People use NES systems all the time to make music. I can't say I blame them, some of those old theme songs are incredible. It's such a distinct and recognizable sound. I'm sure you could use the Gameboy for the same thing if you knew what you were doing.

yea they do. sometimes annoying sounds but your right. guess just all how you look at it.

from the dictionary:

i'm pretty sure computer can fall into that category

Anything can be used to produce music... That does not mean it is an instrument. Look at blue man group. Just because they use trash cans and sticks does not mean that the trash can is now an aluminum drum.... It is still a trash can...

We're not asking whether a computer is a saxaphone...
Why can't people wrap their heads around the concept of what the word "instrument" actually means rather than what they associate with it?

instrument means something that is used for a certain purpose

in·stru·ment
   /ˈɪnstrəmənt/ Show Spelled[in-struh-muhnt] Show IPA
–noun
A contrivance or apparatus for producing musical sounds: a stringed instrument.


Here is the definition posted on the first entry. Read it.... Producing musical sound... A computer does not produce musical sound. It may produce music/noise via speakers but it is programmed to produce these sounds. Everything is coded and programmed on a computer for eventual output of some sort.... It is not an instrument....

FYI: You have also just made the argument that synthesizers are not instruments.

What can I say? I like to argue! Hahahahaha

I guess I am just old fashioned in my thinking but I guess today's age can say that a computer is an instrument... I just don't think of it as a musical instrument.... It does not require the skill of a guitar player to know chords, modes and scales to produce different harmonies. Nor does it require the sweat of a drummer producing crazy breakdowns and off tempo rhythms.

Sure it does. Knowledge of music theory is just as important/unimportant no matter what you're using to create music.

So you're saying a computer isn't an instrument but software is.

Got it.

a computer does make a musical sound because ALL SOUNDS can be classified as musical sounds. please don't be an idiot.





this is part of the earliest form of computer music



anything with a computer chip that processes ANY amount of data is technically a computer

and how exactly does that declassify it as an instrument?

non-computer instruments you could say are ALL hardware, does software declassify music, so if a guitarist uses a pedal that contains software on a computer chip what ends up coming out of the amp is not music?

You know what else could be described as "a machine which is a combination of software and hardware"? This:

http://www.yamaha-keyboard-reviews.c...010/01/mm6.jpg

Or a guitar with a modelling amp. Or an electric piano.

What discounts or at least detracts credibility from a computer being an instrument is the fact that in it's not you playing the notes as and when you want to play them, it's you giving the computer a schedule of when to play what note. What I mean by this is that, say on guitar you wanted to play a song, you'd have to play the right notes in the right way at the right time. On a computer you tell the computer what notes to play and then rearrange what time it plays the notes. You couldn't "play" a computer live in that way. This is talking about sequencing, rather than if by "computer" you mean more loosely, such as a synth pad or something

A laptop paired with a midi controller could just as easily output to a PA, and be as equally real time as anything else. In fact, with it, you pretty much have by far the most cost effective musical instrument available.

Plus, I personally think there's an amazing quality, and variance of sounds that can be achieved through modern VSTs. It's really stunning how big of a wasted potential VST technology is at the moment.

Of course,it is dude

it's possibly not even the software but the plugin but if i go this far you guys wil probably kill me.my opinion is that the computer is used for many years as an instrument for example the 303 groovebox is a computer made for music using the piano like keys to make your melody,bass,drums,.... if you ask me even the electric guitar is a bit of a computer, definitely if you use a distortion of some kind.My conclusion if you say a computer can't be an instrument i do not agree.
:shycouch:
grtz Mr. Walrus

Technically, it may be by definition. But when I hear the word 'instrument,' I don't think of computer at all... I don't really consider it one.

I don't think the strict definition of something really matters. Especially when it comes to music. If you stretch out a bunch of rubber bands and play them, and use them in a song, you can call it whatever you want but it's still performing the same function as any other more traditional "instrument", which is the use of a tool to create music. Ultimately, I think that's what an "instrument" is defined as. The rest is semantics.

Dali has an excellent point. Repurposing other items to use in the creation of music doesn't somehow negate the fact that the way instrument is defined is in the product. So, according to the definition, anything that creates something that qualifies as music is an instrument.
So that old joke that your overweight grandpa tells about 'The only instrument I play the radio' hyuck hyuck hyuck is actually... valid.

it CAN be an instrument, but for the most part a computer could be anything, really.

It can't be a pineapple.

I don't see why a computer can't be considered an instrument. People are able to use software and such on it in order to make music, so that seems to classify it as an instrument to me.

I'm sure that when people came out with instruments like the synthesizer and the theremin, purists probably found them to be somehow "lesser" than other instruments and didn't consider them as such because they were electronic.

Just how I see it.

Its not what we think of , when the musical instrument comes into your mind..
I mean there's no orchestra of computers, or bands of computers..
to me personally its not:bonkhead:

You've obviously never heard of the Stanford Laptop Orchestra.

Personally, I consider a computer as an instrument. And a very innovative one at that.

While super convenient, simply relying on connotation to define everything is pretty narrow if you ask me...

I see what you're saying but I don't think we need to analyze and get technical about everything. It's like in the 'Is Meat Murder' thread. Technically people are animals... but when i hear the word 'animal' I don't think of people. I think of dogs or cows or whatever. And when I think of a computer, the word 'instrument' never really enters my mind and vice versa. But if I would hear 'trombone' or 'guitar' then I'd think of 'instrument' almost immediately if it's a word-association thing

Hmmm... I remember reading something about how Aphex Twin won a talent show as a child by glitching a television to make music with some sort of computer.

Also, theoretically, you could use the processer beeps to make music.

Well obviously... but you wouldn't get anywhere in this discussion, or any that requires any kind of critical reasoning at all, without thinking beyond a generic association. I meant my comment in context with that, and I wouldn't have posted it if we were playing a word-association game.

Well that's how the mind works. You hear words and you associate them with other things. Technically a computer is an instrument by definition, because it produces sound. But if someone came up to me and ask "Hey, you think a computer is an instrument" my reaction would be to say No.

The whole point of this thread is to debate whether a computer can be a musical instrument. It's also serving as a pretty good indicator of how many people apparently don't realize that... unless, of course, they're silly enough to consider "reactions" good arguments.

Believe it or not, I'm actually not here to have a professional debate. I just don't consider a computer an instrument. I don't associate the two.

You know, anything, from a tuba to a kazoo, is just a tool to get something from your brain converted into something that manipulates the air around you. You can beat someone over the head repeatedly with a 67' Les Paul; Does that make it a weapon? Yes, Yes, it does.

But people make much to much of a fuss over this topic, just because at the end of the day it's pretty unlikely that you're gonna' have calluses on the tips of your fingers from creating a musical composition on your computer. The real question is, Are you being true to your own vision, or are you just ****in' around with some beats? No matter what the answer is, you're still making music, and the computer which has facilitated the process, is the instrument with which you've accomplished that feat.

I used to be a snob about this, but now I think a computer allows someone with crazy talent to not be constrained by the standard sounds available in the local music shop, or by their prices. It's a bloody good instrument.

Yea! Amplifier u can use it as....
also it great thing to use your PC like an Guitar Sound Processor...it' so usefull

A computer is as much a musical instrument as anything else.

Except in many ways it's better than other instruments - it can be anything you want it to be, except naturally acoustic - so it's not an acoustic instrument (unless you count the case, which you can hit and produce a sound from).

It's an electronic instrument no different essentially to other synthesisers that also use software to manipulate audio digitally (and there are a lot that do that - the days of analogue synths are now a misty memory, except among revivalists).

The big difference is that a computer can not only synthesise digital or analogue synths via software, and be controlled by a keyboard, you can also hook up acoustic instruments to it, and manipulate the sounds of those easily through software.

You can even imitate specific guitar amplifier models, so if you don't own a Marshall or a Mesa, you can simply buy a cheap piece of kit that pretends to be one, and crank up your axe and get into your favourite pose before sounding exactly like your favourite guitar hero. I said "sounding exactly", not "playing exactly"...

By running a DAW, you can be an entire band without actually owning anything other than a cheap guitar and a microphone - and it's possible to synthesise both of those too, so neither are actually necessary any more.

I agree that the software is the equivalent of the strings - it's the strings that make the actual sounds, but without the instrument body, the strings are pretty useless - and the instrument body is responsible for not only amplifying the sound - as well as making actual musical sound possible, but also adding timbre and nuance.

With something like a flute, it's the hole, not the air that is the equivalence of strings. No hole, and there's nothing for the performer to connect with the instrument with, like strings. With a sax, it's the reed, with a trumpet, it's the mouthpiece.

So with a computer, it's the software that the musician interacts with in order to get the instrument to make music.

That's my take on it, anyways...

I think so. May we call it "soft instrument"?

Flaccid penis joke?