Comments on: On the utter death of musical arts http://thetarpit.org/2021/on-the-utter-death-of-musical-arts "Now I feel like I know less about what that blog is about than I did before." Sun, 12 Apr 2026 21:17:29 +0000 http://thetarpit.org hourly 1 By: spyked http://thetarpit.org/2021/on-the-utter-death-of-musical-arts#comment-3145 spyked Sat, 01 Oct 2022 08:38:55 +0000 http://thetarpit.org/?p=410#comment-3145 <blockquote>Any gargle about "creativity" and whatnot will easily go down the drain, as the human ear is so easy to trick and the human mind so quick to forget.</blockquote> This is spot-on and in fact has been the norm for quite a while. Take Jacob Collier's adventures in harmonization for example: jazz musicians have been doing this for the past few decades, and there's absolutely no sort of creativity involved whatsoever. One just needs to make note of all the "possible ways" (valid as per some set of rules) to harmonize a melody, then pass these through some sort of algorithm and the result will be tons upon tons of variations and sounds that are more or less beautiful to the human ear. Tie this algorithm to a marketing machine and you have the perfect recipe for "making music". As for the rules, you don't even need to memorize them anymore. I have Rimsky-Korsakov's book sitting on my desk, it cost me ten bucks or something, and just by applying the long list of variations there, I can get whatever it is that I want. And I bet the guys in "the industry" aren't too far off either.

Any gargle about "creativity" and whatnot will easily go down the drain, as the human ear is so easy to trick and the human mind so quick to forget.

This is spot-on and in fact has been the norm for quite a while. Take Jacob Collier's adventures in harmonization for example: jazz musicians have been doing this for the past few decades, and there's absolutely no sort of creativity involved whatsoever. One just needs to make note of all the "possible ways" (valid as per some set of rules) to harmonize a melody, then pass these through some sort of algorithm and the result will be tons upon tons of variations and sounds that are more or less beautiful to the human ear. Tie this algorithm to a marketing machine and you have the perfect recipe for "making music".

As for the rules, you don't even need to memorize them anymore. I have Rimsky-Korsakov's book sitting on my desk, it cost me ten bucks or something, and just by applying the long list of variations there, I can get whatever it is that I want. And I bet the guys in "the industry" aren't too far off either.

]]> By: On intellectual feudalism « The Tar Pit http://thetarpit.org/2021/on-the-utter-death-of-musical-arts#comment-3005 On intellectual feudalism « The Tar Pit Sun, 18 Sep 2022 16:17:21 +0000 http://thetarpit.org/?p=410#comment-3005 [...] amassing as soon as it possibly could. And it's been hoarding everything: from the otherwise worthless music and other forms of expression that lie on the tubes nowadays; to whatever capable heads it could [...] [...] amassing as soon as it possibly could. And it's been hoarding everything: from the otherwise worthless music and other forms of expression that lie on the tubes nowadays; to whatever capable heads it could [...]

]]> By: How to make music in 44100 really easy steps « The Tar Pit http://thetarpit.org/2021/on-the-utter-death-of-musical-arts#comment-591 How to make music in 44100 really easy steps « The Tar Pit Sat, 15 May 2021 13:08:25 +0000 http://thetarpit.org/?p=410#comment-591 [...] as my previous article on the demise of music-makin' ended on an overly optimistic note, not even a week passed and one anonymous reader made a point of [...] [...] as my previous article on the demise of music-makin' ended on an overly optimistic note, not even a week passed and one anonymous reader made a point of [...]

]]> By: spyked http://thetarpit.org/2021/on-the-utter-death-of-musical-arts#comment-575 spyked Wed, 05 May 2021 14:07:31 +0000 http://thetarpit.org/?p=410#comment-575 While we're on the subject, I guess <a href="https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/pasp/pasp.html" rel="nofollow">this</a> doesn't look like such a bad reference for digital sound processing. While we're on the subject, I guess this doesn't look like such a bad reference for digital sound processing.

]]> By: spyked http://thetarpit.org/2021/on-the-utter-death-of-musical-arts#comment-574 spyked Wed, 05 May 2021 14:05:14 +0000 http://thetarpit.org/?p=410#comment-574 This is very similar to what I have in mind: there's about half a century's worth of sound engineering that would very well fit in a single computer program. And I do mean <em>everything</em>, from musical composition (which would look like a domain-specific language of its own, not necessarily limited to Western notation, which was meant more for human than machine interpretation) to filters, mixers, modulators and synthesizers -- it's all just a bunch of textbook circuits/algorithms that'd go well along with some nice scaffolding to gather them together. The closest readily available solution I had used in the past was <a href="https://lmms.io/" rel="nofollow">LMMS</a>, but to be honest I'd rather steal the code from all those plugins piece by piece than try to build/use the thing again. It's not trivial to realistically emulate e.g. an acoustic guitar. I remember back a decade ago or so going through some heavy books on sound modelling, the differential equations were tough to understand, let alone implement correctly. So then you're stuck with at least two books to read, one on acoustic modelling and one on advanced numerical methods (and why not add some <a href="http://lucian.mogosanu.ro/bricks/facultatea-fa%C8%9Ba-cu-aplicabilitatea-practica/" rel="nofollow">control theory</a> in the mix while we're here), which is a great path to follow, except by the end of it you'll probably be left with very little time to make any actual music. To be honest, I sorta like 8-bit music and I'm a sucker for analog synths, so... This is very similar to what I have in mind: there's about half a century's worth of sound engineering that would very well fit in a single computer program. And I do mean everything, from musical composition (which would look like a domain-specific language of its own, not necessarily limited to Western notation, which was meant more for human than machine interpretation) to filters, mixers, modulators and synthesizers -- it's all just a bunch of textbook circuits/algorithms that'd go well along with some nice scaffolding to gather them together. The closest readily available solution I had used in the past was LMMS, but to be honest I'd rather steal the code from all those plugins piece by piece than try to build/use the thing again.

It's not trivial to realistically emulate e.g. an acoustic guitar. I remember back a decade ago or so going through some heavy books on sound modelling, the differential equations were tough to understand, let alone implement correctly. So then you're stuck with at least two books to read, one on acoustic modelling and one on advanced numerical methods (and why not add some control theory in the mix while we're here), which is a great path to follow, except by the end of it you'll probably be left with very little time to make any actual music.

To be honest, I sorta like 8-bit music and I'm a sucker for analog synths, so...

]]> By: whaack http://thetarpit.org/2021/on-the-utter-death-of-musical-arts#comment-573 whaack Tue, 04 May 2021 20:15:16 +0000 http://thetarpit.org/?p=410#comment-573 My <a href="http://ztkfg.com/2018/11/apollo-music-project/" rel="nofollow">first common lisp</a> project I wrote, mostly to get myself familiar with the language, was a synthesizer of sorts. I created a parser that would take a lisp list of notes and a tempo and play a corresponding sound. For example you could write (1/4 G3 A3 B3 C D E F# G) to play the G major scale. You could make chords by nested lists, i.e. (1/4 (A C E) (F A C)) to play an A minor triad followed by an F major triad. At first I played pure tones for the notes, but that sounded uninteresting, so I tried to write an equation that generated a sound wave that simulated the one generated by a plucked guitar string. This took me on a calculus and trigonometric adventure that I never finished with satisfaction. But the exercise showed how understanding music is tied to understanding our physical world. In order to create that sweet plucked nylon string sound, you need to have a solid grasp on the laws of physics that govern the movement of a vibrating string. My first common lisp project I wrote, mostly to get myself familiar with the language, was a synthesizer of sorts. I created a parser that would take a lisp list of notes and a tempo and play a corresponding sound. For example you could write (1/4 G3 A3 B3 C D E F# G) to play the G major scale. You could make chords by nested lists, i.e. (1/4 (A C E) (F A C)) to play an A minor triad followed by an F major triad.

At first I played pure tones for the notes, but that sounded uninteresting, so I tried to write an equation that generated a sound wave that simulated the one generated by a plucked guitar string. This took me on a calculus and trigonometric adventure that I never finished with satisfaction. But the exercise showed how understanding music is tied to understanding our physical world. In order to create that sweet plucked nylon string sound, you need to have a solid grasp on the laws of physics that govern the movement of a vibrating string.

]]>