>On Sat, 2 Oct 2004, Jon Johanning wrote:
>
> > But I wasn't just thinking of the computer as a Net appliance. I use
> > it, with and without the Net, in my work, in which it is a vast
> > improvement over the typewriter. I also use it for many applications
> > that would have been impossible in the '50s. I consider it a tremendous
> > invention -- even though Bill Gates has done his best to muck it up.
>
>I've been playing and recording music for 25 years, and it's amazing how
>computers have changed things for the "little fish" without major
>label record contracts. Back in the day, we worked on 4-track machines
>and mixers with (if you're lucky) two effects sends for reverb/chorus/
>delay. Now, using computer software, we have a hundred tracks,
>we can put dozens of effects on the tracks, we can screw around with
>the sounds in new, creative ways. Granted, there is still some
>stuff that sounds better on analog equipment (drums, loud guitars),
>but computers have really made the creation and distribution of
>music far more "democratic" than in the pre-computer era.
>
>Miles
This misses the point. Music is not about technology. Was Woody Guthrie kicking himself thinking "damn I wish I could mix more sound effects into my stuff"? More precisely were people qualitatively less happy making music the "old fashioned way", with instruments, than people are today with electronics? My answer is no they are not. Is music better today than "yesterday", again my answer is no. There has always been and will always be good and bad music. You could find both easily 40 years ago and can today. Creating music is no more democratic today than 40 years ago. The price of an instrument 40 years ago is not much different than the price of the equipment to make sounds with today. Better than 200 years ago when instruments were prohibitively expensive for the common person but not so different through the last half of the last century. Distribution improvement is a two edged sword. Ten times cheaper and easier to distribute but with 100 times more choices for it all to get lost in is not necessarily an improvement. Some would say yes, some no, but there is no definite answer to that. More technology isn't necessarily more creativity. The opposite may be true.
John Thornton