On 3/27/07, robin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
absolutely. conversely, limitations of old gear don't always bring out the best in artists either.
i dont even think its all about old technology. i know people who made albums off of a sampling electribe and not much else. the tendency with computer programs is to allow people to infinitely tweak things that are nearly irrelevent to making the final product be a good song. it might be masterfully engineered, but it lacks creativity. what good is that?
You can view most audio applications as over featured at this point in time. The angle I find interesting is the performance aspects of software (as that is the context in which i made my reply).
i think the performance aspects are still not really where they should be at this point in time. i mean, the standards of what makes a live performance interesting hasnt really changed. people have been "performing" with laptops for about what, 10 years now?
If you take Ableton Live as an example here the trick is getting the setup (of software and hardware controllers) so that it suits you so that you can perform naturally (like perhaps you can do with one drum machine and a synth or two turntables and a mixer). This takes a long time that not a lot of people have so I think some peoples' view of software is influenced by just having a quick play.
but this is the point. performing live shouldnt be all about worrying about technical aspects of what youre doing. if thats what its about, its not going to be interesting. obviously, in using hardware most knobs and sliders are hardwired to a specific command, making things much more intuitive, allowing the user to become one with the instruments, very much like a traditional instrument. noodling around with mapping midi nonsense has nothing to do with performing music. tom
