Have musicians been replaced by computers in the studio?

[patrick9480]

I apologize for the academic post, but I require some information, opinions, experiences, anything from musicians and producers/engineers in relation to my dissertation research topic below:

‘One Man Band’: an investigation into how the advancement in music technology has placed the control of an entire orchestra at the fingertips of the modern day music producer. Have performing musicians been replaced by computers in the studio?

Thank you to all who post replies, much appreciated

 

[danny.guitar]

With MIDI being a big thing nowadays (and probably for along time now), a lot of people can really play any instrument they want with a keyboard. Or program it manually.

There are software instruments for everything.

I don't see anything really wrong with it. If I had a drumkit, and the space for it, some nice violins/cellos and a good piano, then I would love to learn how to play those and record them. But I don't. So I use MIDI.

If I were ever planning on going to a real studio I would rather learn and play the instruments myself.

Unless the MIDI is done really well by a good musician/keyboardist, it usually sounds fake anyway. I know this, because mine sound fake. Even when the samples sound real good.

 

[TelePaul]

I've used this analogy before....Bach couldn't play every instrument he wrote music for. Of course, he never gets a hard time for it, and nobody would dismiss his contribution to music.

Certain instruments are very hard to imitate via Midi. Guitar for example, where the sound produced is rarely confined to playing a serious of notes.

I use alot of drum loops (I don't have the equipment to make high-quality drum recordings). But the loops were recorded by some very talented muscians. Is that talent nullified because I've paid for them? No.

For me, there is a huge difference between playing music and producing music. My primary instrument is guitar, and I love recording as a guitarist. It is also an ambition to produce small instrumental pieces for documentaries and independent media...but that's me as a producer and an arranger.

I don't think you'll find anyone on here that will deny that getting together with like minded people to make music is one of the best feelings in the world. MIDI and VSTis have helped me as a musician and as a 'composer' but I don't think it's cheating. Give me the London Philharmonic and I'll yield the same results, it just might take a bit longer. Well...a lot longer.

 

[mikemorgan]

I think there are more "producers" today than ever before, and producers do just that, produce. They create viable product for the entertainment industry using whatever tools are necessary to do the job. It is certainly cheaper and more precise to use computers than human beings when in the creative stage of production. You can't afford to have top-notch studio musicians hang around while you figure out the next line to your jingle, or exactly what musical mood is required for the next scene in the movie you are scoring. Given the flexibility and capabilities of today's computer sequencers, virtually anything is possible, predictable, and repeatable.

No one will argue that top notch studio musicians can be replaced by computers, but people who produce music for a living do so on a budget and often under time restrictions as well. Computers are just another tool to create product. I don't believe anyone will ever take the time to program the perfect guitar solo, because it's just easier to have a really great player do it. But I might program a softsynth to create the orchestral backline of a great vocal because I cannot afford the players and studio time.

 

[Dani Pace]

Computers are just another tool everyone (producers & musicians) is using to speed up or make easier the process of recording. I'm more on the musician side, not really a "puter geek" so my thinking may lean more to the traditional side and favor live musicians. I'm not putting down anyone who can produce music strictly on computer, I just prefer the varied input you get when the music is a colaborate effort. I personally like the little imperfections which occur with live musicians, often computer generated music seems too perfect and lacks personality. I have to admitt though, for me it is a lot easier to create orchestral effects with a midi keyboard than it would be to assemble an entire orchestra. To me, using the best of both methods is the way to create the best music.

 

[Polska_77]

There is one other thing... ever since I got into homercording, and checked out the ease of creating quality recordings of different instruments (which is great!), it really boosted my appreciation for musicians, and bands that use real instruments ex. strings.

 

[daav]

You will see a number of people in the home recording world who play a number of instruments, because of where they are with their livs, they cannot coordinate with other musicians as well and so play bass, drums, guitars, keys, vox all on their own. They might not have intended to go that route, but the aspect of home recording that allows them to make backing tracks and then practice other instruments over them gives great flexibilty to developing talent.

That is one aspect to the "one man band". Along with that you get people who are playing digital instruments rather than acoustic ones. Youtube has tons of videos of people playing triggering devices with drum pads that are activated with finger taps, or keyboards with keys mapped to drum samples for instance. The talent can be as real as anyone who is playing live on an acoustic set.

Then there are loops, synth pads etc, where you have a predesigned musical phrase, with melodic and harmonized notes and rythyms choosen already and a user chooses the one that bnest expresses their musical ideas, or arguably, allows their musical ideas to be shaped by the loops. I personally find this to be music still, but not as creatively interesting as actually creating all the music from scratch. kind of analagous to a collage artist vs a stroke-by-stroke painter. You can look at the artistic results and make choices about what is most pleasing, but there is also a strong point that the painter is putting more of their talents into their work, and thus has more responsibility for the end results.

Daav

 

[legionserial]

I just have trouble relying on other musicians in my area, and I don't want anyone else to be part of my creative process right now. I'm happy playing everything myself. If there's a part in a tune that requires an instrument I can't play, then I will figure out how to play that part on that instrument. Of course if we are talking about instruments that I don't own one of, then I'll use MIDI. I wouldn't call it cheating though.

However if I was to make a guitar solo in MIDI, when guitar is the instrument I'm best at, then I'd call that cheating. But then that's a personal thing. I feel that to use a computer to do what I can't do with an instrument I have devoted my life to is almost cheating yourself. See I think it's all relative. If you actually play a particular instrument a lot, then using computers to do what you can't do with your hands could be construed as cheating. If don't play or pretend to play an instrument, using a computer to do it doesn't seem so cheaty to me.

At the end of the day though, it's music, there are no rules. Do what you want. If that means using a computer and synthesizing, then so be it, same goes if you are taking the organic approach. If I smack my wardrobe repeatedly with a frying pan and it gets the sound I want, then there's no problem there. The same should apply for using a computer. If it's what you're looking for, then go for it I would say. I personally prefer the organic approach, but that's mainly because I get to learn something about an instrument I knew nothing about maybe. And to me, learning about music in whatever capacity is my favourite pastime next to playing music and producing music.

 

[Track Rat]

Not in my experience. Computer is just a storage device. It still comes down to musicians writting and playing music.

 

[tango]

I think it depends on the instrument, how important the part is being played on that instrument and the cost of hiring the musicians.

 

[Greg_L]

I play and record all of my own instruments without any trickery. My shit is just drums, bass, and guitars anyway, so its no big deal. I'm a purist by default because I don't know jack-shit about MIDI or synths or any of that fancy stuff. I don't knock people for using MIDI-this and drum-sample that for drums because not everyone can play or owns drums. But having said that, I'll never in a billion years use a drum sample when I have a kit sitting right behind me, a bunch of mics hanging off of it, and enough tracks to record them. But again, I know not everyone has that luxury, so I don't mind or think its cheating for anyone using fake stuff.

What I really think that digital home-recording has hurt with the average-joe musician is simply having some musical chops. You don't have to be that good to lay down some good stuff. The super accurate auto punch-in feature of digital recording alone has made it so anyone can flub their way through something like a guitar solo or other technical or intricate piece of music without having to actually play it smoothly the whole way through. I'm not too familiar with old tape recordings, but I imagine that it was probably somewhat of a pain in the ass to do a bunch of punch-ins with tape with the accuracy you can now with digital. Maybe I'm just a skeptic, but now that I know what even us home-hacks can do with some simple software, when I hear something that sounds really good, I have to wonder how much trickery was actually involved. Speed-metal drumming comes to mind.

Computers and digital recording are a blessing and a curse. It sure is fun though.

 

[DVincentW]

Blessing & cursing ...

Orchestral film sound tracks now can be done entirely in the midi , not just 'stingers' , scores have (you know) been done this way , as in Hanz Zimmer (Black Hawk Down) . Which Im sorry to off-topic , is fantastic...
When you devote your entire life to an instrument , it plays a vary blue tune to be replaced in such a way.
I did a session -per-diem c. 1988 . Went to Eben Ozens ; studio in the village for a rap tune called "Cat in the Hat" -Little Benny & the Masters(?) They sampled me guitar onto a Fairlight -recorded from 2 inch tape , arpedgiations , riffs strum & drang ... I heard kids playin it on a boom box in the the subway about 8 months later , the record stores the twelve inch disc had me playing on it , but not a penny paid or word ever was said ...The assface that got me up there to do this was a total cokefiend .( He inherited alot of money from pecan farts) before the 'Cat inthe Hat' rap tune came out , I remember him grinding his teeth between saying my name was going to be on the linear notes as , D"Stab" or was it "stunn"?" and trying to grab some girls gotee ...He currently runs a Pancake house Centerville MD .
This medium has its place , but part of the musicians ability to adapt to the computer age is being able to play with it . The only way humans will ever be better , is to be better than what he/she created in the first place .

 

[goodwill559]

Consumers are the ones being replaced by computers!

 

[johnnymegabyte]

Studios have been replaced by computers