EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

I wrote:

>  > I sympathize, of course, but it's not fair to imply that anyone who
>  > uses VG is a wanker and a thief.

From: teddybut <teddybut@...>

>Wanker and a thief? and then quoting me? I did not say ANYONE who uses VG is
>a wanker OR a thief. I said this ONE guy I know who uses the CRACKED version
>of it and makes BAD music is a wanker and a thief...

Then I apologize for going off the deep end. I felt the need to 
defend my review in Electronic Musician a couple of months ago. 
Somehow I took your example as a general slagging of VG. My bad.

>I welcome VG and others like it with open arms, as I said in my post which
>you quoted, I don't have to go to anyone's studio and do totally stupid
>things anymore because now there's a plug in that will do whatever anyone
>wants. It's great... no sarcasm intended. I really am happy about it.
>
>The really great thing is that I now will only get hired on gtr because
>someone needs MY personality on their track. I used to get hired a lot to
>play anonymously... (can you not be so exiting?) which I am good at, but am
>bored by. So bring on the robot gtr players... I'll save my soul for other
>things.

No question, VG has severe limitations, and it doesn't have any 
personality on its own. I still find it useful for certain things.

*****

Now going way OT:

  From: <HELP@...>

>  > If you're going to make a work of art,
>  > you don't grab a painting someone else left half-finished and 
>mass-produced.
>>  You start from scratch.

From: Nassau <nassau@...>

>i know what u mean but think about it, andy warhol is one of our greatest
>Artists

I like some of his stuff very much, but I think you can take it all 
in and get the whole point pretty quickly. Right away, in fact, even 
though there certainly is some subtlety to the way he put things 
together.

On the other hand, I could spend hours (and in fact have) looking at 
a single Picasso, Matisse, DuBuffet, and a few others and still keep 
seeing and feeling new things. Those are our greatest artists, in my 
opinion.

>  and what are his finest moments? campbell soup and marilyn monroe
>collages. i'm 99% sure he didn't make the campbell soup design in the first
>place or shot the photo of marilyn.

Right, and he made his point: anything can be "institutionalized" as 
art. It wasn't necessary for anyone else to say the same thing.

...and reading ahead, you say exactly what I say:

>anything can be cosiderd art.

Warhol is a great example to make your point! There are also 
differences, though.

Lots of people have used loops in really clever ways - that hilarious 
version of 'Watermelon Man,' for example.

But my objection is that most people use loops in a really watered 
down way. If you listen to, say, Weather Report (I just put on an old 
album so it's on my mind), they have this incredible groove going 
that keeps evolving; half of what you're hearing is implied - you 
hear parts going on that they aren't actually playing at that moment. 
You're going "ooh, ah" all the time.

And then someone comes along and samples one bar of that and keeps 
looping it over and over. There's nothing really wrong with that, but 
it's ridiculous to compare the two.

It's great that untrained musicians are able to get involved, and I 
have nothing against that. Different thing, though.
-- 

Nick Batzdorf
818/905-9101, fax -5434, cell 818/601-4874