mr dave

you're missing my point.

i never said that using a computer as a tool was wrong. i said the majority of people who use it as their only compositional tool generally create garbage. there's a substantial difference in quality between music created by someone who understands and is capable of creating music with real instruments and uses a computer as a tool and someone who simply fools around with presets, loops, and trackers who believes their use of a software application makes them a 'musician'.

best example i can think of was back in my college days. we had an assignment to do for an AV class - to make a simple radio commercial. my friend and i made a minute long spot for the burning man festival. for a soundtrack we recorded four 1 minute long instrument tracks on my computer, two bass, two guitar. one of each track was reversed and then all 4 tracks were layered over each other. it was SUPER psychedelic and impossible for us to do on our own without the use of software BUT everything originated from our personal abilities with our instruments. the teacher came close to reprimanding us in class because he believed we had stolen the music until we explained to him that we made it on my computer.

another pair of students had a way over the top piano piece playing for their soundtrack, like oscar peterson on a fistful of blow and a third hand without any soul. on top of that they had a sausage fingered guy claiming the piano piece was his own. it a took a few probing questions before he confessed to having created it solely using a tracker. does that make him a musician? he couldn't have played a single passage from his 'piece' had he sat in front of a real piano.

now do you understand my distinction between people who use software as a tool and people who only use software?

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