[PD] Pd, Max/Msp, Reaktor, Plogue Bidule... How do these compare?

[Jonathan Wilkes]

--- On Wed, 3/17/10, Lorenzo <lsutton at libero.it> wrote:

From: Lorenzo <lsutton at libero.it>
Subject: Re: [PD] Pd, Max/Msp, Reaktor, Plogue Bidule... How do these compare?
To: pd-list at iem.at
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 9:03 AM

[...]

I guess this comes up frequently in 'computer-based' music discussions.
I think it depends much on the type of music/artistic project/vision
you have... I find making the instrument for the music extremely
fascinating and much related with the musician's nature... I recently
found an article (unfortunately it's not publicly available online but
it's on Jstor music) of 1980 by Gareth Loy with the title 'The Composer
Seduced into Programming' which I guess is pretty explicative as a
title per se. I will only cite a small piece from the beginning of the
article where he is explaining the title which I feel pretty close to:
"It is important to note just what the seducing agent in these cases
really is. It is certainly not carpentry or programming, or we would
have ceased as artists and become tradesmen. It is really the will of
the composer, expressed through the discipline of the art form itself
which, in all cases, not just the ones under discussion here, causes
the artist to stray into these seemingly distant fields."

It certainly could be true in all cases, but think about how inclusive 
the phrase "the will of the composer" must then be.  The preface to 
Satie's Choral unappetizement comes to mind-- "I have put into it all I 
know about Boredom"-- plus many others that unfortunately aren't so tongue 
and-cheek about it.

-Jonathan