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=:=: ##b "9###P".mmdb. .d#b .mm"""b + \ . /\ _.-
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=:=:=. "9##b. . mmdP' . # dPmdP .dP"" .--'\ \. /`. \ `-'
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:.::.:::::::.::. 9#P 9###P9P 9###P9# 9#P "9###P" d###P .:.:::.::: ::::::.
.-----------------------------.
.----------------| april 1996 Protracker MOD |--------------------.
.-| `-----------------------------' |-.
| | _ __ ___________ ____ _____ __ __ __ _ | |
| | ///_//____ \ |___.| |_/ \_ _/ |.__.| \\_\\\ | |
| | ~.~| `--' > ____ \. | | | |/ \| |~~.~ | |
| | `::| |___/ | | | | | | | |:::' | |
| | :.| | | | | | | | `- -' |:: | |
| | __|_ _|__|_ _|_ _|_ _|__ __|__ __|:. | |
| | `--------'`----'----'----'.`-----'...`---------'..:: | |
| | `::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::.:' | |
`-| |-'
`-------------------------------------------------------------------'
From TraxWeekly # 53
--[2. "Real" Music]------------------------------------------[Catspaw]--
For those of you who never get off #trax, there does exist a world
outside of our happy little demoscene... and it is a world largely ignorant
of concepts that we take for granted. On a local computer bulletin board,
there is a section in the public registry where each of us can list things
about ourselves, and one of those fields is "Instrument Played". Personal
information, to get to know people. So, in the interests of furthering
global understanding, I put in that field "Impulse Tracker".
I got some really interesting responses.
A discussion started up at one point, where I had about half a dozen
people asking me what that meant. After I'd explained the basic concept of
tracked music in module-derived formats, one rather enlightened fellow took
it upon himself as the godsent of creation to explain to me why what I did
was not truly "real" music.
Excuse me? Rewind that.
Yes, you heard me correctly. Tracked music, according to your friend
and mine, is not "really" music. Trackers aren't "really" musicians. At
best, we're substandard composers who are falling back on technology for
lack of talent. Really. The argument went something like this. (I'm editing
this for the sake of brevity, and removing a lot of unrelated spam from
other people.) I've also changed the name of the skeptic in order to
protect him from an even more public lynching. :>
Catspaw: Uhh... pardon? "Real" music? By what definition?
Skeptic: Well, you don't play an instrument. your not really performing
this music, your just typing this in on your puter.
CP: And your point is? The tracking program is an instrument like any
other. I define an instrument as a tool which you use to create
music, to put into sound what you've got in your head. By your
definition, anyone who programs or sequences music in a synth or
studio isn't producing "real" music either. You've just eliminated
Kitaro, Vangelis, or for that matter any given techno or industrial
group in the world.
SK: well vangelis is a composer though .. the difference is that they can
all play instruments. You've said that you can't. If you didn't have
your computer you wouldn't be able to make anything.
CP: What the hell does any of that have to do with whether or not what I'm
making is music? You've got a really limited view on what an
"instrument" is.
CP: And of course I wouldn't be able to make anything without my computer.
Try taking away a guitar or piano from someone who can only play that
instrument, and see how effective they are at playing music.
SK: no cause an instrument is something like a guitar or drums, or a
trumpet .. you don't need a computer or anything to play those. I've
heard music on the puter and it doesn't sound real.
SK: they can still write down the notes and play them later when they do
have that instrument... you couldn't make music without the samples of
those instruments.
CP: Horsesh--. An instrument is *anything* that you use to make music.
This could be a pair of branches beating on a log, or a Korg, or a set
of Scottish bagpipes. By your logic, any given synth keyboard isn't an
instrument either--they're computers too.
CP: Who said a tracker couldn't write down the notes for later? Frequently
we *have* to, because we don't all live in front of our computers.
SK: well a keyboard is just like a piano .. and like I said, you couldn't
make any music without sampling a real instrument ..
CP: Most tracking programs have the computer keyboard set up to simulate
a piano keyboard. Next stupid analogy, please?
CP: Look, I'm sick of this. I couldn't make music without sampling other
instruments? Ever look in the sample credits section of a tracked
song? Go look inside an album cover of any commercial band; most of
them list off the companies who made their instruments. It's the same
thing, get it? You think those bands could've made their music without
the company or person who made their instrument? Pull your head out.
SK: no no no .. its not the same. it takes years of training and a lot of
talent to learn to play an instrument .. computer music doesn't take
any of that talent.
CP: Oh the hell it doesn't. You have no clue that the hell you're spewing
about. Look, here's the acid test, my friend. Let's meet for coffee.
I'll bring you a cassette tape on which I've recorded a bunch of
obscure commercial songs, and a handful of tracked songs. You tell me
which ones are tracked, and I might listen a little longer.
<At this point SK exited the teleconference and logged off>
CP: That's what I thought.
My conclusion: What the hell? Music is not something you can definitively
put a finger on and declare that a thing is not. It doesn't matter whether
you use a trombone, FT2, ST3, IT, or for that matter if you play Vivaldi on
water glasses with a kitchen spoon. If there's somebody out there who
enjoys listening to it, be it you or the world at large, then guess what:
it's music, by the only definition that matters--yours.
And I have yet to see a flute with New Note Actions or pan positions. :>
Catspaw / Rat
catspaw@eskimo.com
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