ProEtContra

With today's virtual instruments, audio editing programs...there's no limit...
But what's about Composing music, how to create new song/melody/theme...? Composing music with computers is almost norm? Pro Et Contra?

sleepy jack

what

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The Dave

Me no verb, that unpossible.

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mr dave

my own views on the issue....

composing with computers is not the norm. musicians using computers to compose on is. there's a subtle but significant difference in those two statements. the human composer is still the source of the music, the rhythms and melodies still originate from within the person sitting behind the computer.

i think it's foolish to limit oneself to archaic methods in hopes of maintaining the 'purity' of an ideal from one's youth; it's a recipe for stagnation. a lot of the negativity surrounding technology in music stems more from poor musicians shifting the blame for their own shortcomings onto the technology they believed would elevate their skill beyond what it truly was.

pro et contra...

pro - it makes if far simpler for the composer to get immediate results from their music. modern software applications allow for rough playbacks of all the instruments almost instantly. automation can also be beneficial when it comes to mixing large numbers of tracks. i've even heard of systems that will write out tablature for guitar and bass parts. depending on how well that actually works it would make it a lot simpler for the composer to generate sheet music for their band. it also allows for the creation of music that is beyond the capacity for a single human to play during the creative process but that can be subdivided afterwards for performance (see alarm will sound and their covers of aphex twin material)

contra - lots of poor musicians think the default settings are good enough and then blame the technology for the fact that they ran out of steam a long time ago (if they even had any to begin with). on the other hand it also allows for some people to incorrectly call themselves musicians because they plotted the notes for a virtual instrument with no capacity to actually reproduce the music on a real instrument regardless of complexity. then there's also the public misconception that music created with any form of technology involved is somehow inferior or less pure than traditional methods.

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Davey Moore

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mr dave

it's not that complicated.

what are your opinions on music composed with computers? and the pros and cons (advantages/disadvantages) associated with it.

you people claim to be elitists. tell me you can do more than just list off obscure bands and argue semantics.

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cardboard adolescent

computer generated compositions can be quite interesting, like doctor nerve's nervewares. i don't think it would be too hard to write a program that generated pop tunes, but aesthetics is hard to program, and it would probably still require some producer sorting through hundreds of scores to find the catchiest one, which seems harder than just doing it yourself.

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DamianC

I think its great we have computer generated compositions. Like you said no limits and its less expensive than hiring a bunch of people to play your compositions.

infusician

You can get just as creative with "computer" generated compositions as you do with "human" generated compositions. I think the big difference, though, is that "computer" generated compositions tend to lose that personal touch that a "human" generated composition can bring.

Hmmm..maybe this whole computer generated argument is the same concept as computer generated animations vs. hand-drawn animations. Both are creative artistic forms. Yet, each one was popular during a certain time-frame. Computer generated animations are the norm now and fully acceptable. They are great forms of art but I do miss the hand-drawn animations of yesterday.

JayJamJah

Computer generated music still feels like computer generated music. While it's still an art form and a skill but does not have much appeal to me as a consumer.

It bumps me right from the get go, over production in music makes bad songs tolerable yes, but makes it much more difficult to produce a great song. It takes the natural "flaws" and unique characteristics of the artist out of the equation, or at least reduces them.