MOTM

There seem to be a lot of people frustrated with the state of 
computers and music.

I share that frustration to some extent. Early programs that ran on
my 128 had many features of interest that are lacking in current 
software. I mentioned Dr T.'s Keyboard Controlled Sequencer before, 
because it had loads of features for manipulating midi chunks in 
real-time that were interesting for both performing and composing.

But saying that music software is bloated junk now, or rehashes, is 
failing to separate the wheat from the chaff.

If you look back at old analog equipment, there are a few dozen 
machines that people consider classics, and a thousand also-rans.
When you look at early electronic music albums, its the same. For 
every "Switched on Bach", there are a thousand recordings like 
"Switched on Buck", and junk like that.

There are a lot of applications that are done very well, even some of 
the "rehashes". Take the Arturia Moog software - that brings the
power of modular synthesis to thousands of people that can't afford
hardware systems. Native Instruments has programs that rehash old 
hardware, such as FM7 or Pro-52. These expand on the capabilities of 
their predecessors, and sound good, too.

There are some interesting applications that cover new territory, 
too. Absynth is one example - it can create evolving textures that 
were impractical with older technologies. Reaktor allows you to 
explore all different types of synthesis, and to build your own 
synthesizers. What you get out of it is limited by what you put into 
it.

Another interesting thing that's happening is that the cost to jump 
into computer-based music has plummeted. The English magazine
Computer Music comes with a CD that contains a basic computer music 
system. It's worth a look - it has a sampler, drum synthesizer, 
virtual analog synthesizer, and a sequencer.

Making things easier means that there's going to be more bad music 
than ever...but, hopefully, there should be more good music than
ever, too.