Well to me electro-acoutic music is the "sweet spot," I can play my acoustic oud and throw in my own voice for uniqueness, but then add in csound to make some strange sounds that can't be done acoustically. I'm not a big fan of "all or nothing" my grandpa is one of those kind of "all or nothing" types, why not mix the computer with the string quartet?

Maybe that's not unique anymore, but certainly a standard string quartet is nothing "ground breaking" either.

On Tue, Aug 5, 2008 at 5:07 PM, Richard Dobson <richarddobson@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
There's nothing subversive about it - all the statement really meant was, in a stunning feat of abbreviation, that Macs come with Garageband as a shrink-wrapped standard application. Whereas to date any PC user has to find some equivalent (?) to download and install, before they can start composing music. I have Garageband, and can confirm that it is indeed scarily easy to use, and I knocked up a jolly little number in no time at all, using the built-in microphone which is active by default. A cheap USB MIDI controller keyboard is really the only external thing you need to add to make things even easier. Kids and grownups of all ages can have a fab time with it from the moment they turn the machine on for the first time. There's probably an online manual for it somewhere, but it hardly seems necessary. Such things should not be underestimated.

There was a time when "serious" musicians deplored the guitar, arguing that the notion that anyone can make real music using just one or two chords was absurd, and likely to result in the complete collapse of civilization. And of course, they were right!

Richard Dobson
(who sometimes forgets that the masses are not supposed to be musical, much less be able to compose)





luis jure wrote:
on 2008-08-05 at 09:55 Michael Bechard wrote:

I think the author was simply trying to allude to the democratization
of the music making process to the masses.

yeah, sure, macs are highly democratic and for the masses... perhaps it
wasn't clear what i found so idiotic in that sentence. first, the idea
that "anyone" can compose just "having" a certain commodity (why not
say "anyone with a piano|violin|guitar|whatever can compose"? it's just
as true). but what really got me was the use of a particular brand. he
didn't say "anyone with a personal computer can compose", which i think
is wrong [*] but is a valid point to start a discussion. he said "any
_mac_ user can compose". sorry to be so sensitive about this, but it
really gets me.
once again, sorry for the rant.




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