Casio CZ/ VZ/ FZ - Pro Series

yes, and yes it is OT. but actually i don't really get into ranting
about gear, but i can't really help ranting about this stuff cause
it's kindof in my face a lot these days.

i do have a cz1 and two 101's, love em to death (over and over)

i do buy cd's and vinyl, i really need the dynamic range (yay mastering)

so my nerd credentials are intact.

On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 9:57 PM, synergeezer <synergeezer@...> wrote:
> Zebra, I agree with most of what you have said. Are you related to Don?
> This _is_ OT, isn't it?
> I agree with Ayn Rand's view as expressed very well in "The
> Fountainhead" (don't read anything else she wrote!), that the creator
> of a work, music in our discussion, architecture in hers, should have
> approval on the use of his, or her, works.
> I would think of an artist as foolish, who didn't take advantage of
> the promotional opportunities of current technologies, but it should
> be up to the artist. Artists are not always wise, but wisdom is not
> necessarily expected of them. (Anyone care for a slice of Van Gogh's
> ear?)
> In case you're not as deep into your geezerhood as I am, here's a
> reminiscence: When Pop/Rock/Soul music exploded in the late 1960s and
> early 1970s, the businessmen didn't know how to take advantage of it.
> They hired musicians to help them make more money off the
> music-loving kids. The musicians they hired helped their musician
> friends to make records. This was the Golden Age of Cut-Outs (vinyl
> LPs that were essentially discarded by the record companies -
> containing some extremely interesting stuff amid Sturgeon's crap)!
> Between my degree in philosophy and my (fall-back) career in
> computers, I managed a record store in the mid-70s. There were a
> great many artists who were given major label contracts because their
> musician friends inside the music industry liked their music. Many
> stiffed after one LP, but there were a lot of artists who became
> recognized as great, who would not have made it through the world of
> marketing in the music bidness. The "cut-outs" were cheap, and
> sometimes interesting. I wish I had bought the live recording of a
> Marcel Marceau (a famous mime) concert!
> Regarding the issue of "attention span", current technology has
> enabled an ever-decreasing tendency of many in this area. From an
> early age, I found myself remembering musicians whose work I admired,
> and, if I found myself admiring several songs by an artist, they
> became high on my list for the purchase of LPs. That's why I have
> albums by The Ventures, Roy Orbison, The Doors, Roger Miller, and The
> Four Tops. (Aren't you glad you asked!)
> I didn't buy many 45's. I don't buy many MP3s.
> Most real artists (in my opinion) have more to say than what they say
> in a single song! I think the grain of expression for artists I like
> is the album (LP or CD - now a DVD?)
> I like CDBaby, and I'm their favorite customer! (FYIYDGTJ!) Go there
> for Happy Rhodes, Trashcan Joe, Rachel Taylor Brown, Chris Robley.
> Go elsewhere for Allan Holdsworth, Conrad Schnitzler, Mike Oldfield.
>
> kthxbye
> Synergeezer
> (The Synergy DKII is the best music synthesizer ever made!)
>
> --- In CZsynth@yahoogroups.com, "ezra buchla" <ezra.buchla@...> wrote:
>>
>> look, this all seems a little out of hand for an OT discussion. it's
>> fun to think about, but my only point is that it seems to me that it's
>> harder to make a living as an independent musician than it used to be
>> when people bought more music. that's not rocket science!
>>
>> i only posted in the first place because it seemed to me like you were
>> saying that people who complain about diminishing revenue from record
>> sales are just whiners and should be on CDbaby or something. i know
>> you probably weren't really saying exactly that, but i thought another
>> perspective wouldn't hurt.
>>
>> forget about my own situation, i'm kind of sorry i ever brought it
>> into the mix; my decisions have been made for my own reasons which are
>> largely not pecuniary at all, as you've pointed out.
>>
>> but it is absolutely true that many musicians who i consider my
>> friends, whose work i have known and respected for many years, and who
>> have been in the game for a long-ass time, are no longer able to tour
>> self-sufficiently in this country. some of that has to do with oil
>> prices and other factors, but a huge part of it is the much, much,
>> much-reduced market for physical copies of recordings, and the fact
>> that the independent distributors and brick-and-mortars are gone,
>> replaced by digital entities which probably don't have the same
>> interests at heart (e.g., they are "not punk.")
>>
>> some people can deal with this by evolving into new, sleeker beasts...
>> other people are really used to supporting themselves on the old indie
>> model of selling your own records directly (or at least more directly)
>> to the people who want to hear it (which makes sense to me).
>>
>> incidentally, these people largely rely on making music in groups,
>> with other people, with real instruments, which all entails a large...
>> um, meat-space commitment. meat music. maybe that's relevant.
>>
>> digital distribution as it exists now is centralized and diembodied.
>> some musical cultures are already well adapted to those attributes,
>> others really are not, and have always been driven by localized,
>> face-to-face experiences.
>>
>> also, i'm talking about styles of music that will never produce
>> "hits." they never have. and yet, people make the music, spend their
>> whole lives at it, and other people listen to the music, and some kind
>> of money has to change hands somewhere to keep the cycle going.
>>
>> anyway, it's really really weird right now for independent (or maybe
>> "underground" is a better term) musicians and labels, who don't have
>> the luxury of experimentating with their revenue model. all i ask is
>> that you please don't dismiss the issue.
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 5:49 PM, ezra buchla <ezra.buchla@...> wrote:
>> >> Yeah, and if you think you have to cater to the fickle trends of the
>> >> masses now, if you were to live in a world where musicians worked
> under
>> >> patronage of a 'powerful individual', you'd have to be content
> writing
>> >> songs with titles like "All Hail Super Wonderous Godlike Bill Gates
>> >> Hero", or "Ode To The Greatest Being Ever Conceived: Adolf
> Hitler" for
>> >> the rest of your life...
>> >
>> > ha! i know, i'd much rather just be able to sell a few records... ;)
>> >
>>
>
>