn't matter what gear you use, or how you 'play' your music to achieve your results? What does it mean to change from the world pre-1990, where musicians spent a lot of time developing muscle-based skills in order to play music, to a world where nearly any musical effect can be achieved without playing skill? And I'm not talking talent here -- I'm talking what used to be called 'chops' -- your mastery of the real time mechanics of a particular instrument. If this is the case, it makes for a situation where the musician's skill ends up residing more in selection, discrimination, sequencing, and layering, all happening outside real-time. In other words, the skills of an old fashioned composer, with more immediate audio feedback. In this situation, there develops a virtuosity that lives outside the real time virtuosity of traditional musicians. What are we giving up? Is there any inherent advantage of 'humanness' to live playing in real time that is unachievable via computer-mediated musicianship? A side note on 'is it the shoes/synth?' debate -- the venerable Roland TB303's asking price seems to be dropping precipitously, from average asking prices in US Dollars of $1200+ last year, down to the sub-$900 range.