"Real" Instruments or "Computer" Music?Music 

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Real Instruments or Computer Music?

  • I prefer "real" instruments.

    Votes: 59 50.9%

  • I prefer "computer" music.

    Votes: 7 6.0%

  • I prefer them equally.

    Votes: 50 43.1%
  • Total voters
    116

Oh, what a night we had last Sunday at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. The glitz! The Glamour! SEACREST! Where do I begin?? Chillin' with Lil' Wayne...meeting Cyndi Lauper's adorable mother...the complimentary blinking Coldplay bracelet.....much too much to recap. It's really is still a bit of a blur. But, if there's one thing that I remember VERY clearly, it was accepting the Grammy for Best Rock Performance...and then saying this: "To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what's important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that's the most important thing for people to do... It's not about being perfect, it's not about sounding absolutely correct, it's not about what goes on in a computer. It's about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head]." Not the Gettysburg Address, but hey......I'm a drummer, remember?

Well, me and my big mouth. Never has a 33 second acceptance rant evoked such caps-lock postboard rage as my lil' ode to analog recording has. OK....maybe Kanye has me on this one, but....Imma let you finish....just wanted to clarify something...

I love music. I love ALL kinds of music. From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5.....I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn't matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician's personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and.....human.

That's exactly what I was referring to. The "human element". That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became "bad" things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily "fixed". The end result? I my humble opinion.....a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

And, unfortunately, some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance. Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell...I'm not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really ****ing hard so that I don't have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that's what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real.

I don't know how to do what Skrillex does (though I ****ing love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that's badass. We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the "craft" is equally as important, I'm sure. I mean.....if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right? (See what I did there?)

So, don't give me two Crown Royals and then ask me to make a speech at your wedding, because I might just bust into the advantages of recording to 2 inch tape.

Now, I think I have to go scream at some kids to get off my lawn.

- Dave Grohl
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I have a soft spot for certain instruments. When a pitch hits a certain spot, it sounds so beautiful it makes me tear up.

Alto sax and an erhu are the biggies, as well as an electric guitar and violin.
 
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u stil need 2 compress more m8.


but as for the "Real" Vs "Computer" argument, why not both? A lot of EDM artists are using real instruments in their music to create some insane stuff. Skrillex has a killer riff in the new Dog Blood song Kill 'Em With The Beat, Phuture Doom have been making the most insane DnB Horror with elements of Black Metal in their songs like Burn The Knowledge and Black Acid Reign. Justice has also done it in Audio, Video, Disco, and Daft Punk with Random Access Memories, and Disclosure has made a lot of their music using real instruments and DAWs.
 
AOS-
I have a soft spot for certain instruments. When a pitch hits a certain spot, it sounds so beautiful it makes me tear up.

Alto sax and an erhu are the biggies, as well as an electric guitar and violin.
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Of course, this ties in too well to my preference of "computer" music.


The erhu is almost unheard of, here. Why? Because it's a fiddle that almost no one in its native home, in China, has heard of. I love it in a way words can't even explain, but... It's no less uncommon because of my opinion of it.


However, on my computer, I can sample, and "remix" the melody of the erhu, without changing the pitch and tone. I can take the notes from someone else's song, note-by-note, and re-order them to make my own song. And, it costs me nothing. Then, I can add Chinese drums... And it costs me nothing.


Then I can add an electric guitar riff, it costs me nothing.


Adding instruments is no longer about finding 18+ musicians to play the number of instruments and $10,000+ to buy all of those instruments. Suddenly, it's a "one-man-orchestra." It's a beautiful thought, that anyone who can play a couple of instruments (piano, drums, etc.) Can make a full symphonic piece without spending more than $300-800 for the Digital Audio Workstation.
 
I see where you're coming from, and it is good for people who don't want to learn an instrument or who can't afford it. But you can't emulate musical emotion quite the same by doing that. You listen to a really good guitarist playing an emotional flowing solo, it will never quite flow the same if you just sample others.

A good example of this is a metal opera called Avantasia. Now don't switch off at the word "metal." (I know you're considering it :p) Because all their albums except for the newest one have had orchestras which have been made with samples. Listen to the first minute or so of "The Wicked Symphony," it's orchestral intro is made by sampled instruments. However, move on to "Savior in the Clockwork," Listen to the first 60 seconds. This album has a real orchestra, it sounds so much bigger, and so much more powerful. It's hard to explain the difference, but I can really feel the difference when it's not sampled (maybe that's just me though).

But that said, the sampled stuff still sounds real, just I think more can be achieved and more respect is earned for playing it for real. Computer made music. Beautiful to hear and think about the possibility of doing it with such limited resources. Doing it for real, beautiful to watch and hear.

... And what if you have a power cut? :p

Wait, laptops.. Damn it, technology.

Okay, power cut and the battery dies.

JohneyPixel
"u cant compress stuff with them

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:lol: Oh yes you can. You can compress the head of your enemies with an electric guitar. :p
 
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:lol: If the power goes out, I'll go back to the symphony.


My family has a tradition, now. In February of every year, we go to see the Symphony. I love real instruments, too. But, alas, I can't afford instruments while attending college, saving for rallying, and possibly... Whatever else I'll need money for. :dopey:
 
No offence to EDM fans out there, and this is ONLY ONE PERSON'S OPINION, but I have a hard time considering someone who uses a computer to make music a musician. EDM artists are very talented with what they use to make their music (except for Skrillex xD), but you can appeal to a much broader audience if you play an actual musical instrument. All you really need to get going as a musician is an instrument of any kind, but to be an EDM artist, you need a lot of computer knowledge, a good computer, and a ton of time. Like I said, this is ONLY ONE PERSON'S OPINION!!!
 
I prefer "real" music. Why? Because I simply haven't heard a single song, live or on tape/whatever, that matches a live performance with real instruments. Can I explain that? Not quite.

Why would I, though? Music, to me, is a deeply emotional topic. As such, I'm content with that as an explanation. I just doesn't feel as nice when listening to it. Now, I do enjoy listening to, say, Deadmau5 and such. At times, even Savant. And I do recognise their talent, I admire them for it, actually. Them making electronic music doesn't take a thing away from that. But does it get the same sort of feeling across to me? The feeling I'm getting from instruments being played live on stage? No. It just doesn't.
 
I have heard some good music that was done electronically, but nothing really sounds as good as real, analog instrumentation.

For me, sound quality really matters on a recording if I'm going to shell out money for it.
 
e30 freek
A mix of both but i hate that grime music and dubstep
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Not to be "that guy," but there are other forms of dubstep. The most common association with dubstep is "brostep," the style used by Skrillex and other mainstream dubstep producers. This is that loud, abrasive style that many people don't like.

Then there is instrumental dubstep which can actually sound very good. Two examples I can think of are:
Blackmill - Friend

Blackmill - Miracle (my personal favorite dubstep song)


Then there is the original style of dubstep that originated in England in the 90's. It sounds a bit different from what you hear today, but its still good (and better than brostep).

I just want people to know there are other styles of dubstep than "D-D-D-D-DROP DA BASS WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB SNOOPINGAS WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB"
 
Now that the bump has been done, I feel like as a musician I should contribute.

You could program a computer to play a piano concerto that sounds exactly like a real concert pianist playing it, right down to the slight imperfections in time, technique, etc., and it would still be nothing like a real person playing it. Half of the live music experience is the emotions that the person conveys. When someone is pouring their emotions through a musical instrument you can feel it, not just hear it, and it is those emotions that are coming from their soul to yours via their instrument that separate analog music from a digital reproduction. Technically as soon as you put a mic in front of a musical instrument it is no longer analog music, but such is 99% of live music nowadays. The best recordings ever made played on the highest quality equipment ever made will never come close to a live performance, because they are reproductions that lose the emotional connection with the audience. Make it a large group like a swing band or a symphony orchestra and the effect is exponentially multiplied. An orchestra can take you places you could never imagine...but so can a jazz trio playing quietly in a bar. It is the moments of raw emotion in live performance that are the reason I play music, and the emotions you experience from live music that really touches you are not reproduceable by any means, and are among the greatest moments in a lifetime.

All that being said, I listen to tons of electronic music, and the eurobeat/trance/whatever else creates effects and emotions that wouldn't be possible on acoustic instruments - effects that I enjoy very much. I fully support both mediums, as long as nobody tries to replace one with the other, because on either side it wouldn't be the same.
 
Depends , the only electronic group that has very heavily layered "electronic sounds" is pendulum to an extent it sounds like its by a real instrument.. point and shoot why i cant listen to most electronic music as it sounds flat. A good example of production quality is listening to music in a car or a good surround sound system. Synthetic music that is poorly produced/ mixed sounds murky, most music made by instruments sounds dynamic and crisp and each instrument and sound can be identified individually. Not all synthetic music is made equally . For example pendulums music is mixed with love and dedication and it shows how each sound can be distinctively heard, On the other hand my favorite band working for a nuclear free city's earlier work sounds like crap in a car or surround sound system due to the synthetic parts being two dimensional , its remedied by the fact that they have live instruments in there but it sounds muddy.. Most electronic music especially modern pop, rap etc is produced by top notch mixers but its not as good as say pendulum.. still sounds 2d and id argue the music is crap without the voices. Then there are groups who record there own samples to implement in the synthetic sounds * again pendulum is a great example* . I'm not using musical terms here but yha get my point. Pendulum is often called "lifeless" but this stems from other DNB artist being mad they stemmed away from the digital roots. There second album in silico .. conceived in technology.. as there first album is 100% synthetic. there others aren't.. caused a huge uproar..Id argue that there music is the most alive of ANY digitally produced music.
 
I like Pendulum, but if you think that you probably just haven't heard enough electronic music. Try listening to some Warp Records stuff, and you may well change your mind.



 
Roger the Horse
I like Pendulum, but if you think that you probably just haven't heard enough electronic music. Try listening to some Warp Records stuff, and you may well change your mind.
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again the stuff above sounds so two dimensional, And the guy about dub step above ? So not true, I wrote a whole thesis on the origins of dub step and I even used some sample songs. Dub step originated in the nineties when dnb became recognized and branched out.. it was the rege influence in DNB that created dub step.. All original jungle beets / dubstep was rege dnb .. . Original DNB was also pretty two D basic stuff. what you showed is more like ambient electronic music .. not dubstep..
Original Drum n bass is know known as "liquid" DNB , and for some stupid reason people decided hey , slower dnb in that same style is like dub step so its liquid dubstep.. again what you showed is not dub step.. its more ambient music than anything else.
 
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Real instruments > 'synthesized' computer instruments - every time.

You can also hear it when you have a good playback system and a good source such as a well-mastered SACD or record.
 
hogger129
Real instruments > 'synthesized' computer instruments - every time.

You can also hear it when you have a good playback system and a good source such as a well-mastered SACD or record.
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I would agree with a few exemptions =D
 
TheeFrogmanlego
I would agree with a few exemptions =D
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I guess it depends on how the album was made. There are some "electronic" albums that sound very good.

I just want the end product to sound good and not be a victim of the loudness wars.
 
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I like to produce Progressive House tracks, and work with different synths. But I also play the piano, so I think I like both worlds.
 
I am primarily a trumpet player, and I can also play baritone(euphonium) and a little electric bass. I have a soft spot for "real" instruments, but the majority of what I listen to is electronic music. Like CallmeDan said, not all dubstep is "dirty/filthy/grimey" like people think, although that is good every once in a while. Honestly, I think if you have doubts about dubstep-and electronic music as a whole-go check out Monstercat (record label). There's lots of really great-sounding music, almost all of which uses the same higher-level music composition techniques that people who compose "real music" would use, and there are a few songs which you could listen to and hear what "real" orchestral instruments could be used to replicate it. Honestly, if you can't consider electronic music in the same league as "real" music, your listening to the wrong kind, heard a bad song, or it just simply isn't for you. To each his own, I guess. :)
 
This is why people need to calm down sometimes and just try and enjoy both sides of this things. I love both, nothing elicits soul like a real instrument but electronics can do things to move you in ways that no natural instrument ever could either:



But then again, you could never be this awesome with a computer:

 

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