Quote:
Originally Posted by teethofgold
re: musician, dj, producer
musician - someone who plays a musical instrument (no creativity needed, just skill to play the song... think orchestra)
dj - someone who plays back pre-recorded music
producer - someone who coordinates musicians (or musical elements) to "produce" music
that's my definition... and these days a lot of people are a mix of the three... not to mention that there are composers, songwriters etc... but they don't really apply to electronic music as much.
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Indeed, what would you say Squarepusher is when he alternating between playing his bass guitar and controlling a drum machine in time to someone else's record which he is playing on a turntable?
Out of interest, where would you put turntabilists in the definition; there are some, particularly those in groups who make what are undeniably musically speaking, whole new (albeit sample based) tracks where you would really struggle to recognise the source of a single sample; I'm talking about tracks where nothing more than single notes/drum hits are used. One person scratching a HH and another doing a kick drum to provide the drums, someone else playing and constantly re-pitching a single bass note to provide the bassline etc. Accurately repitching, re-ordering, and gating and trimming samples in real times on a turntable is certainly more "musical" in terms of playing an instrument (and requires more skill to do it well) than doing it in a step sequencer on a synth.
On a related note, the main reason I'm currently re-learning to play the violin is to finally record a version of a track I wrote a few years back (for 3 synthetic violin parts) on 'proper' electric violins, exactly as I want it. Would I bother if I had free access to 3 professional violinists I could communicate with effectively enough to get it exactly as I wanted? Probably not; I enjoy the 'production' side more and am better at it. Criticising people for this is akin to saying an architect is in some way inferior to a builder because the latter actually
makes the building. I'd say they both play their part.