I'm not sure when the last actual instrument was created.
It sure would be interesting if something completely new was invented that wasn't a spin off of stringed / wind / percussion etc
A thought powered instrument perhaps? now that'd be groovy

True True, sorry for bumping. But I know that for sure now.

Kills thread. A computer will never be able to do this.



RIP.

Well anything that you could do on an acoustic instrument you can record and alter to your taste, so you could do all that and more. There's nothing an acoustic instrument can do that a computer can't.

Dude. Really?

He's not just playing notes. He's feeding off of the whole thing. Watch his face throughout the song. It's maybe 50% notes and 50% emotionally feeding off of the note he just played. A computer will never be able to emotionally improv like Hedges does in that clip.

The computer itself won't feel the emotion in the same as a guitar wouldn't, but who's to say the person using the computer or guitar can't feel emotion when creating music? Technology has advanced incredibly, I think that with the right programs and person at the keyboard you could translate emotion even through electronic means.

Disagree. The day a computer can supplant talent like Hedges, Mercury, Gilbert, or Buckley, is the day I will check out.

It's kind of like telling little Timmy he'll never be president and continuing to say the same when he's an adult who just got nominated by a leading party.

Computers and electronics are viable tools in the musical arsenal. From an instrumentation standpoint, they have incredible versatility, and they aren't hampered by the same physical limitations as acoustic instruments. The tactile experience of acoustic instruments can't be replicated yet though, and probably won't for a long while. For the time being, we will have a compromise where all limitations of acoustic instruments are augmented by electronic tools. The two obviously aren't mutually exclusive.

From a compositional standpoint, I'm always amused when some new article comes out lauding a new AI system as heralding the death of the human composer. AI composers are ultimately limited to the known patterns and perceptions of their audience and makers, at least as they exist right now. Until they have the capacity to generate meaning and context for their creations, they will never match the potential of human composition.