-The intrinsic value of music-

My thoughts exactly.

Also, all formats have issues but none are as important as the terrible mastering due to everyone wanting their CD louder than everyone else's.
Or the fact that everyone has garageband or an equivalent and suddenly thinks they have something to say musically. Kind of like anyone with photoshop is a graphic artist.
I think these are issues which have more of an impact on todays music than how it is delivered.
My biggest personal issue is the disconnection between artist and listener with an MP3. I used to scour the liner notes for all the details, the gear lists, who engineered, where it was recorded and marvel at some of the covers. This element no longer exists I get the feeling.

I think this has always been the case since the invention of "Rock & Roll" For years there have been bands who were crap (I was in a lot of them ). When I was a teen in the late sixties and early seventies we formed bands and made reel to reel tapes that we would "force" friends to listen to.

Its just a lot easier now to get publicity with the web and places like myspace. Anyone can make a album in their bedroom and release it to the world. I personally think this is a good thing as however crap an artist/band is, they have the right to have a go.


Everyone who is famous now started out unknown.

I agree totally that everyone should have the right to release whatever they want, BUT it does have a big impact on music and peoples perception of music and especially how people judge music.
The impact I see or hear is a LOT of very similar sounding artists with very similar sounds and grooves. The difference being that they are actually IDENTICAL grooves and IDENTICAL sounds. Before you had no option but to invent and create. Now you can combine elements (in general supplied loops or presets or even themes) and make music. It's a small but critical difference.
It's the classic Ringo scenario. I'm sure there are drummers better than Ringo starr, but you hear one beat of his rhythm and you know it's him. The songs would be totally different with a different drummer. Maybe better, maybe worse, but certainly different.
Same with great composition. Or great sound creation.
These days there is too much non descript but perfectly "decent" sounding music around.

all in my totally biased opion of course

That was a nice first column. But because i have read blogs and columns like this dozens of times before, i would like to see more that tackle a topic, a problem or even an interesting new (or recycled) idea :idea: .

How about a poll for future columns and let members choose what they would like to read about.

Some suggestions: :roll:

:idea: 1) Making music: From idea to laying the foundation (choosing sounds, rhythm and melody) and putting it all together.

:idea: 2) Breaking into the music business. How to be succesfull, and why not... ?

:idea: 3) About different, alternative and older genres of music. What are your thoughts on electronic music made with 'bended electronic devices' for instance.

:idea: 4) The future of music making or 'Are we there yet... ?'
Have we reached the ultimate in electronic music making? Do we need more voices, a richer voice-architecture, multitimbral devices that can play every note in a symphonic orchestra or more complex softsynths?

Well, that's my 5 cents in this Column-forum.

Ofcourse I also wish for the columns to have their own page and layout. An image is nice, but you can't for instance, scale the text.
Also, creating a layout can be a challenge too.

Good luck too all involved in breathing life into another great feature on the EMPortal website.

Will be back soon, Hyper