Quote:
Originally Posted by Verdi_Lver
So I was wondering....ideally, for a computer-using composer, there would be some maximum performance/efficiency he could reach; the sounds and playback would be so real that a live performer could essentially be cut out of the picture, and these sounds would integrate perfectly with the program, offering controls to change it simply, intuitively, and is, well, what a "holy grail" would be: perfect.
Basically: When I write in a piece and it's like I have live players, without actually having to get some live players. and these ones do exactly what you tell them to, every time  .
I believe that this will be possible in our lifetime. It's difficult to say when, obviously, predicting the future is tricky business, but I'd guess around 15 years, with a good growth of technology and economy.
When it does come around (and believe me, all signs point to it coming ) it will raise interesting issues about the nature of computers versus people; the AI holy grail would be foreshadowed in that of music playback. The question of music's soul will be brought up the same way the question of peoples' souls will be when AI has our intelligence (or much more).
Fun stuff to think about, I think, but not much you can actually do about it but wait  . |
It's here already - you may want to check out Sibelius 5 (
Sibelius home page). Sibelius allows you to write a score in the "classical" manner, entering notes onto staves. You can choose the type of score (pop/rock, classical orchestra, brass band, choir, barbershop, et cetera). Sibelius also allows for accidentals and articulations - and guess what, you can play everything back, and then it sounds exactly the way you entered notes into the score. If you hook Sibelius up to high end music libraries (eg Eastwest Symphonic Choirs, Eastwest Symphonic Choirs,
www.soundsonline.com) you can create a full blasted professionally sounding right from your laptop or desktop (I am in the middle of doing that now - upgrading my hardware this week). You will have to invest in separate and very powerful hardware, think about a very fast quadcore pentium processor coupled with massive hard disks and lots of RAM, and the software is expensive, too - and you will have to figure out how to configure it all to make it work for you (takes some due diligence and patience). And yes, you still have to compose the music, the computer will not assume that task. ;-)
(I am not associated or affiliated with either Sibelius or Eastwest, by the way).