[PD-ot] Go figure how easy laptop music can be...

[Kyle Klipowicz]

I was actually defending the use of Abelton Live, since if you know
what you are doing, it can be a very powerful FM (with the Operator
add-on) and granular synthesizer.  Plus, if you know how to take a
reciprocal, every delay can be an awesome resonator if you take the
time to calculate the pitches and convert them to ms.  The thing is,
you have to know what these techniques are from a fundamental level to
do anything noteworthy.  (But that's OK, it thins the competition ;-D)

I agree that it is not WHAT software you use, but what you DO with it.
 I've seen lots of good programmers make pretty mediocre music, and
lots of technological babies churn out some great tunes.  Hell, some
of my best microsound work was 3 years ago with vanilla Acid 3 and
Soundforge--no plug-ins.  And I won't even get STARTED on my Impulse
Tracker days.

Everyone always disses on Live on this list, but it has the most
intuitive interface, optimized algorithms, and versatility that I've
seen in a commercial OR open source package.  It should be
acknowledged as a feat of performance interface design (even if it
rips off Star Trek, The Next Generation).  Plus, Robert Henke and
Gerhard Behles have produced some excellent music (often using
Max/MSP).

I'd love to see Pd eventually be able to compete with Live on the
levels of sophistication, usability, intuitive interface,
documentation, DAW operations, etc.  But if everyone sits around and
spits spite, then these features seem more like threats than goals to
the Pd community.

Sure commercial software costs money and is hegemonic and
capitalistic, but let's face it:  people getting paid are WAY more
organized.  Just compare http://cycling74.com to http://puredata.org. 
This is not meant to offend the generous people who created and
maintain the site, but the $$ is an obvious benefit to any software
initiative.

~Kyle


On 3/25/06, David McCallum <d at mentalfloss.ca> wrote:
> I think I'm missing something, I'm not quite sure what's wrong with this
> article--- but everyone here seems to love ripping into it.
>
> Sure, the guy does a complete disservice to laptop music by giving people
> the impression that all you do is drop in other people's loops; but it seems
> that what he's being attacked for here is his software choice.
>
>
--
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