EXS 24 Logic Sampler Users Group

On a fine day, 08-03-2003, Jer Olsen wrote:

>I just realized that I shot a grenade at Hendrik. Hendrik, your statement
>was really out of character. I think I was a bit harsh, but it surprises me
>that you would post a statement like this.

OK, maybe I was a bit fast and harsh, for which I then obviously 
should apologize to the list in general and Nick in particular.  Let 
me explain a bit, since usually (as most of you hopefully know) I'm 
not the most unreasonable person on the planet...

What I read was: timing is THE carrier of musical emotion.

My association with a statement like this: house, dance or any top-40 
tune, tight to the microsecond, but most often with a complete lack 
of emotion.  And a documentary I saw some time ago where an old 
Afro-American sat in front of his house, playing Bach on a bluesharp, 
sending shivers down my spine.  This Afro-American surely couldn't be 
othered with sample-accuracy.

With such associations, a rather unqualified statement like 'timing 
is the carrier of musical emotion' indeed starts to look a bit silly, 
and sounds like something one of my 18-year old students could have 
said, making "great tunes" on his home-PC with out of the box loops 
and stuff -- especially since harmony, melody and all other 
ingredients that make up music seem to be downgraded to second-rate 
(which many 18 year olds indeed seem to do), which imo they aren't.

Maybe (or should that be 'probably'?) I read something in this 
statement that wasn't there -- maybe the statement was completely 
innocent and I made it into something else.  In that case, once more, 
I apologize, even though I still feel like such a statement could do 
with a bit more nuance then.

>Please accept my apology for being rash, but take my response with a
>grain of salt.

You don't need to apologize -- but thanks anyway.  And no, no hard feelings.

-- 
Hendrik Jan Veenstra  <h@...>
Omega Art: http://www.omega-art.com