WHOA! Your host CAN NOT do this...

[Gymnopedies]

Robert, I for one agree whole heartedly with every single point you made.
I think you have pointed somthing out that has needed to be expressed.
I would never want to deny anyone of being able to make music,but these days,as you stated-we're all able to manipulate our "ideas" if they can realy even be called that to a degree that has crushed the very soul of personal expression out of the artform we know as "music".
I've felt that for a very long time that music, while being considered by many as the "highest" form of the arts has for the past 30 years become the chamber pot of all the arts.
Raped, diluted,spat & shat upon until even the MUSICIANS believe that the best laid path to fullment & fruition is by gaining the latest technology...It's just not true.
Music has become a weapon that is used against people in shopping malls to "distract" them. and it's used in comercials as a weapon to drive the spear of consumarism into the placated viewers brain.
Todd Rundgren once declared "technlolgy is Passe'"
He was right, as far as the art form known as music is concerned.
in fact technology is at best, inconsequential, at worst it's the so-called "medicine" thats killing the patiant that it's supposed to be curing.

[bugs]

One of the unfortunate things that the rise in musical technology has done is brought alot of people into the field who have little or no musical talent. It is a self-correcting problem, the cream will rise to the top.

[Gymnopedies]

Man, I cant wait till STYLUS XL UPDATE COMES OUT IT'S GONNA BE AWSOME!!!
dONCHA THINK!!! jUST THREE MORE MONTHS-- THEN I'LL BE GOOD.

[sonicfire]

I did some of my best melodies on my Amiga 500, a Casio CZ 5000 and a cheap reverb about ten zillion years ago... Now it's all about microscopic perfectionism. I have fallen into the same trap as you seem to have done, and I don't know how to get out anymore. It's quite depressing really.

sad but true. there´s nothing exciting about music making today. everyon can do it, everyone has everything to make masterpieces but no one does. i think because there is no challenge anymore.

i also made my best music (at least i think so) on AMIGA with OctaMED! Today i didn´t really like the music i am making .... its boring - commercial ...

well who knows? sometimes we will get back to the roots?

[AudioWhore]

Good points made there.. We are spoiled for choice. You have an awesome studio just with the free stuff that is available!

But I think the quality of music has not improved at all due to these advancements in the last few years. I guess because all of the electronica records you hear from before 2000 are by artists with moutains of hardware so they can do everything. Now its accesible to heaps of people in software, so I guess the trick is how its all used thats important..

Still nothin can beat a lovely chord progression or a good wailing lead line or tight funky bassline. These things thankfully can not be merely conjured up by a computer

[lawapa]

I see your point but. The tool is of no consequence, Before computers music was created with tape loops in labratories using equipment and technics that would seem stone age to us. Composers built musical instruments that never existed before and then composed music to those creations. Wendy Carlos went into detail about the creation of Switched on Bach BEFORE SEQUENCERS. One track at a time. A process that would literally take weeks for one cut on the album. Using the tools available these individuals created music. Manipulating tools is what man does and improving these tools is what evolution is all about. It's simply natures way, we evolve and so do out tools. But the tool itself is of no consequence it's what you do with it.

[stale bread]

I empathize with all of the passion expressed here on this thread, but i can't help but feel that we're getting the definitions of 'music' and 'instrument/tool' confused here. whether their are 5 tools or 1 tool in the box is pretty much irrelevant, the amount of tools does not define music, the song defines music, or the artistic expression defines music no matter if you're human beatboxing or playing a 20 piece kit.

on this thread and on other websites its common to see the post regarding the great music that was made with the ataris or the commodores (which i had and loved) but think about before computers where even in the picture. compare that to when they had no computers or electronic keyboards/tape machines or anything like that, certainly the difference between when their was no electronic technology and when people were using ataris and commodores is much much greater than what we are discussing here= the diff between commodores and todays vsts macs pcs. i hope one can see what i'm getting at, it really doesn't make a difference. the song is what makes the difference, whether its an old black lady huming and singing some blues on her porch or a fatboyslimer who sampled her and played some electronic beats under her voice. it's the song that is music, not the tool.

[Robert Randolph]

I see your point but. The tool is of no consequence, Before computers music was created with tape loops in labratories using equipment and technics that would seem stone age to us. Composers built musical instruments that never existed before and then composed music to those creations. Wendy Carlos went into detail about the creation of Switched on Bach BEFORE SEQUENCERS. One track at a time. A process that would literally take weeks for one cut on the album. Using the tools available these individuals created music. Manipulating tools is what man does and improving these tools is what evolution is all about. It's simply natures way, we evolve and so do out tools. But the tool itself is of no consequence it's what you do with it.

That was my point in the first portion of the thread. These are no longer tools, they are status items. They are things to help make you feel superior, godlike. They are things to make you forget you're human, imperfect and make mistakes.... People have stopped using these things as tools, they are replacements for the vital parts of life.

I love tools. It's when your focus is the tool, and not what you make of it... and that's what everything seems to have become.

Now people buy XX host just because it has 5 eq bands built in rather than their buddies host that has 4. OR buy one sample library just because it has more sounds than another. OR buy this synth because it has more oscillators or more presets or "better" filters. Continuum ad infinitâs

[bluedad]

I wonder how many people read this thread (due to the title) feeling the need to keep up with the jones'...
-R bert

actually, I thought this thread was going to be bragging from some Tracktionite.

[Eric Bourne]

I personally think the automobile has got to go, it is slowing destroying music, the same goes for infernal electricity! I'll go back to using FL Studio now... I hear in the next version it's going to have a "Compose Symphony" button, I can't wait!

[opiadream]

I wonder how many people read this thread (due to the title) feeling the need to keep up with the jones'...
-R bert

actually, I thought this thread was going to be bragging from some Tracktionite.

me too

and speak for yerself mr thread-starter
I haven't been tossing money around on the next big thing.I'm quite happy and still somewhat amazed at what can be done with my humble collection of software.

[JerGoertz]

As has been said before, VSTi's are an addiction!

It's all too easy to get caught up in the game of acquisition rather than creating something... Because it's an immediate and easy rush.

Perhaps a little meditation and eastern-style philosophy will put a person in the proper mental framework to appreciate what he has and actually use it. Gawd knows I could use it!

One thing I do is whenever I see a new host/instrument/effect/app that is so gosh-darn special and does everything that the first version doesn't (goes to 11, etc.), I will write it down on my "wish list". Then it will sit there for a while as my consumer lust dies down a little and I'll take out that list occasionally and see whether there's anything I really want on it (it's not a matter of "need" because this is completely a hobby for me). Then I end up buying it anyway. But it slows me down from getting absolutely everything that crosses my path and is ultra-cool which would put a huge dent in my finances.

The next step I need to take is to limit myself to a strict monthly music sw budget.

[Hink]

see to me I'm kinda selfish..I write music so I can play my guitar to it...that's it. That's what I do, I play gi-tar, I don't care who is better then me, who's watching me or anything else as long as I can bend the strings like ...been doing 33 years and still get the same thrill I did when I learned my first rock song on guitar (China Grove) good lord willing I still be doing it 33 years from now to. I try not to worry about the state of music. I tend more to reconize the cycle of my own creativity and enjoy the ride, when the ride ends I suspect so does Hink...

[kilroy]

I love tools. It's when your focus is the tool, and not what you make of it... and that's what everything seems to have become.

Nailed it there. In the context of composition I think the best move one can make is to limit the number of tools, know them well and get on with the writing.

I was eager to embrace technology as a means of gaining more control. What I have come to see is that there was alot of musical inspiration to be had when things were on the ragged edge of total chaos.

[glurgle]

I agree with your points Robort, though my own opinions are probably a little further out there. The experiences to be had with music are the ones in which there is connection made. The communication of playing for a live audience (real people who have their own experiences and perspective) or the communication with other musicians when playing together, is what makes music fascinating. Playing alone to a computer is fun, and good exercise for your brain, but the performance is where the magic hides.

the point was made that the tools don't matter and this is true, I'll enjoy (and therefore be inspired by) music made by slapping my knees in rhythms with my friend who's doing the same, (probably because we are too lazy to change the DVD or something) then playing with new synths for 4 hours and coming up with some absolute dreck (do that more than I'd like to admit, and I'm guessing I'm not alone).

the big reason I stopped using warez software was not my nagging conscience. I was continuously getting all the latest instruments, and more and more of them, without ever making music I could stand.

making music just by thinking it? that's a whole new can of worms.