From time to time we see on Facebook recurring questions, something like:
Question: How did musicians survive years ago with basic PA amp and a bit of echo and good musical skills!? Now it’s all what!?
Answer: Sigh… Exactly the same way they survived before there was a basic PA amp, a bit of echo and good musical skills… i.e. with good musical skills.
It is like asking how did writers survive before there were typewriters and then before there were word processors. Or how did physicists survive before slide-rules, then before calculators, then before computers.
In all cases, tools help increase the productivity of the user and to leverage their skills to do even more. The tools do not replace skills.
In my past “IT Career”, I ran into this attitude over and over: “The TOOL will solve all our problems.” The TOOL will save us from confusion and complexity. The Tool will “calm the chaos.” No, the tool is just a tool. You have to fully understand your DOMAIN with all its problems/challenges, and program all of your processes and procedures INTO THE TOOL for it to provide any value. The Tool is not a shortcut for developing skills and learning your craft.
I feel it’s much the same (for me) with GP and this virtual keyboardist land we all enjoy. I cannot imagine even being able to comprehend the complexity of GP without having first used the toolsets we had long before we did it all in software (keyboards, mixers, outboard effects, B3’s, Rhodes, CP-80’s, String Machines, Clavinets, Melotrons, and later synths of all flavors). However, I do suspect that my “legacy mindset” when using GP might limit me in terms of creativity (and I’ve seen racks on this very forum that prove my point for me). I strive for “fully functional” and “ease of use”, and uniformity between all my racks, but I’m sure the younger crowd who grows up on this software is going to create things I cannot even imagine!
But no doubt about it, the TOOL is never a replacement for the skills. They come first in any endeavor.
I love this question. I got my first synth when in 1978. I was 13. I’ve been performing live on stage with hardware keyboards ever since. I am now considering moving my hardware rig to software as I plan to continue performing into my retirement. As a woman of a certain age I am not looking forward to the tech terminology. I dabbled in MIDI with an Atari 1040ST and Cakewalk 3.
I tried to make Steinberg’s VST-Live work with my Novation Launchkey 3 but gave up. I am hoping the documentation and community here are more robust.
To answer the topic: When you don’t know what else there is, you make do with what you know.
Lindsey, I was 17 in 1978, so we are of the same age. I spent 40 years in IT, programming in COBOL, then Java, and internet stuff before retiring, so I do have some background in technology. That said, it took ME a couple of years of dabbling with GP, slowly adding VSTs to my live hardware rig, before the lightbulbs started going off. You are doing the right thing by starting slow. Build very simple racks initially and try not to apply everything you learn at once, as I did. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and to build out racks that will trip you up live with complexity. The most important thing for me (at my age) is to DOCUMENT what I do, and be consistent across my racks. I use those little “masking tape” widgets to put “notes” on my rigs that remind me what’s routed to what, and which buttons on my hardware are linked to what widgets. And also what harmony part to sing. LOL.
The bottom line for ME is this: Now that I use NO hardware for sounds, I worry less. I can buy/sell/trade my hardware keyboards without fear because I’m not getting any sounds from them. I’ve started buying/using keyboards that feel BEST on my arthritic hands, rather than the ones with the latest and greatest sound engines. So yeah, some FOMO there for sure because I still love hardware keyboards! But the sense of freedom and lack of worry I have on stage with GP is like nothing I’ve experienced in 50+ years of playing live. IT JUST WORKS when I get onstage, and the computer disappears. I never even look at the laptop screen while playing live.
