Everytime I see articles like this I get more and more pissed...

Damn....  I couldn't agree more.
I've had your everyday pedestrians listen to my tunes and they'll ask "howdja do that??".
I mention using a software program and a computer to record multiple tracks...  and before I can finish answering.... they get this blank stare on their face....  cuz they just don't know or really seem to wanna know. They assume that since software and a computer is involved that it's simply a push of a button and VOILA! instant music.
I rarely edit much of my tunes.... or use any of that magic "pixie dust" like some folks assume we must.
Nope.... I just record and layer each track as it comes to mind....  and that works for me.

...or why only let architects design bridges and buildings??...or surgeons perform surgery??...


Just kiddin;-)

yorolpal


...or why only let architects design bridges and buildings??...or surgeons perform surgery??...


Just kiddin;-)

 

kson


UJam
 
Look at this quote:
 
"Our goal was to make music so easy it becomes an everyday thing for people to share songs."
 
I'm no elitist but I do believe you should have to learn music.  I don't want any "Joe" coming up to me and saying "look what I wrote"...because you didn't.  This constant devaluing and dilution of music is really pissing me off.
 
What's even worse is that other "musicians" are responsible for this program.  I don't know about you, but I don't want music to become "so easy that it becomes an everyday thing".  It should take skill, and time, and devotion, and passion.
 
I'm a gadget geek but sometimes tech goes too far.  The comptetion for ears and attention is strong enough as it is without having more "stuff" to weed through.

Would be the leader of the lynch mob?

drewfx1


So what's the big deal?

Mooch?

drewfx1


Nothing really new here - there have been attempts to make music "easier for the masses" dating back well before computers.

Home organs had "chord keys" 60 years ago, and later developed various sorts of automated accompaniment.

Musical dice games (sometimes attributed to Mozart) that allowed anyone to "compose" date back to the 18th century.

So what's the big deal?

If you're just sitting around the house strumming guitar into Sonar and making up stuff just as a hobby, no foul.  If you're a musician that gets paid to create, bigger deal.  Programs like this affect peoples' attitudes toward paying for music and therefore effect the bottom line.  If anyone can do it, they don't want to pay for it and thus making it harder for the working musician to write for films, commercials, etc. 
 
I, for one, don't want people thinking they can go to a program to get their jingles done.  I want to do it.

kson


If you're just sitting around the house strumming guitar into Sonar and making up stuff just as a hobby, no foul.  If you're a musician that gets paid to create, bigger deal.  Programs like this affect peoples' attitudes toward paying for music and therefore effect the bottom line.  If anyone can do it, they don't want to pay for it and thus making it harder for the working musician to write for films, commercials, etc. 
 
I, for one, don't want people thinking they can go to a program to get their jingles done.  I want to do it.

Quite the opposite. If you a musician that's getting paid you're now in the music 'business' & diametrically opposed: creating music for profit versus the art-form.
Whatever the business will allow, anything is fair game.

Sooooo.... UJam is the answer then?

[wondering]

...how much can I sell my DAW and allowable software transfers for?...

[/wondering]

I can remember getting hassled by unions because we had a synth for brass in our band. "You're putting musicians out of work using that"

It's like meeting a self acclaimed guitarist that can rip leads like there was no tomorrow, but ask them to play some Wes Montgomery, blue grass, classical, country or jazz....they're like deer’s looking into headlights. They only know one style of playing.  I just grin...

I guess the same analogy could be used for the new software based musicians. Personally, I think it's great.  Would I be as good as I am today if I had all the technology available 30 years ago?  Probably not.  (Not saying that I'm good but I understand and respect the discipline in learning an instrument.)

I wouldn't let it piss me off though...
Edit: I read the article and laughed.  I learned a long time ago I don't have a lead voice.  I can sing harmoines ok but would never try and publish anything with me singing. (I'll use a megaphone) I'll leave that to the perfect pitch ears and golden voices. I've heard some really good songs but as soon as I hear a out of tune or pitchy voice....I loose interest and stop playback.  I'd rather put in a melodic line or wait for a good vocal track. I would imagine ujam would be like BIAB...limited to what ever style they give you and it would be easy to identify the ujam projects by the composition and feel.  Again, using it to get an idea down quickly....no harm.  Great idea. I'm sure there are a lot of composers out there just waiting to be found. 

 What passes for music now days...I try and keep an open mind but damn...

I would say the ones you can sit down at a table an break some bread and drink some wine with....Computers can't do that yet.
 
Edit: ??? I must have been sleep walking....

yorolpal


...or why only let architects design bridges and buildings??...or surgeons perform surgery??...


Just kiddin;-)

  Ok.  That was a good one. 

I can tell you from experience. At the risk of being called an "Old Dog", in the good old days when I first started out doing sessions the band usually had one or two good songwriters in it. From those guys came the signature sound or style of the group. If it was a songwriter session, the songwriter came in and worked with the players to get what they wanted soundwise. Thus, there was a distinctive style of the writer that would evolve. Now, I see more and more the Producer has their fingerprints all over the material! The producer used to be basically a person who was hired onto a project to oversee and make sure things ran smoothly and within the budget of what the record company was financing. If you were lucky you got a producer that built their rep from being an engineer, which meant he could understand the operation of the equipment and speak the lingo between musicians and engineers. These guys figured out that if they could participate in the actual songwriting process they could reap the benefits of the royalty checks with the artists. THUS, the producers of today were born!! That is why you have such stylistic sounds from producers these days. It is a shame that there seems to be a fear of breaking away from the tried and true way of making music these days. My favorite line in a movie has turned into a philosophy for me. In Apollo 13, Scott Glenn's character says," I'm not interested in what it was designed to do. I want to know what it WILL do." That was the attitude in the 60s and 70s in the music business. Sadly, I think those experimental days are gone.

Someone a long time ago asked the same question about notation.  A real musician shouldn't have any help.  Just two stones.

;-)

[opinion]

Evaluating musicians as good or bad is, in part, a subjective exercise.  It is one thing to critique a musicians technical capability.  Whenever we try to place a value on the artistic or creative capabilities of a musician, our own bias comes into play. 

Good artists are often not the popular ones.  Popular artists are sometimes less skilled, less original, and/or less gifted than those artists who spend a lifetime in anonymity.  How should we respond to this?  We could rant ineffectively against a world that does not hold our personal values as its own.  On the other hand, we could try embracing these new "artists" and use the tools to help them learn to enjoy and appreciate music.  Perhaps some would then be interested in learning to play an instrument and/or music theory. 

It wasn't that long ago when "real" musicians sneered derisively at young punks with their "rock and roll" music.  Keyboardists looked down on guitarists as if they were faux musicians.  Everyone looked down on drummers as thugs who could only knew how to hit things and count to four.  Singers looked down on rappers as vocalists who couldn't sing. 

Can someone "create" music with a tool such as BIAB?  Is it music if it's built on loops?  If I record a MIDI keyboard part and then edit the mistakes out, correct the timing, and speed it back up to tempo, am I a musician or a programmer?  Many people here may consider such things to be amaturish, unprofessional, or unskilled.  Maybe the real artistry is in the mind of the artist - taking an idea, using some tools/instruments to drag it into reality, and then putting it all together to make it sound the way it did in their head.

[/opinion]