-The End of Hardware?-

Yes I think so. This debate is interesting, but we have to remember that we mix together three different aspects of music-making:
1. Sound generation and alteration
2. Human control/interface
3. Creativity - the use of one

maybe we should say that the hardware as we know it know is at the end and will be replaced by another form?
pc or mac/microprocessor based.
see arturia`s origin.

But these sliders and knobs are hardware, right?



I was talking about beat synced animations.
I can tell you, that I saw way to many EM bands in events faking to play. This is just faking. And not a concert then. Or people doing just a single lead line over a full arrangement that is run from CD/DVD or even an iPod.
Yes, also some eDay musicians were doing things like this.
I saw Kraftwerk faking in 1981 or so doing atleast some tracks as playback. I can tell you, what playback machine they used: a Fostex 4 channel cassette recorder.
I saw TD twice. And in 1982 they were playing many things live, but they also had some backing tracks. It was shocking.
Klaus Schulze had those two Revox tape machines. One for the echo and one for adding backing track. But he was brave enough not to hide them. And he even talked about them. This is a difference from the others. And btw he was one person. TD were 3 and Kraftwerk 4 persons. As a solo musician it is very hard to do a concert without some backing track. But if a group plays, we should assume it is live.
And when I see those newer TD stuff, I am very sure they are not playing 50% of what you actually hear. Ofcause except for the show effect of the woodwinds and percussion.
Edgar did not play a single note on the Mellotron. Why was it there then? Just for show. Show is oK. But why need EF or TD to show instruments on stage they don't even connect to a mixer?
Come on, a concert is a show. But not all shows are concerts.

There are musicians able to play real live. But I see more often fakers and playback musicians on stage.

But again, this is another thread.

If you use a step sequencer, you can alter so many things live. Atleast HaJo does so when we play live. With a linear real time sequencer this is not possible. So the later is indeed very much like a recordings played in front of the audience. OK, altering the sound is possible with sequencers.

Even if you have to hands, you can do nice live music. I saw Klaus Schulze playing a CS80 with two hands. And no backing tape. Just playing a single sound. I still got the recording from this. This was real live. But then he and Rainer Bloss started to play some "Ampsy" tracks with just some sound effects being live.

And by the way:
there thousends of profesional and amateur piano players doing concerts with two hands.