Mellotronists

>   Come up with a way for the 'tron to record tapes.  You could have a
>   USB connection and download a custom set of sounds.

USB...and *tape*?

>    > as opposed to wooden box with tape recordings inside? What makes
>    > any instrument MUSICAL is the artist playing it...not the
>    > technology involved.
>
> That sounds like the marxist academic philosophy that says that
> "anything that can make a sound that could possibly be used for music
> is a musical instrument".

I'm not sure what your problem with that definition is. Music is simply
sound gathered together in some way; whether it has rhythm, harmony or
melody is up to the composer. What makes it music is the composer's
will. You might not like the sound it, but that is a matter of taste.

> Frank Zappa could make music out of absolutely anything; are the
> stoner mumblings and "snorks" heard on "Lumpy Gravy" musical
> instruments?

Of course!

> So *anything* is a musical instrument?  Does the term have any meaning
> whatsover?  Is a trash can lid the musical equivalent of a Mellotron,
> and if so, would you have any objections to me taking the Mellotron
> and leaving you with the trash can lid?

I'd have a problem with you taking the Mellotron and leaving me with a
clarinet - undoubtedly a musical instrument - because I cannot play it.

> You can play back an exact copy of a sound of a proper Musical
> Instrument yet the exact copy is not a musical instrument.

That is -breathtakingly- wrong. Aside from anything else, is that not
the way a Mellotron works?

Mike Dickson (tron@...) M400 #996
The Official Cynic of Streetly Electronics
Streetly Sample Library http://www.blackcat.demon.co.uk/tron/