Are Todays Daw's Making People Lazy Producers ?

[Hink]

Technology in general CAN make people lazy, but doesn't apply to everyone.

it can enable lazy people to be lazy, it cannot make a non lazy person lazy.

People can develop "lazy" habits if they are forced to use "shortcuts". Could you imagine physically working with a tape machine and edits? You have been made physically lazier due to the nonexistent need to manually exude energy for a given task once demanded by analog hardware, etc.

no, that task has been streamlined leaving me with energy to put in to playing the instruments.
if i chose not to redirect that energy, that would be on me, not on the technology.
using the technology is a choice, if i chose to use tape i could. but ive been there, and given the kind of tape machine i could probably afford, the trade off would be harder work with less favourable results.
if i had a chance at a top of the range, reel to reel, with quality preamps. then the trade off might be worth it, for the sound quality.
otherwise, digital is good enough.

The reason you're not using a tape machine right now proves the fact you're now lazier because of DAWs. Sitting all day in front of your computer doesn't constitute a good workout, even if you're wearing your VR glasses.

Technology CAN enable and breed laziness... especially if it's all you know.

1. I'm not sure you're in the position to determine what effort vurt puts into his work anymore than he could you. I suspect it would be wiser to speak for one's self

2. Your notion is terribly one sided, it seems that for many, myself included that because we have a lot more available to us the concept of being lazy is absurd. Yes some tasks are streamlined but only to make room for other tasks we could not do when we were far more limited by what our gear would permit us. Once again I suspect it would be wiser to speak for one's self and speaking for myself, I dont have enough time to be lazy...I'm having too much fun.

[vurt]

also, if a given amount of recording work takes less time, this means more time to go to the gym.
therefore, less lazy.
seeing as you where focusing on physical work outs

[JoseC.]

I believe that the real issue is that people do not really listen to music anymore. This is a video era. When I was a kid, music and reading were the only entertainment available at home where people had any content choice, and you had to get out and search for it. Today people today listen to music as background to images, or their daily activities, but few really close their eyes and just listen to the music by itself. This goes against any music that is complex, or nuanced.

I do not think that there is shortage of good music today, there is more music made than ever, and a lot of it is very good. I just think that it gets lost, because there is no real demand for good music now.

[THE INTRANCER]

How do you think it's garbage now more than yesterday? Just curious.

I was born in the 70s too, i remember the first song I ever heard when I was like 3 called "I'm not in love" and it was so good it made my eyes water. Music of that era was obviously at a higher standard, at least at an emotive level but you gotta bear in mind many of the producers now (in their 20s - early 30s) were first exposed to the music of the early 90s (when they were babies) which is when music technically was at it's worst in history. Your first exposure to anything is always the most influential. We were fortunate in that sense. Naturally our standards will be higher than younger producers for that reason.

But what is it you dont like about music now and what is the correlation between that and technology?

I guess it's like a proliferation of the same regurgitated music whilst in a constant cycle of stagnation.. of 'no direction' or evolution in which previous decade's have been able to provide. Auto tuned, filtered into oblivion of talentless singers, the awful rap artists that can't hold a candle to the likes of MC Hammer that was doing it better 30 years ago with less technology, lack of vision and where image and promotion play a bigger role than the innovation of music itself...

The 1990's was a period in which music production was constantly reinventing itself, and pushing technology in very creative ways without detracting from the music itself in that 10 year period...into the 2000's, particularly in the field of dance music....Jungle music, Acid music, evolution of House & Drum & Bass, Trance, with a different slant from how it sounded in the 70's and 1980's that it was inspired by from artist like Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, ABBA, Duran Duran, A-HA Madonna ect as examples of music while sparking new technologies.

But yeah... if you've been brought up listening to well composed music, you are more likely to have a better understanding of how to make good music yourself.

[VariKusBrainZ]

Just going by the requests for VSTs and Daws to perform certain tasks reveals laziness or lack of creativity.
As a result users dont learn or discover techniques by accident or native wit whilst trying to accomplish an idea, they want a tool to do it for them.

[jancivil]

As someone who doesn't need to "imagine" working with tape and edits, it's more accurate and in a sense easier to do it in the audio editor in Cubendo. In that I was pretty good at it with tape, it takes maybe less time, maybe not as it's a different method; for instance I zoom way in and cut visually versus scrubbing. I'm really anal about it, vs getting on with it. Certainly more accuracy is availed.

It's not very much physical labor to literally scrub vs click a mouse or make a mark with the white pencil or draw the blade across the tape. So this is a rather poor example of DAW tech <making> a person lazier.

[jancivil]

"Sitting all day in front of your computer doesn't constitute a good workout"
Who does that? You? I use controllers. Playing a keyboard is playing a keyboard; in the days where I still played guitar, it's playing the guitar whether I hit the record button on the Walkman Pro or the Teac, or the space bar. Using the ROLI controller is pretty physical.
8 hours with the DAW is physically tiring. I think there is really not a lot of difference, if any. Actually playing the drums is more physical than hitting the pad or the Zendrum, granted. I'm doing a lot more with my mind with software, and creating stuff I cannot play, so...


That said, if something enables me to do next-to-nothing and sit on my ever-growing ass as opposed to getting up off it I'm all for it.

[jancivil]

I'm definitely physically lazy, then. As someone who used to *work* for a living...

I think that's a weird tack to take for this topic. I do believe having the machine do it all for you, there is certainly evidence that this enables... laziness is not strong enough, sloth. Not having to physically perform certain tasks 'breeding' laziness in terms of how one approaches the musical work before them is rather a non sequitur.

[risome]

Making music of quality and distinction that will hopefully last the test of time is not a lazy process regardless of the tools/instruments you use to make it with IMHO.

[dogzilla]

i think id maybe enjoy some sort of meal with gershwin.

I'd like to observe Rembrandt working out the early stages of a painting.

[LawrenceF]

I'm not a musician really but my general observations as a "technician" are...

- Technology doesn't make truly creative or artistic people lazy or lazier really, it only more exposes those among them who were already somewhat lazy. Complex technology takes study, and lazy people don't really study or read to learn, they just go ask 20 questions a week on the Internet.

- Technology doesn't make people indecisive, it only gives people who were already indecisive more things to be indecisive about. The guy who was recording 50 vocal takes to tape in 1975 is doing the same thing with his daw now, only faster not having to rewind the tape. Of course, digital editing also gave that already indecisive guy many more things to be indecisive about.

- Technology doesn't really result in "worse" art, the people who make good art will always do that, it only allows you to hear a lot more from the people with less talent.

Techniology in the broader sense culturally can make some people lazier in general but on the artistic or musical front, good artists or producers don't tend to fall into that group. I seriously doubt if the advent of the non-linear DAW hurt Quincy Jones because his focus was always on the music, the end result, not if X tool was cooler than Y tool some other guy had.

Some other random guy? Sure. He got fascinated by the techology and forgot what's really important.
-

[digitalboytn]

Yes some tasks are streamlined but only to make room for other tasks we could not do when we were far more limited by what our gear would permit us.... I dont have enough time to be lazy...I'm having too much fun.

We're so blessed with accessible technology these days and it's really inspiring...

It can be overwhelming,but if we focus on the end result and reverse engineer the process,it's a dream run compared to what we had to deal with in the analog stone age...

When people talk about going back to the "old ways",you have to wonder if the've really been there before like some of us have...

Darwin said that our survival is dependant on our ability to adapt to change and I reckon that's pretty sage advice...

In most manual cars,there are 5 foward gears and 1 reverse and I prefer the ones that move me fowards

[learnkeys]

The reason you're not using a tape machine right now proves the fact you're now lazier because of DAWs.

i really hope you don't work in any part of the justice system.
your idea of "proof" is a little suspect...

You got me Judge Judy, don't fine me.

[learnkeys]

Technology in general CAN make people lazy, but doesn't apply to everyone.

it can enable lazy people to be lazy, it cannot make a non lazy person lazy.

People can develop "lazy" habits if they are forced to use "shortcuts". Could you imagine physically working with a tape machine and edits? You have been made physically lazier due to the nonexistent need to manually exude energy for a given task once demanded by analog hardware, etc.

no, that task has been streamlined leaving me with energy to put in to playing the instruments.
if i chose not to redirect that energy, that would be on me, not on the technology.
using the technology is a choice, if i chose to use tape i could. but ive been there, and given the kind of tape machine i could probably afford, the trade off would be harder work with less favourable results.
if i had a chance at a top of the range, reel to reel, with quality preamps. then the trade off might be worth it, for the sound quality.
otherwise, digital is good enough.

The reason you're not using a tape machine right now proves the fact you're now lazier because of DAWs. Sitting all day in front of your computer doesn't constitute a good workout, even if you're wearing your VR glasses.

Technology CAN enable and breed laziness... especially if it's all you know.

1. I'm not sure you're in the position to determine what effort vurt puts into his work anymore than he could you. I suspect it would be wiser to speak for one's self

2. Your notion is terribly one sided, it seems that for many, myself included that because we have a lot more available to us the concept of being lazy is absurd. Yes some tasks are streamlined but only to make room for other tasks we could not do when we were far more limited by what our gear would permit us. Once again I suspect it would be wiser to speak for one's self and speaking for myself, I dont have enough time to be lazy...I'm having too much fun.

As we are procrastinating talking about it, how ironic.

[learnkeys]

As someone who doesn't need to "imagine" working with tape and edits, it's more accurate and in a sense easier to do it in the audio editor in Cubendo. In that I was pretty good at it with tape, it takes maybe less time, maybe not as it's a different method; for instance I zoom way in and cut visually versus scrubbing. I'm really anal about it, vs getting on with it. Certainly more accuracy is availed.

It's not very much physical labor to literally scrub vs click a mouse or make a mark with the white pencil or draw the blade across the tape. So this is a rather poor example of DAW tech <making> a person lazier.

Your remote control on your TV makes you lazier, hard to argue with.