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Posted: 2009-01-08 11:08:30 Shortcut URL: http://t.conquent.com/f100 Now THIS is what I'm talking about when I try to explain the difference between using a tool and creating something. Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer’s voice. Just choose a musical style, sing into your PC’s microphone, and Songsmith will create backing music for you. Then share your songs with your friends and family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.Create really, really, crappy background music for you. You may have a song in your head, something beautiful and wonderful to share, and this monstrosity will make it sound like show tunes on the Love Boat. Rather than creating something new, this thing destroys your creativity and replaces it with soulless pap. This is the same problem with desktop publishing, the camcorder, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver. The tools give you the appearance of having a talent, but it doesn't actually give you that talent. Socrates said about writing (because he apparently didn't write), "To your students you give an appearance of wisdom, not the reality of it." Now, I'm not saying that the written word is bad, but we've had literally (pun intended) thousands of years to learn how to use the tool. It's creative when you're the first one to use a tool a new way. Some of the early Internet phenomena were total crap, like the dancing hamster site. People went to these things in droves because no one had done it before, but the talent it took to create a few animated gifs and speed up a wave file was simple. Then the thousands of knock-offs made the Internet a terrible place. I feel that it's our destiny in life to raise the bar, to constantly find new things, and deeper understanding of old things. Finding a simpler way to do something like adding chord progressions to a vocal track is great, but when you put it into a package like Songsmith, you create a superficial distraction. Nothing new will come from Songsmith users, and they will be so self impressed, and so distracted by their little creations that they will never evolve, they will never learn new things about themselves or learn how to create real music. And, most likely, they will never learn what real music is. Turn off the chord generator, and just sing.
Edward Hart: Re: The Death of your Soul: Microsoft Songsmith 2009-01-08 15:25:06 There isn't any substitute for real chords played by real musicians on real musical instruments simply because no two performances will be the same. Listen to Django Reinhardt playing jazz guitar or Art Tatum on piano and you'll see what I mean. There on another planet. If you listen to Teddy Wilson on piano, you're on another planet still. However, to pretend you can't create things using short-cuts of one kind or another such as amplifiers, chord generators, drum machines or Dreamweaver, isn't true. Real music and Songsmith both allow scope for improvisation and nuance. It depends who is doing it. I know which I prefer but I wouldn't say, ispo facto, that the other method has no value. I can't, it depends what you do with it. Two people with a paintbrush will produce two very different paintings, whether they have merit or not doesn't come down to the brush they use. The rssult isn't just a question of technique either, real art is novel - in the true sense of the word - a different way of seeing. The same applies to Dreamweaver. You can be a largely talentless user or someone who'll explore every avenue that the product allows. To say that an idea - and by extension a design -doesn't have any merit because of the software used - is nonsense. It is the user that is important because without the user nothing happens anyway. However, using software imposes limitations from the outset but a talented user of Songsmith won't just see the cords he or she will hear them. The same applies to any instrument, practical or otherwise. In the end it comes down how well the performer or operator can use it. The people who use Songsmith are unlikely to come up with anything new not because it's Songsmith but because they want to take a shortcut on a road that must inevitably be long. Long, unless your Mozart or Bach... In which case you can see what you want to do in your mind's eye and just get on with it. There are plenty of people out there who enjoy making music without recourse to gadgets. Unfortunately, many people haven't the time, talent or inclination to do this - that's why they take shortcuts. There will always be people who will eschew these things and go it alone. Why? Because they can. They don't need them. In this instancce, beauty is in the user. Michael Bissell: Re: The Death of your Soul: Microsoft Songsmith 2009-01-08 17:46:04 Don't get me wrong: tools are great. But a tool that limits you, like Songsmith (or Dreamweaver), limits more than the creative product, it limits your growth. Guitar Hero doesn't teach you to play guitar, but at least it doesn't pretend to teach. Tools that pretend to be more than the are... that's the crux of the problem. DavidN: Re: The Death of your Soul: Microsoft Songsmith 2009-01-13 12:25:26 What an excellent description of it at the end - I just found out about this, er, music software through being linked to the unintentionally hilarious advert video for it, and after being slightly infuriated at the whole idea for a while, just began to find it more and more comical. It's never going to instantly churn out things that anyone thinks are hits, but it's inevitably going to perform the near-miraculous feat of making Youtube a bit more annoying. |
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Using Dissent To Enhance Your Social Influence Online
Industry Profile - Author
Industry Profiles – Full Time Employees - Professional Writer
Some Thoughts On Freelancing
Building Your Online Brand
Marissa Mayer and the Change in Yahoo's Remote Workforce
LinkedIn for Professional Writers
Fake Republican Twitter Accounts
"Did you mean?" -- Google's chiding nanny of search results
Branded Technology
Sharingspree.com -- Stealing more than GroupOn's Idea
The Internet Isn't Entertaining Enough
It's not your bank... It's Apple's and Amazon's
Violated by Madison Avenue
Google+ Scares Me
"We need to..." Internet Marketing Myths
Facebook's deal with the Devil
My cool new phone is a little too cool.
You are never alone
Promotion vs. Distribution... You'd think they'd know that one...
Publishing Industry Watch
Content for Social Media
Social Media Slot Machine
Anonymous vs Me
News from the Twitter Follow Campaign Trail
The art of Indiscriminate Twitter Following
The Cloudy Meaning of The Cloud
The Demand For The Loss of Creativity
Alien Technology and Government Conspiracies
Time for a New Reality
The Death of Email
Protecting Free Speech... Anonymously (and geekily)
Amazon Shouldn't Have Shut Down WikiLeaks
The Superpowers of the Hive Mind
Time for New Ideas
Comcast, Netflix and the Mystery of the Modem
The Great Technical Disconnect
New for the Sake of New
A Retail Store Built Like the Web
Disposable Personas
When did Google Start Policing the Internet?
Getting back to HTML basics, thanks to Apple
Inspecting my Navel Base
A shoebox vs. an online backup
Is Your "Resume" Website Recruiter-friendly?
iBooks -- Creative Epicenter or Gatekeeper?
The Failure of Success
The Economy is Going to Get Worse, but that's okay
Time lost on Twitter
Client Vendor Relationships
Twitter's back alleys and dark places
Social Media is NOT Advertising
Microsoft Courier
Form (designers) versus Function (geeks)
PDXBOOM -- The power of social media and the portland pipe bomb
China and Apple -- Different organizations, same management
The volume of screens
Logorama
Google Adds Biking Directions to Maps
Transmedia
That magical little tablet
How your website can be in two places at once
Masterpieces created by sheer volume
Suing over lack of originality
A Primer on Internet Fame -- dancing babies, hamsters, numa numa, and more...
Checking my messages
Rules are made to be broken -- in a reasoned, systematic way
So many accounts, so few passwords
Who really uses Twitter? 60% of Twitter's traffic isn't on Twitter
The Web is a Jerry Rigged Kludge
Twitter: Asleep at the Mouse Wheel
Where regulation is good: Google Voice and Vonage
How Facebook is (unintentionally) forcing programmers to piss off users
The Twit Cleaner
Perfect Secretary's pitch for @Adbroad (and the Youtube API)
The Emotions of Text
The Shorty Awards Scandal -- Manual Spam is still Spam
Google Analytics, the cloud and missing numbers #fail
Helen Klein Ross & Michael Bissell Interview at Adweek's Social Media Strategies Conference
The Internet is the New 60's
Cougars from New Zealand (and I don't mean big cats)
Adding facts together, or why you can't charge your cell phone from wifi
Social Media and the Destruction of the World
Rabid Fans vs Passive Viewers -- The Coco vs Leno saga
How to tell someone to retweet (without using up your 140 characters)
You can't buy social media
A book unopened is but a block of paper
Building the LOST: The Final Season Sweepstakes
Holiday SPAM (or the lack thereof)
Archiving Twitter
Too Many Toolbars
Random Censorship with Google Adwords
Accessibility and Shopping Online
Twisted path to customer service
Flash: Shiny objects blinding your audience
Twollow and other gold rush scripts
GPS in a Laptop computer
Thinking outside the box... There was a box?
Twitter was designed for Text Messaging
It's not the corporations, damnit
Entrepreneur or Dreamer?
Adweek Social Media Twitter for Brands Presentation
Socializing is more than Social Media
Generational Marketing is a Myth (or Who's your Daddy?)
Social Media is Just the Way We Use the Internet
Twitter Followers Don't Matter (ask the porn sites)
The Internet is Gooder than Books
Sometimes you don't want your campaign to go viral
Best Twitter Branding Campaign
Like flies to crap, Spammy Twitter Followers don't really go away
iPhone SMS Security Hole
How Flipmytweet works
Cell Phones as Microscopes
Digg is not the Hijacker -- You Are
Steve Ballmer -- the walking dead?
Twitter as an open mic poetry reading
Automatic Social [un]Awareness
First splash for United Against Malaria
New Media/Old Media and the CLIO Awards
Interview at SXSW: Mad Men Twitter And Tracking
We've got an App for that -- it's called the Web
Understanding Google To Get Your Resume Noticed
The trouble with Wordpress and other templates
Wayward Words with Baggage
Speaking at SXSW March 17th
The fleeting Memory of the Internet
It's okay to say 'I don't know'
Nike Takes Over Conquent
Facebook owns this title
Excuses, excuses
A little on Social Media
Feeding on Content
Attack of the Bots
Web 1.0
Net Neutrality
Getting clever with data feeds
The Other Credit Crisis
The Broadband Inauguration
T-Mobile owns Magenta and Other Patent Stories
The Risk-takers, Doers and Makers of Things
The noise of 20,000+ Twitter Followers
30,000 feet, 500 MPH Suburban Strip Mall
Cellphones, toilets and the Inauguration
The End of Days (of song): Microsoft Songsmith Example
Browser Bigotry
The Death of your Soul: Microsoft Songsmith
Creative Development or Developing Creatively?
The Myth of Wikipedia (or the Wiki-1400)
Online/Offline Sales -- is it really that bad?
Is PayPal Tacky?
Old School Web Design Still Works
Domain Squatting
Green Chri$tma$
QA 101
Portland Snow
Get some return on that web traffic
I think they have a backup...
I'd love to have that problem
The [un]importance of statistics
Don't be a tool of viral marketing
Emails, discussions, blogs, wiki and web content
You Designed for Print First
You let someone else register your domain name
You figured .biz, .info, .us would work fine
What's after the Integrated Circuit?
Intelligent life is out there (but it's bugger all down here on earth)
Subject Matter Experts Talking Other Subject Matter
The Totalitarian Regime of Apple
Oversimplifying how people work
crowdSPRING
Creative Services for the New World
Reverse Anthropomorphism
The End of Time
Better Living Through Twitter
Lessons Learned From Apple
It's the Brand, Baby
Business Architecture vs. Web Construction
On Truth
Inverse Peter Principle
Random Knowledge
The Hive
RSS for this blog
With a career that has spanned advertising, production, technical services, and project management, Michael is able to articulate the wide range skills and professions that make the Internet work. This eclectic understanding and his desire to shine the light on those hiding behind techno babble has brought success to a wide range of projects.
Twitter @bissellLinked In
Past Postings:
Using Dissent To Enhance Your Social Influence Online
Industry Profile - Author
Industry Profiles – Full Time Employees - Professional Writer
Some Thoughts On Freelancing
Building Your Online Brand
Marissa Mayer and the Change in Yahoo's Remote Workforce
LinkedIn for Professional Writers
Fake Republican Twitter Accounts
"Did you mean?" -- Google's chiding nanny of search results
Branded Technology
Sharingspree.com -- Stealing more than GroupOn's Idea
The Internet Isn't Entertaining Enough
It's not your bank... It's Apple's and Amazon's
Violated by Madison Avenue
Google+ Scares Me
"We need to..." Internet Marketing Myths
Facebook's deal with the Devil
My cool new phone is a little too cool.
You are never alone
Promotion vs. Distribution... You'd think they'd know that one...
Publishing Industry Watch
Content for Social Media
Social Media Slot Machine
Anonymous vs Me
News from the Twitter Follow Campaign Trail
The art of Indiscriminate Twitter Following
The Cloudy Meaning of The Cloud
The Demand For The Loss of Creativity
Alien Technology and Government Conspiracies
Time for a New Reality
The Death of Email
Protecting Free Speech... Anonymously (and geekily)
Amazon Shouldn't Have Shut Down WikiLeaks
The Superpowers of the Hive Mind
Time for New Ideas
Comcast, Netflix and the Mystery of the Modem
The Great Technical Disconnect
New for the Sake of New
A Retail Store Built Like the Web
Disposable Personas
When did Google Start Policing the Internet?
Getting back to HTML basics, thanks to Apple
Inspecting my Navel Base
A shoebox vs. an online backup
Is Your "Resume" Website Recruiter-friendly?
iBooks -- Creative Epicenter or Gatekeeper?
The Failure of Success
The Economy is Going to Get Worse, but that's okay
Time lost on Twitter
Client Vendor Relationships
Twitter's back alleys and dark places
Social Media is NOT Advertising
Microsoft Courier
Form (designers) versus Function (geeks)
PDXBOOM -- The power of social media and the portland pipe bomb
China and Apple -- Different organizations, same management
The volume of screens
Logorama
Google Adds Biking Directions to Maps
Transmedia
That magical little tablet
How your website can be in two places at once
Masterpieces created by sheer volume
Suing over lack of originality
A Primer on Internet Fame -- dancing babies, hamsters, numa numa, and more...
Checking my messages
Rules are made to be broken -- in a reasoned, systematic way
So many accounts, so few passwords
Who really uses Twitter? 60% of Twitter's traffic isn't on Twitter
The Web is a Jerry Rigged Kludge
Twitter: Asleep at the Mouse Wheel
Where regulation is good: Google Voice and Vonage
How Facebook is (unintentionally) forcing programmers to piss off users
The Twit Cleaner
Perfect Secretary's pitch for @Adbroad (and the Youtube API)
The Emotions of Text
The Shorty Awards Scandal -- Manual Spam is still Spam
Google Analytics, the cloud and missing numbers #fail
Helen Klein Ross & Michael Bissell Interview at Adweek's Social Media Strategies Conference
The Internet is the New 60's
Cougars from New Zealand (and I don't mean big cats)
Adding facts together, or why you can't charge your cell phone from wifi
Social Media and the Destruction of the World
Rabid Fans vs Passive Viewers -- The Coco vs Leno saga
How to tell someone to retweet (without using up your 140 characters)
You can't buy social media
A book unopened is but a block of paper
Building the LOST: The Final Season Sweepstakes
Holiday SPAM (or the lack thereof)
Archiving Twitter
Too Many Toolbars
Random Censorship with Google Adwords
Accessibility and Shopping Online
Twisted path to customer service
Flash: Shiny objects blinding your audience
Twollow and other gold rush scripts
GPS in a Laptop computer
Thinking outside the box... There was a box?
Twitter was designed for Text Messaging
It's not the corporations, damnit
Entrepreneur or Dreamer?
Adweek Social Media Twitter for Brands Presentation
Socializing is more than Social Media
Generational Marketing is a Myth (or Who's your Daddy?)
Social Media is Just the Way We Use the Internet
Twitter Followers Don't Matter (ask the porn sites)
The Internet is Gooder than Books
Sometimes you don't want your campaign to go viral
Best Twitter Branding Campaign
Like flies to crap, Spammy Twitter Followers don't really go away
iPhone SMS Security Hole
How Flipmytweet works
Cell Phones as Microscopes
Digg is not the Hijacker -- You Are
Steve Ballmer -- the walking dead?
Twitter as an open mic poetry reading
Automatic Social [un]Awareness
First splash for United Against Malaria
New Media/Old Media and the CLIO Awards
Interview at SXSW: Mad Men Twitter And Tracking
We've got an App for that -- it's called the Web
Understanding Google To Get Your Resume Noticed
The trouble with Wordpress and other templates
Wayward Words with Baggage
Speaking at SXSW March 17th
The fleeting Memory of the Internet
It's okay to say 'I don't know'
Nike Takes Over Conquent
Facebook owns this title
Excuses, excuses
A little on Social Media
Feeding on Content
Attack of the Bots
Web 1.0
Net Neutrality
Getting clever with data feeds
The Other Credit Crisis
The Broadband Inauguration
T-Mobile owns Magenta and Other Patent Stories
The Risk-takers, Doers and Makers of Things
The noise of 20,000+ Twitter Followers
30,000 feet, 500 MPH Suburban Strip Mall
Cellphones, toilets and the Inauguration
The End of Days (of song): Microsoft Songsmith Example
Browser Bigotry
The Death of your Soul: Microsoft Songsmith
Creative Development or Developing Creatively?
The Myth of Wikipedia (or the Wiki-1400)
Online/Offline Sales -- is it really that bad?
Is PayPal Tacky?
Old School Web Design Still Works
Domain Squatting
Green Chri$tma$
QA 101
Portland Snow
Get some return on that web traffic
I think they have a backup...
I'd love to have that problem
The [un]importance of statistics
Don't be a tool of viral marketing
Emails, discussions, blogs, wiki and web content
You Designed for Print First
You let someone else register your domain name
You figured .biz, .info, .us would work fine
What's after the Integrated Circuit?
Intelligent life is out there (but it's bugger all down here on earth)
Subject Matter Experts Talking Other Subject Matter
The Totalitarian Regime of Apple
Oversimplifying how people work
crowdSPRING
Creative Services for the New World
Reverse Anthropomorphism
The End of Time
Better Living Through Twitter
Lessons Learned From Apple
It's the Brand, Baby
Business Architecture vs. Web Construction
On Truth
Inverse Peter Principle
Random Knowledge
The Hive
RSS for this blog