How Can Software Help You Create Music?
Didn't I already ask that question in my first O'Reilly blog, "How Can a Programmer Help You Composer Music", a month ago? Yes, I sure did.
This time, someone else is asking the question. A whacko group of entrepreneurs, developers, and artists in the music industry have sent out a survey to get your opinion on how software for everyday musicians should be designed to assist your musical creativity.
Click here to go to the survey. If you fill it out, you get a chance to win a pair of BeyerDynamic DT 770 PRO/80 headphones or a copy of Notation Composer (which happens to be the software I develop).
The results of this survey will be published for everyone to see at the Project Bar-B-Q website. What is Project Bar-B-Q? I'll steal a description of Project Bar-B-Q in an O'Reilly blog by David Batinno two years ago:
Project Bar-B-Q (I'm [David] on the advisory board) is a four-day conference designed to shape the future of music on computers. Hosted by the Fat Man on a Texas ranch each October, it brings together 50 experts in chip design, music software, game music, online music, electronic musical instruments, pro audio, and numerous related fields to brainstorm five-year solutions to the industry's most pressing problems.
So, why do I describe Project Bar-B-Q as a "whacko" group? O'Reilly's blogger, the Fat Man, created it many years ago and hosts it every year. Need I say more? (Read the Fat Man's blog on "Sounds of Crashing Hard Drives" for clarification.)
Please do fill out the survey conducted by a workgroup in this year's Project Bar-B-Q, so that you can personally influence the future of creativity software for musicians.
And, if the survey doesn't ask all of the important questions, let us know here what you find missing in today's music software that would help your creativity.
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That's a great survey - I see its been live for a while, where can I see the results?
MAGIX music maker is actually i good example of a programm which help to get creative...
> Thanks for creating the survey, Mark.
Actually, this survey was created by about a dozen of us at Project Bar-B-Q. In taking this survey, one might think of it more along the lines of chatting with a dozen interested folk in the music industry, who are jotting down some notes as you speak. It's not like filling out a professional survey prepared by Gallop.
In my opinion, the statistical validity of the survey will be suspect. However, I think the published results might nevertheless inspire some software developers to think horizontally about providing new types of music creation tools.
This work group at Project Bar-B-Q was particularly inspired by the success of Guitar Hero. A whole new generation of Guitar Hero players is ready to improve their musical skills and make their own music. Perhaps that heightened interest in tapping into the Guitar Hero energy led the group in a different direction than thinking about, for example, strings and woodwinds. I think I was the only classical music guy there. I had to lobby pretty hard to get a question about music notation added to the survey ;-)
I quite agree with you that "it's important to realize that the computer is an instrument in its own right." It's a very accommodating instrument in that you don’t necessarily have to play it in real time. You can keep retrying until you get it to sound the way you want it.
Also, the question "If you're not making music now, why not?" shouldn't be mandatory, because if a respondent is making music, there's no answer listed. I'd also make the income question optional.
Thanks for creating the survey, Mark. I'm taking it now.
It's surprising that Question 6, "How interested are you in playing or making music with the following... [guitar, keyboard, drums, DJ gear, voice, other]?" didn't list computers as one of the options. When we did a similar survey at Music & Computers magazine a decade ago, asking readers to identify their primary instrument, guitar and computer were the top choices.
Of course, you might expect that from the title of the magazine, but it's important to realize that the computer is an instrument in its own right, not just an emulator of traditional instruments.
And how about strings and woodwinds?