ah, but here's what you're missing: a paint by numbers picture is fully outlined; you just color in the spaces. building a song from nexus2 etc still requires the ability to mix&match creatively, & to wind up with something that didn't exist before..

Yes and no.. Of course you're starting with a blank slate as far as the composition is concerned. But in reality a lot of these genres are pretty well charted territory. So while you may not have literal lines to fill in, you do have 'lines' that come with the style of music you're making. It's come to the point that it's all pretty generic now, if you stay within those 'lines'.

And that's the point: The only way to escape the lines is to find something unique to do with or add to your tune.. and this is where Nexus kindof misses the mark, since everything has been predefined already. The best and probably easiest way to be unique is to make it yourself, from scratch. That's what's going to make your music stand out.. not preset #68 from Nexus which half the dancefloor recognizes since they've got Nexus too.

Besides that a lot of the creative input that you could've had is taken away by Nexus, since the presets are production-ready.. You hardly have to worry about EQ, compressors, expanders, limiters, transients and all that stuff. Admittedly that's also where you can mess up big time if you don't know what you're doing, so once again it saves time.. but at the price of sounding like everyone else and an opportunity to be creative with those things.

So in short i'd say that the genre defines the lines and that Nexus provides the prefab colours. That doesn't leave a whole lot to your own imagination does it?

Well i can only speak for myself.. for me Music is about creativity and expression. The fewer of those elements are involved, the less interesting it is to me.

For instance: if i snipped a part from a van Gogh painting and then cut another part of an Appel painting, glued them on a canvas could i really say it was my own work? To me it seems that all i did was take a bit of what was once an original idea those painters had, and then in a lazy way try to make it my own. I'm not impressed with that at all.

What impresses me is when i can hear in a piece of music that someone was inspired, and that it inspires me as well.. something that makes you think 'wow, i wish i'd thought of that'.. you know that feeling? When was the last time you had that feeling listening to hiphop? Well that's kindof my point.



Look i'm an artist!

as far as i'm concerned, it's...whatever works. the end result remains...the end result.
years ago, when i got in to music production, 'studied' pros were complaining about garageband, loops, etc.

but i knew then (and knew now) that i'd rather hear an 'amateur' on garageband whose music moves me (even if it's unpolished, or 'imperfect') then some boring music made in a state-of-the art studio, recorded in pro tools by 'professionals'.

as a listener, you're moved...or you're not.

Except half the dancefloor isn't going to recognize it. Only a small minority of people make EDM and only a smaller minority of that would have Nexus and a smaller minority still is actively going to pay attention to which sound is used where. The vast, vast majority doesn't give two hoots. Which is why this whole "preset vs original sound" debate is so pointless; most people won't even notice, let alone care.

Heck, look at genres where things are much more recognizable. Like hip hop and sampling. Or covers of earlier songs, remixes, etc? Do people get all uppity about that? No, they don't.

So thinking that people are going to notice some random Nexus preset in some random EDM song? Not very likely.

+1

Agree 100000% couldn't give a toss springs to mind.. just make music

Well I've listen to demos and youtube videos of songs created in Nexus2 and the patches are geared towards trance and mainly lame EDM styles. Seriously do we need anymore trance or prog house producers?

no, of course not. we only need more producers in *insert style of music you prefer here*.

personally, what i think we really need is more GREAT music, regardless of genre. there's lots of types of music out there i don't like, but..to each his (or her) own.

A very talented person with a pencil can make something incredible, while an untalented person can't do anything even with all the art supplies in the world. I don't listen to hip hop or EDM, but I know very creative stuff has been done with sampling other's work, I don't see how Nexus limits an artist in any way, that creative limitation comes from within, not from the tools one uses. Nexus may be geared for ease of use but actually many creative artists aren't into mixing their own paint etc, and I think to say that people who are using it are dullards who paint by numbers is definitely not fair. Not that there aren't crap songs written using it, but I'm sure that is also true of any tool. Whether Nexus is the tool for you, or worth the price to me, those subjective opinions matter, but that you think in some objective way that using that tool limits your creative output frankly IMO is an illusion.

If I caved and said "Yes I want it" i'd want the lot, the software and all the pre-set packs.

And how much is that again ? lol

That's where my story ends......

I guess i was talking about the other half of the dancefloor then

Kidding aside, maybe you're right. I've recognized sounds myself, and to me that's always kindof a turnoff. But maybe that's just me. Most people wouldn't give a flying hoot.

The point is: it's an issue for me as a musician. Do i want to assemble things that other people have created, or do i want to create my own thing entirely?

EJAY

Just so I understand you, if you opened up Diva for example and played a nice sounding preset, you would never want to use it in a song because you hadn't created the sound yourself?

if you want to go down that straw-man path i'm sure he'd also be upset if he had to live on the same planet as anyone else because then he'd just be a rehash and all that.



sorry to say but your straw-man wishes he had a brain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xNA8seaqGQ