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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON)
Newsgroups: net.music,net.music.synth
Subject: Re: Drum Machines - A Flame
Message-ID: <328@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 24-May-85 18:50:31 EDT
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Posted: Fri May 24 18:50:31 1985
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> [Drum Machines can be used to]
> to play some IMPORTANT repetitive part of a piece so as to free the players
> to make some "real" contributions on top of that is a useful one.
> 
> ...The value is in the end result, not in some pre-determination
> of the form "this uses an XXX, therefore it doesn't qualify as 'alive'".
> As evidenced by the Eno work I've already mentioned.
> 
> ...look at and listen to THE END RESULT.  To say "such machines CANNOT
> produce valid, 'alive' end results goes against the evidence, and strikes me
> as highly prejudicial.
> Rich Rosen

Perhaps an example is in order. On the album THE LONG MARCH, the tune
"South Africa Goddamn" (A Max Roach/Archie Shepp duet), Roach opens
with a drum solo, based on an odd, but simple beat (2/2.) As his solo
is winding up, before Shepp starts playing, Max rushes the beat a bit.
It may be a "mistake" or it may have been planned, but the effect
is of Roach "holding his breath" while waiting to see which way SHepp
will go. As the tenor enters, Roach shifts from a staccato snare
to a rolling shuffle (still in 2/2), which swells and retreats in
response to Shepp's line. The rhythmic result is perfectly matched to
Shepp's sorrowful sound, as opposed to Roach's jagged, angry solo.
Now, Archie Shepp is not commonly sad, but furious on the subject
of South Africa, and I am sure Max had to adjust to his unexpectedly
pastoral mood that day. It is a measure of Max's creativity that
he completely altered the rhythmic feel of the piece, without
changing the beat. THAT is what a drummer can do. Not every one
is Max Roach, but any decent drummer will adapt similarly to a change
in melodic intensity. As I see it, a preprogrammed machine, almost
by definition, cannot react to an unfolding development. The
melodist thus has not rhythmic challenge; Time deadens, and stops
altogether. Result:  dead music.

Somebody sent me mail stating that as synthesizer thechnology
advances, a player will be able to adjust their stored pattern
in real time, in response to some melodic challenge.
I would welcome such a development, for it would signal the end
of those horribly lifeless machines and mean the creation
of a new class of intruments for PEOPLE to play. It would
return musical creation to the human mind, where it belongs.

Marcel Simon