The future?

[LP2006]

I was unsure wich forum to post this in. It's not really a dilema, just an interesting subject for discussion. I am currently applying to the University of Michigan For electrical engineering and audio engineering. Long story short, one of the many essays struck me as being pretty interesting. It got me thinking about technology and the future. Mostly about how relevant talent will really be in the future of recording. The question is in italics and my answer follows. It's just my what I feel. Opinions welcome.

Engineering (dual degree applicants, please also answer): Where do you imagine your chosen field of study will be in 10 years, and how do you fit into that picture?
I’m sitting behind the glass barrier that separates me from the performer. I slowly bring up the monitor levels, then the instrument channel. We start tracking. A symphony of LED lights flash in thousands of distinct colors in the dim studio. I bring up my slider to 0db, and the console room fills with smooth sound of a tenor saxophone.
The performer closes her eyes and feels the tone of her instrument as she climbs chromatically from A to C. She winces as she holds onto the Bb for just one beat too many. However I hear perfection. A light on my outboard pitch corrector flashes, confirming the alteration. I think back to the days of yore when a performance had to be nearly perfect to get a decent recording. “It’s still cheating.” I say to myself as the sax player holds on the IV note, indicating the end of the session.
In ten years electrical engineering in music will have artificially raised the artist to near perfection. Pitch correction will be everywhere, and midi (musical instrument digital interface) interfaces will exist for every instrument imaginable. Sample rates will be so high that the already fine line between analog and digital signals will be non-existent. Synthesizers will be replaced or hybridized with samplers, creating more realistic instrument tones.
However perfection is inherently imperfect. Perfect music cannot exist, for it is not music. It is the small mistakes an artist makes that reinvents genres, and makes a song interesting to listen to. This is where I stand, the conservative producer/musician who knows the value of actual talent. I hope I can bring a sense of tradition and reality to the music of the future as an engineer or a producer. Humanity isn’t perfect; our music shouldn’t have to be either.



What do you guys think?

[LRosario]

To elaborate on your point,

I think the future of music will always depend on the most important factor of all: human interpretation.

As the tools we engineers use to "enhance" a performance become more sophisticated, the desicions on what to use and what not to use become a bit more complex.

Despite that, if you follow the engineering "creed", then the job becomes what it has always been. To preserve the performance in it's originality.

Our job merely requires us to capture that and translate it onto a tangable medium. Nothing less and nothing more.

So to think of "perfect" music, that's always gonna depend on the listener.

So much for the same reason we still haven't heard the "perfect" song in the thousands of years in music evolution, is the same reason we won't ever hear true perfection. Imagine what the early bob dylan stuff would of sounded like if it was actually in tune.

Art isn't perfect and thats what makes our job a unique experience everyday


Besides, I can name various occasions when a good song was ruined because it was "fixed" way too much. Go figure.

[noisewreck]

Originally Posted by LP2006

Synthesizers will be replaced or hybridized with samplers, creating more realistic instrument tones.

Already was done in 1990. Kurzweil K2000/K2500/K2600/K2661... 'nuf said

I still get enjoyment out of Arthur Rubinstein's performances. He must've been one of the sloppiest classical pianist's out there, and he was recording during the time where extensive note-by-note correction was unheard of... but man are they musical, emotional and moving.