RE: hiding behind technology (was: what a loop has to say)

[Warren Sirota <wsirota@wsdesigns.com>]

What a great and subtle discussion.

I always experience this dichotomy strongly. I usually feel (rightly or
wrongly) that in a live performance, I have to prove I can really play
guitar early in the show, and then everyone can relax and we can have a 
good
time. I'm losing this feeling more and more, though (probably because it's
harder and harder to prove...)

I think the "rules" are different for live and recorded music. I think that
the live performance experience imposes a requirement that most of us feel
to somehow impress the audience, to make them feel like not just anyone
could be sitting up there in front of a rack of gear and making these great
sounds. I don't think this is a bad thing. It's just not easy with Tech.
Recordings don't have this "virtuosity" requirement (at least not always),
since how they're made is usually obscure.

Live, if the technology appears to be too much like magic, then the effect
can be numbing. That's one reason that I like to play in ensembles with
less-magical technology, and specifically to use the high tech as one
element among many in a show.

I also think that the creative energy that you invest in customizing the
tech ahead of time shows in the results that you get. It's not my doctrine
or judgement, but my own experience that if I take a preset in a synth 
sound
or effect and tweak it, add some modulation behavior, or whatever, that 
then
the sound becomes "mine". I play it, it has a personality, it doesn't feel
like a magic arpeggiator wand. The time spent mastering a device's advanced
functions makes it more of an instrument and less of a trick.

Still, there's definitely a preference in the ears of many people, often
including myself, for acoustic sounds. I try to always have lots of them. I
don't think the audio audience in general is that open-minded, but maybe
they're right - maybe the true affinity of the human soul in music is for
musical forms and sounds that we've evolved from our tribal and genetic
roots. On the other hand, all this stuff is lying around begging to be 
used.
How can you not play with it? How nuts would that be? And how can you not
push the envelope on it once you have it? 

When I was growing up, I was told that exploration was the destiny of the
species. Or maybe it was just too much Star Trek.

Sorry for the length.

Warren Sirota
emo-Technician