Mark Mothersbaugh on Classic Hardware vs Software Emulations

[IvyBirds]

Sure and I am 100% against it and think it's unethical when anyone does it

So not a fan of sequencers either then?

Not for live use by rock/pop bands absolutely not. It's no different than prerecorded tracks, especially if you are selling expensive tickets in arena tours

For someone like Tangerine Dream playing Berlin School on stage back in the day sure as they were using the sequencer as an instrument

In the studio as part of the songwriting and recording process sure they are a handy tool

People pay for the music, not how it was made

People pay for concert tickets to hear live music not prerecorded tracks being played by bands who pretend it's live. By your logic why have a band at all? Why not just have a a guy play the record straight through on the stage. Just walk out and hit play on a CD player and walk off. How many tickets do you think that would sell and at what price?

[dieterlaser]

There is not a single comment I could get behind

Even the one about this thread being a thick, musty erotic sauna??

ok, sorry. I must admit I didnt read everything. ill get behind that

[IvyBirds]

Yes, and if you knew anything about Hooky, you would know that his basslines were actually the lead parts of their songs and the bass was usually a synth.

And if you knew anything about Wilder you would know he was very meticulous about sequencing

Sure and that's awesome for the record, but when selling tickets for a live show they could have easily hired musicians to play synth bass parts so it was live music

When people buy records they know they are buying prerecorded music so it's perfectly ethical to use a sequencer to record and produce basslines and other song parts

When they buy tickets to see bands with bass players and keyboard players perform live on tour they expect to see actual human beings play those bass lines and keyboard/synth parts.

Imagine being a musician on a forum dedicated to musicians and not advocating that musicians actually have live music being played live on stage and instead you think it's awesome that musicians pretend it's being played live with prerecorded tracks being played on stage.

Live music should always be live music, even if by doing so it ends up sounding different than the record. The audience expects it to be live and expects it to sound a bit different

I play 80s bass lines on Synths all the time live. It's really not hard and most of them are rather simplistic. Do you really need a sequencer to play F - C - D - G - C - D on a Moog Source to pull off Blue Monday live on stage? Or are you just doing so because you are to cheap to hire a musician to do so and want to keep that money for yourself. They were touring arenas and selling tens of thousands of tickets every night they can easily hire someone

[zerocrossing]

Is having prerecorded AI, or even playing parts that GAI made, all that different than what a DJ does? One of the reasons I stopped performing was when I was packing up my gear after a rave, and a bunch of dudes came up on the mezzanine, to where we'd performed, and asked us if we were going to play. They had no idea, nor did they care, that the last hour of music was spontaneously improvised by two musicians. Stuff was sequenced, but even that I was making up on as we went. They then went to fawn all over the DJ about the cool track he was playing.

People go to shows for the social aspects of a show. The music, frankly, is usually not important. Major arena acts have been lip syncing to tracks for years. What I don't actually understand is, why are some people so eager to relinquish the joy of making music to an algorithm that's owned by a corporation. I imagine those people were never really into it for the music in the first place.

[Vortifex]

Tangerine Dream were miming their live sets for a long time. When I saw them live in the 2000s the only people playing live were a percussionist and guitarist. Edgar briefly played some guitar but the rest of the time he and Jerome were miming.

[concealed identity]

Coincidentally, Peter Hook is one of the funniest examples to use here. He used to do "DJ sets" where his DJ equipment wasn't even plugged in and he just mimicked DJ moves while a prerecorded mix played from the PA.