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The Bright River runs again.

Interesting discussion the history of an early live sequencer. It sounds a hell of a lot more live than the crap we live with today. Check out the specs:

From Leiner Media

The Zyklus MIDI PERFORMANCE SYSTEM is a MIDI equipment controller designed provide an unprecedented level of musical control. It achieves this by allowing the musician to interact with previously recorded MIDI data such as sequences so that comlex music can be build up in real time. In a typical setup, the MIDI PERFORMANCE SYSTEM would be used in conjunction with a MIDI master keyboard or keyboard synthesiser, plus up to 64 slave MIDI devices – synthesisers, expanders, drum machines, MIDI-equiped signal processors, etc.
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Jim Griffin on the pho list asked the question today, ‘What “rules of the road” from your business do you offer those traveling this information highway?”‘

My response, as an artist trying to get my groovetronica project heard:

— The internet is not a panacea. It’s getting there, though. —

1. The internet is not a replacement for capable hands, doing work.

You can’t do this on your own. Enlist the help of others who share your dream, but are interested in a different parts of it. There will always be lots and lots of work to do. It’s a competition thing – anything a machine can do for you, it can do for others, and probably is.

2. The internet is the great equalizer, but only among peers.

The competition out there isn’t just massive – it’s complete: you will soon be in competition with practically every other musician on the planet. I picked up a new piece of gear for the studio, and the manual came in a bunch of different languages, including Russian. I’d never seen a multi-lingual manual in Russian before.

Also, the vast majority of the concerns being discussed and addressed in terms of emerging media are of only peripheral relevance to you – the focus is still on the haves – current owners of the music industry Your principal concern online should be obtaining sticky listenership. Give away product – don’t try to sell stuff until you have people hooked.

However, you know both of those facts already. I’m merely restating the obvious to lead into:

3. The internet is not a replacement for personal relationships

Personal relationships are more important than ever. Why? Because of #2 (the internet is the great equalizer, among peers) and #1 (the internet is not a replacement for actual work). You are going to get ahead because someone likes you music enough to work it for you. You are going to get ahead because your music is reviewed by the right websites and people, and played by the right djs. Your chances of this happening increase considerably if know the persons doing it.

And people are also how we make sense of the web. Read the rest of this entry »