Christopher Smith wrote:
On Jan 29, 2005, at 2:23 PM, Aaron Sherber wrote:
At 02:11 PM 01/29/2005, Carl Dershem wrote:
>Aaron Sherber wrote:
>
> > Devil's advocate, for a moment: Why couldn't the musicians left without
>> a gig sharpen *their* computer skills, and use their advanced
>> musicianship to help make sampled or sequenced performances better?
>
>Oh, yeah - that pays so well, pays *off* so well (in terms of
>performance, sharpening your computer skills is a non-issue, unless
>youre a computer performance person), and really benefits a liver
>performance.
Christopher was suggesting (I think) that hand engravers put out of work by computer engravers "put their superior knowledge and professional competencies to excellent use" by learning to do the same thing on a computer. (Apologies if I've misread.) Why is it reasonable to suggest that one group of people apply their skills in another area, but not another group? No one, in any field, is promised available employment for life.
Aaron.
Where the difference is, is that computers have not put engravers out of work (except in the very lowest echelons of publication) to the same extent that sequencers have cut into musicians' jobs. There is not enough work to go around to all the displaced musicians, unlike former hand-copyists and engravers.
Christopher
Are you sure about that? Previously, in order to get a large work to press far more than a single engraver would work on the score and parts -- now a single person enters the score, extracts the parts and gets it all ready to print. I can't believe that a 20 person engraving shop was able to find work for all 20 engravers in the computer-engraving field.
Just as all the secretaries who used to take dictation in shorthand and then type it up were not able to find work with computers and word-processors.
And all the welders in the auto industry weren't able to become computer operators controlling the welding machines that replaced them.
That's called "layoffs" and every industry (including engraving) has undergone them when a new labor-saving technology reaches critical mass and every business has to adopt it or die.
Just as musicians are needed to program those sequencers and play those sounds for the samplers and other musicians are needed to tweak those samples to make them more useful, not all musicians are put out of work by the new technology. Some adapt, others complain and die.
Think of all the ice-men when the advent of the electric refrigerator made them obsolete -- they couldn't all become Maytag repairmen!
-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
