Re: Lots of fun.

[McCullaghJ@Logica.com]

[Rich:]
> it also gives unprecedented power to crappy musicians to
> put together some pretty impressive stuff.

yes .. and then again, no. It puts the ability to produce material with a
professional sound quality within the reach of anyone suitably motivated
person. But just as an experienced listener can tell the difference between
a good improviser and someone running their scales and modes, some
experience with electronic music will separate Autechre from Billy
Just-bought-a-computer and his copy of Rebirth. As it used to say in the
submission guidelines @ Rephlex: "don't send us a demo if you just got your
equipment 2 months ago .. we can tell."


> what i can create on the hard drive blows away what i am capable of
> producing with my fingersand my instrument.

I certainly know this feeling ;-)


> That we may place a much greater value on music that is actually 'played'
> for us, as it will allow us firsthand to know if the person, or ensemble,
> actually has any musical merit?

err .. now, what kind of musical merit are we talking about? I'd rather
listen to a carefully crafted Aphex Twin track, that may have taken weeks
of work and can't be reporduced live, than yet another generic
rock/jazz/pop song, no matter how professionally it's played. You can judge
the musicians playing from a live gig, but not necessarily their _music_ ..
you might as well ask them to prove the relative merits of the music with a
fist-fight .. now that would be a multi-media experience.


[Roger:]
> Just as a good photographer is (among other things) a person who can
> recognize which out of a roll of shots is the "good one", someone who
winds
> up with very compelling music can be considered an interesting musician,
> regardless of the process used.

Amen Roger .. I like the cut of your jib, and wish to subscribe to your
newsletter :-)
I'm happy (to some degree) that technology has placed a degree of
separation between musicianship, and the ability to play a conventional
instrument, if only because it will force people to think about what it is
they want from music and musicians .. and why.

[Kevin's fictional retro-muso:]
> 'And you know, I want to go back and learn how to spell chords, so I can
stick
> a Lydian Augmented riff over a dominant #11 chord!'

'.. and if I try really hard, I can actually get my head all the way up my
own ass ! Oh no! I've travelled back in time, and it's 1972 .. ohhh look -
dinosaurs'

sorry .. but it was the "technical skill = good music" attitude that
allowed fusion to disappear to where the sun's not.

I think us musicians need to realise that music involves an audience, and
they very often don't care _how_ it's done, they only care what you do. At
it's very best, a player's technique is transparent, and technology has
facilitated this. Maybe it'll just up the bar for everyone.

Just $0.02 ..
I'm off to see Autechre live week after next, so I'll let you know if my
attitude changes after that :-)

John