How do you guys feel....

[TheLP]

When people say Pro Tools takes the musicianship out of the music? Some people say it doesn't, some people say it does, Just wanted to see what all the Pro Tools users think. I know you obviously like pro tools, but just wanted to hear your view, like maybe you feel in certain ways it does take the musicianship out of it?

[QuikDraw]

I feel that Pro Tools and DAWs in general add another dimension of musianship to the music.

We've always had punch-ins, tape splicing, echo and reverb chambers, studio musicians to cover parts that just aren't going down right, etc. The list goes on and on... Recorded music has never been about the "pure performance." It's always been about getting the best product out that is creatively possible with whatever means available. DAWs are just another tool.

The way you can slice and dice, and cut and paste, reverse, pitch shift, time shift, sound replace... A creative person can do amazing things with a DAW. What? That's not musical? I disagree. If the end result is music, then whatever went into creating it is, in some form, musicianship.

Personally, I use Pro Tools as if it were just an old analog tape machine most of the time. Most of the stuff I do is not edited much. Sure, occasionally I'll line up a bad snare hit, or paste a good chorus over a bad one, etc. But most of what I do is as pure as it was in the analog days.

But that's just me.

Mike

[SimpleNatureSpirit]

Digital Audio and Tech Toys... It's the same as it has always been. But I'm not sure if you're asking if it takes out the musicship or the geek trip. We've all made music with a recording device or a jambox of some kind, and tried with much sweat and even tears (when the tape was fried) to make it come 'alive'. In the old days, alive meant jumbling around a bunch of electrons in a vacuum tube, now we splat a bunch of bits onto a hard drive. None of this has changed, just the means and the shells. We simply destroy what we have created to make it more tasty for others to hear.

What has changed is more important to all those who've wanted to make noise... oops, music of whatever kind. Today, with a simple PC and a capture box, you can make some awesome creations. That which use to take days or weeks to get onto a decent media now takes minutes or hours. This is what makes the digital age of music cool, having time to do it and the tools are easy to obtain.

There is one other ingredient that helps... Talent! Whether it comes from the voice, instrument or from the mixing board doesn't matter. The rule has always been "whatever makes them want more!". When so many people have access to the power of digital technology, someone will come out and shine with the world at their fingertips. With the speed and ease by which we can do this today, what we see in our heads can be realized in a fraction of the time, and often with much greater quality, than anytime before in this killer digital age. And it's only just begun...