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Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 7:42 pm
by Basslint
Back in the 80s, digital stuff was pretty rough and very costly.

The Fairlight CMI sampler and DAW was used on many popular songs, such as Shout by Tears for Fears, the Miami Vice theme by Jan Hammer and The Art of Noise's Moments in Love. The Series II model, famous for its presets (such as the orchestral hit), cost £30,000 and had 8 bit samples and a 32kHz sample rate. Most free DAWs you can find in the repositories of your distro of choice are better than that. Even the ancient looking ones which use XMotif and OSS, probably :lol:

And what about digital synths? Compare the famous Korg M1 (price tag £1,499) and ZynAddSubFX. Which one is more versatile? I think nobody can say the Korg M1, but still many musicians from Queen to the Pet Shop Boys to Joe Zawinul used it, because at the time it was good.

And do we really want to compare the LinnDrum ($2,995, used on A-ha's Take on me and Queen's Radio Ga Ga) with its 8 bit drum samples and no MIDI support with DrumGizmo? I don't think so :lol:

One might say, well, we are not in the 80s and now technology has moved on, there are things like Melodyne which do not have any real free alternatives and are used pretty much everywhere. To that, I would say, do you really need them to make good music? Back then they did not exist, and yet people managed to make real masterpieces somehow. But that's not the point; what I want to say is that today we can get something for free (as in freedom and as in beer, in most cases) which is better than what cost as much as a house not that long ago, and we should be grateful for it.

I am using hyperbole, but I hope you get the point. I posted this because I just found a thread on reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments ... native_to/) in which someone shared a great free program, Guitarix, and then in the comments almost everyone started criticizing it. This kind of behavior is what scares developers away from releasing free software - it's OK to criticize a program and to inform potential users about its shortcomings, but it'd be better to share these concerns on the bug trackers, or donate some money so that the devs can fix those issues. A program like Guitarix is probably already as good as the digital effect pedals that were used to make pretty popular songs back in the days, it's important to be grateful for what the program is rather than angry at what the program is not (yet).

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 9:17 pm
by bluebell
This shows once more how important good presets are.

Many people are willing to try Open Source software but if they don't get some good results within minutes then they are disappointed.

Yoshimi and Zynaddsubfx do it right. Lots of good sounds out of the box.

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 9:36 pm
by Basslint
bluebell wrote:This shows once more how important good presets are.

Many people are willing to try Open Source software but if they don't get some good results within minutes then they are disappointed.

Yoshimi and Zynaddsubfx do it right. Lots of good sounds out of the box.
Amsynth too, (on Debian at least) it ships with plenty of presets.

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 9:50 pm
by jonetsu
OB-Xa has a fair amount of presets too.

Since it mentions "free software" in this thread the Beatzille, Triple Cheese, Podolski, TyrellN6 ans Zebralette have a good number of presets, especially TyrellN6.

You can make good music with anything. I started with PVC pipes and a Radio Shack cassette recorder. It was good. Not free, but good.

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 8:00 am
by tavasti
jonetsu wrote:I started with PVC pipes and a Radio Shack cassette recorder. It was good. Not free, but good.
Like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOLBn8GKBlA

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 5:21 pm
by jonetsu
tavasti wrote:
jonetsu wrote:I started with PVC pipes and a Radio Shack cassette recorder. It was good. Not free, but good.
Like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOLBn8GKBlA
.

Nah. It was better.

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 3:04 pm
by davephillips
Regarding Reddit, these words from Sonny Boy Williamson:

"There's a whole lots of people a-talkin'
But there's a mighty few people that knows... "

Best,

dp

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:58 pm
by ufug
All the best music is made without any software. :P

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 6:11 pm
by Michael Willis
ufug wrote:All the best music is made without any software. :P
trolling but not trolling... :twisted: ... whatever, I'll play along:

“Do everything by hand, even when using the computer.”

― Hayao Miyazaki

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 4:32 pm
by GMaq
ufug wrote:All the best music is made without any software. :P
So true, they are indeed exclusive of each other...

I think it boils down to "where there's a will there's a way". Music begins with a thought and through an infinite number of potential means that initial thought becomes sound, in my opinion the creative idea is the most sacred part of the process, whether that idea manifests itself as sound through a lifetime of discipline in a music conservatory, through a mobile app or through a kazoo is a secondary concern that really is a judgement call by the composer..

People need to really give up on the whole notion that there is any 'best way' because that is as infinitely variable as the individuals themselves, some want instant results and some take great pleasure in the painstaking selection of tools for the process, some find their creativity killed by any delay in the process and some find the adversity of broken or malfunctioning gear to be a great inspiration and part of the creative process..

Free or not free is really not a concept that will ever find any consensus IMHO.

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 4:38 pm
by folderol
GMaq wrote:Free or not free is really not a concept that will ever find any consensus IMHO.
Now that is something that applies to just about every form of expression! :lol:

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 6:28 pm
by Michael Willis
GMaq wrote:...adversity of broken or malfunctioning gear to be a great inspiration and part of the creative process..
Ha! I have a coworker that went to art school. He repeatedly asserts that real art requires pain.

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 12:12 pm
by rghvdberg
Michael Willis wrote:
GMaq wrote:...adversity of broken or malfunctioning gear to be a great inspiration and part of the creative process..
Ha! I have a coworker that went to art school. He repeatedly asserts that real art requires pain.
ART IS SUFFERING

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 9:33 pm
by jonetsu
Michael Willis wrote:Ha! I have a coworker that went to art school. He repeatedly asserts that real art requires pain.
In French it would require 'pain' which is French for 'bread'. An artist needs bread. 8)

Re: Anecdote for those who say that you can't make good music with free software

Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2019 9:34 pm
by jonetsu
rghvdberg wrote:ART IS SUFFERING
And so we live in exquisite times. Full of artists indeed.