Limitations of Instruments, Interface, and how those Limitations Affect Creativity

[henrebotha]

 

The most well written songs can be played alone on a piano and are instantly recognizable in that simple form.

 

 

I have to disagree. Taking this kind of view means imposing a certain set of values on what is and isn't important in a song. Radiohead's Treefingers is an excellent song but it is absolutely and completely defined by its timbres, not by a bassline, chord sequence and right-hand melody.

[Randyman]

Drooolmaster said something to the effect about these simpler-is-better threads being very numerous and don't go anywhere.

 

The reason I shared my story about Japanese synths vs. a quality stage piano, is for people like I was 5 years ago.

 

I'd received inheritance money and thought, of course, that getting the best workstation out (at the time it was the Motif XS) was the best thing to do. Very wrong thinking.

 

Some people do manage to be both the programmer and the musician, but for me it's always been one or the other. I WASTED tons and tons of time trying to manage and "make mine" the keyboard that was way too complex for what I really needed, so my post is an attempt to reach out to others who haven't been through this expensive and time and creativity wasting process to hear a clear voice that says, no, you don't necessarily need all that technology, in fact it can be a hindrance to composing, practicing and actually playing music.

[MuzikB]

I look at some Pro Tools sequences from school and think OMG, why so many damn tracks. So much so that I often think there's a bit of obsessive-compulsive behavior going on.

 

Keeping my productions within "workstation" confides has always worked for me. Even when working on other peoples mixes, I simplify the whole thing to 16 or less tracks.

 

What I mean by "workstation" confides is that if the song cannot be reproduced on one of today's workstations, then there's too much going on in it. This helps me keep focused on what is important in the mix.

 

There's several people that I've met that disagree, but again, with all the advances in technology, the music (IMHO) is not getting better and still hasn't repeated the creativity and polished works of the late 1980's to early 2000's.