I was wrong about players, or was I?

[TritoneAddiction]

I used to think players were pretty useless to be honest. Just didn't see the point at all. Why not just learn your scales, chords, some theory and these players will be redundant. Also most of what I heard just sounded like they couldn't replace "real" song writing from a human. Most of what I heard sounded like "players" generating computer like sounds/notes rather than having been composed by a human. I still feel like this is true for the most part.

But what I've realized lately is that these players aren't supposed to "replace" the more traditional way of writing. Instead they can be a tool to coming up with new ideas that you wouldn't have with the traditional way of writing. You still have to put effort and taste in to make these players work. They won't write awesome music for you. But they can be great for sparking new different ideas. It's then up to you to then tweak what these players give you and make something musical and interesting out of it.

With REs like Beatmap, Evolution and Delta I've completely changed the way I look at players. I'm even considering making some sort of player/generative inspired project just to see where the hell that would take me.

[Loque]

Its the same with patches of fx and synths. Good for inspiration and if you need to do a job quickly. But in the end, the best results are created if you take it further. Make your own patches, your own melodies, chord progressions, create inharmonics, create something completely different.

One sentence i heard quite a few times in the last times is "we make happy accidents".

38116975.jpg (74.03 KiB) Viewed 537 times

[plaamook]

Get good a lining up your happy accidents and you've got a job.

Personally I get bored as hell wth my own ideas. If it wasn't for linig up generative accidents I'd never have gotten involved. I need to not quite know what's about to happen.
Thing is its always like I'm listening to other peoples music. Which is great in a way brcause I get really into what I'm making w this mad sense of wonder and discovery when I'm deep down in the water column but whenever I look back I always wonder if I've actually 'done' it. It's very humbling.

[Jackjackdaw]

If you approach them with the idea of replacing a played instrument with a robot then they are going to disappoint. You need to learn to play the players!

[loopeydoug]

I felt pretty much the same with that initial Props run of players. However, the players have generally gotten more robust and creative as we've come forward.

[motuscott]

Where is this water column you speak of

[Auryn]

ITT Tritoneaddiction confesses to having been a playerhater, but ends up chilling with the OG's... in all honesty though, I think that despite the thoroughly luddite idea that a human element is needed in musical composition, just like chess there will be a time in the near future when AI will become so powerful it will learn and analyse all of recorded music in a matter of days, then using popularity data it will discern the patterns/harmonies/chord progressions that are most pleasing and write better music than any of us.