There are some interesting prejudices being revealed here, of which I am certain those who hold them are completely unaware. Let me begin with an example from outside our community.

The most common reaction I get from musicians to whom I demonstrate BIAB is essentially, "That's cheating!" (This, in one case, from a man who still does step programming in the sequencer of his DAW.) It is similar to the response I have gotten when I mention the songwriting aid MasterWriter here. "That ain't how Gramps did it!"

THEY'RE ALL TOOLS, PEOPLE! But tools change, and the early adopters are often castigated for it. It happened to J. S. Bach, it happened to Stravinsky, and I am sure students of music history can name many others. Nearly everyone here is involved in computer-aided composition and arranging—that's what BIAB, RB, and PTPA are for. So I find it more than passing strange that anyone here would criticize others who do the same thing, but with different tools.

At some point these discussions usually arrive at the definition of music. Okay, here's a fact about me. I listen to ambient, experimental, and New Age stuff that I'm sure some of you would have trouble accepting as being music at all. There is often no discernible beat and no melody. But because I accept Zappa's borrowed definition of music as organized sound I have no problem with that.

Which brings me back to youse guys. Being the otherwise forward-thinking individuals that you are, I am always surprised when there is such vehement resistance to this idea. Just to be clear, when I say "DJ" in this context, I am NOT talking about turntablists (yes, it's a word). I am instead referring to someone who uses electronics, software, and occasionally keyboards (usually to trigger samples) to produce music/organized sound that did not exist before the performance. There is no question that it is music. Musical Improvisation is impromptu composition; ergo, the performer is a composer. And where does music come from? Instruments, right? Which leads to the inescapable (to me) conclusion that whatever was used to compose and perform that music, be it BIAB, Ableton, Reason together with a OC or Mac, is, again by definition, an instrument. Q.E.D.

You can't talk me out of it. I just wish some of you (not all, of course) could relax enough to accept nontraditional musicians and instruments.

Last edited by Ryszard; 04/13/15 06:34 PM.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."