Mark Mothersbaugh on Classic Hardware vs Software Emulations

[IvyBirds]

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?

This is how a lot of modern / soundcloud rappers perform. They will rap right over their ummmm.. CD's. (What year is Ivy stuck in?)

A lot of people pay. They sing along. It's like a big communal event.

Never said they didn't doesn't it make it right however

Still shocking to see musicians on a forum for musicians advocating for the idea that musicians are not needed

[IvyBirds]

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?

This is how a lot of modern / soundcloud rappers perform. They will rap right over their ummmm.. CD's. (What year is Ivy stuck in?)

A lot of people pay. They sing along. It's like a big communal event.

BoC gave their last concert on May 1, 2001. They have released 5 Albums in 28 years. Not much more is known.

I don't know which other services show streaming numbers, but the album is a bomb on YouTube Music. And that's with like sooo much promotion - everyone wrote / talked about their album on every medium.

Conversely, if they toured they would make BANK right now.

Nah that tour would flop

[vurt]

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?

This is how a lot of modern / soundcloud rappers perform. They will rap right over their ummmm.. CD's. (What year is Ivy stuck in?)

A lot of people pay. They sing along. It's like a big communal event.

BoC gave their last concert on May 1, 2001. They have released 5 Albums in 28 years. Not much more is known.

I don't know which other services show streaming numbers, but the album is a bomb on YouTube Music. And that's with like sooo much promotion - everyone wrote / talked about their album on every medium.

Conversely, if they toured they would make BANK right now.

Nah that tour would flop

they're not talking about the blue oyster cult.

[Seafire Mk2]

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?

This is how a lot of modern / soundcloud rappers perform. They will rap right over their ummmm.. CD's. (What year is Ivy stuck in?)

A lot of people pay. They sing along. It's like a big communal event.

BoC gave their last concert on May 1, 2001. They have released 5 Albums in 28 years. Not much more is known.

I don't know which other services show streaming numbers, but the album is a bomb on YouTube Music. And that's with like sooo much promotion - everyone wrote / talked about their album on every medium.

Conversely, if they toured they would make BANK right now.

Nah that tour would flop

The oracle has spoken

[zerocrossing]

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?

This is how a lot of modern / soundcloud rappers perform. They will rap right over their ummmm.. CD's. (What year is Ivy stuck in?)

A lot of people pay. They sing along. It's like a big communal event.

BoC gave their last concert on May 1, 2001. They have released 5 Albums in 28 years. Not much more is known.

I don't know which other services show streaming numbers, but the album is a bomb on YouTube Music. And that's with like sooo much promotion - everyone wrote / talked about their album on every medium.

Conversely, if they toured they would make BANK right now.

Nah that tour would flop

they're not talking about the blue oyster cult.

I can confirm that I sold Buck Dharma a few cases of DAT tapes in the early 90. Also, acts like Taylor Swift basically lip sync with a track and she has a world record for tour proceeds, so the idea that people would reject prerecorded tracks or sequenced parts in a live show is poppycock.

[vurt]

This is how a lot of modern / soundcloud rappers perform. They will rap right over their ummmm.. CD's. (What year is Ivy stuck in?)

A lot of people pay. They sing along. It's like a big communal event.

BoC gave their last concert on May 1, 2001. They have released 5 Albums in 28 years. Not much more is known.

I don't know which other services show streaming numbers, but the album is a bomb on YouTube Music. And that's with like sooo much promotion - everyone wrote / talked about their album on every medium.

Conversely, if they toured they would make BANK right now.

Nah that tour would flop

they're not talking about the blue oyster cult.

I can confirm that I sold Buck Dharma a few cases of DAT tapes in the early 90. Also, acts like Taylor Swift basically lip sync with a track and she has a world record for tour proceeds, so the idea that people would reject prerecorded tracks or sequenced parts in a live show is poppycock.

the venue i worked at back in manc, had a big time girl band do a reunion tour, but some of them didn't get on, but a million each helps...
so as the stage banter didn't go off script, even thst was prerecorded
5 nights of exactly the same banter

[sjm]

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

This is a horrible uninformed post (as was the comment about Peter Hook/synth bass lines). What you are actually asking for is an inauthentic experience in some cases.

One of the bands I grew up listening to as a teenager was Carter USM. You've probably never heard of them, but it's essentially a kind of pop punk band with 2 members. When they play live, it's those two members and no one else. They have 2 guitars and 2 mics. Everything else is pre-programmed synth parts in massive rack. The drums? Programmed on a drum synth. The bass? Programmed on another synth. The pads, the melodies? All pre-programmed synth playback.

And yet nobody has a problem with that. It's how they made the albums. They played the guitar parts, they sung the vocals, and they programmed everything else on a synth. In fact, that's The Sound(TM). Just like with the Peter Hook live bass lead over a sequenced synth bass.

What you're asking for is a bunch of people who aren't in the band to show up, play parts that were never played by a human, balloon the costs of the whole thing - all to deliver an experience that has nothing to do with the actual music the people are coming to see.

Same with Sisters of Mercy live. One guy sitting there with a laptop (these days) triggering all the pre-programmed backing stuff while the musicians play the instruments and Andrew Eldritch sings. Just like on the albums.

People are paying to see the band live, not some randos cluttering the stage playing parts that were never played by a musician in the first place. Everyone knows half of it is "playback" and it in no way detracts from the experience. You're still seeing the band perform live. You're just not paying inflated concert prices to cover the costs of hiring, transporting and accommodating 12 additional people who add nothing to a less authentic experience all in some misguided attempt to satisfy a self-appointed purity zealot's uninformed idea of what a live show should be.

[vurt]

10 points for a carter usm anecdote.

[El°HYM]

[Bunny_boy]

What you're asking for is a bunch of people who aren't in the band to show up, play parts that were never played by a human, balloon the costs of the whole thing - all to deliver an experience that has nothing to do with the actual music the people are coming to see.

Sounds like latter-day New Order

[TechHaus]

You have to hire a band or you have to hire a light show / screen behind the artist...both eat up your budget and some bands mess up and don't make anything on tour.

My ideal career pivot (because I like motion graphics a lot) would be to design the screen show for artists.

[vurt]

You have to hire a band or you have to hire a light show / screen behind the artist...both eat up your budget and some bands mess up and don't make anything on tour.
.

ive got a projector

[sjm]

What you're asking for is a bunch of people who aren't in the band to show up, play parts that were never played by a human, balloon the costs of the whole thing - all to deliver an experience that has nothing to do with the actual music the people are coming to see.

Sounds like latter-day New Order

Yup, but it was nice to see them giving music students the chance to tour and play in front of a decent audience. And they went to some effort to make it part of the show when we saw them several years ago. The whole stage setup was designed to add to the experience, and by having the backing musicians "off stage" (they had a 3 or 4-tier backdrop with each of the students having their own small "room"), they solved the clutter problem nicely.

[sjm]

10 points for a carter usm anecdote.

Was actually playing some of their tracks for a friend who'd never heard of them a few days ago. They weren't really that big outside the UK, which I think is quite understandable.

[TechHaus]

I just want to post Justice's stage setup because it's so iconic and cool.