On Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:18:39 +0200 Hartmut Noack <zettberlin@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Hash: SHA1 > > Rob schrieb: > > On Thursday 03 September 2009 06:29 am, cunnilinux himself wrote: > >> what makes existing win/mac solutions unbeatable are thousands of VSTs > >> with thousands of presets working just out of the box. > > > > While you and those who posted followups to your post have piled about 50 > > pounds of snark on the idea, presets are indeed extremely important. > > To have a handfull presets, that demonstrate, how an app works, ist > important. But just to choose an entry in a given list of "cool > killer-leads" and record it, yields in 9/10 cases to those boring > Cubase-beginner tracks, we all have heared before and nobody is really > interested in. here's the problem: in your eagerness to spite these people you think are bad musicians, you would also thwart good musicians who have no interest in sound design. and this is even though the only negative consequence of an abundance of presets is that people may use them to make bad music, which you aren't forced to listen to and so isn't really any of your business. > Jaron Lanier (I know, he is controversal and I do not consider him a > "guru" or something... still he is brilliant sometimes) has told an > anecdote in a speech he gave in the 1990ies, that sums up the matter > quite well. In short it says: > > A industry-guy said to him: > "Well, take a violin, for instance. I mean, a violin has a crummy user > interface. It's so hard to play. With computers we can build a better > user interface for the violin, and then kids will be able to play it, > everyone will be happy..." > > Lanier commented this lengthily but came to a brillant conclusion in the > end: > > "Playing the violin is actually that mystery, it's the end of the line, > it's not for any other reason." quasi-religious conclusion aside, it's a spurious analogy given that the violin is a simple instrument without enough modifiable parameters to benefit from any form of presets. in fact, the violin is analogous to the preset, not to the underlying virtual instrument. (with the obvious and not altogether flattering consequences for your analogy). you play the violin as you would play a given preset, well or badly. but few would suggest you should be required to construct or modify a violin before you are entitled to play it. > get the whole story: > http://www.exhibitresearch.com/kevin/nyc/jaron/index.html > > Music is a complex work of art and it demands care and effort and most > music-loving people like it exactly because of that. It does not need to > be a Mahler-symphony or a Bach-partita - a simple structured song can be > the same as worthwile listening to but it needs to be made with passion > and care and inspiration and it will never be easy. > > Still I agree, that software made for complex work should be as usable > as possible. But there is a difference between usability and cheap > shortcuts to standard-sounds. no, there really isn't. you confuse software capability with user intent. the difference stems from the user of those presets not the presets themselves. i dont think many people seriously believe you should be able to program a synth before you can use it. people are just lamenting that the inevitable consequence of making it easier to make music is the proliferation of bad music. imho, it's enough to say that while its certainly NOT true that musicians must also be engineers, it is true that engineering skills can help in that regard. the only reason i'm bitching about this is because a lack of presets excludes those musicians without a particular technical inclination and so limits the audience for that software. which in our case, harms the cause of linux as a audio plaform. presets are a net gain people. we shouldn't screw the good musicians simply to spite the bad ones. pete. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
