Are Todays Daw's Making People Lazy Producers ?

[Kinh]

It's been a while since I created any topics of late...so here's one I'm sure you're gonna love / hate...

But I dunno, if it's me getting older, (I was born in the 1970's), but damn, commercial music today is absolute garbage from how it use to be...

How do you think it's garbage now more than yesterday? Just curious.

I was born in the 70s too, i remember the first song I ever heard when I was like 3 called "I'm not in love" and it was so good it made my eyes water. Music of that era was obviously at a higher standard, at least at an emotive level but you gotta bear in mind many of the producers now (in their 20s - early 30s) were first exposed to the music of the early 90s (when they were babies) which is when music technically was at it's worst in history. Your first exposure to anything is always the most influential. We were fortunate in that sense. Naturally our standards will be higher than younger producers for that reason.

But what is it you dont like about music now and what is the correlation between that and technology?

[WotEva]

I think the bitter pill to be swallowed by some here, is that a large percentage of people just prefer repetitive and simple compositions. It's not like they haven't heard far more technically structured tracks and songs with significantly more timbre. It's just that they prefer what they prefer.

There's people now who will pick a song mixed with vst's over the analogue version as their preference in sound. Same with amp sims and artificially tuned vocals, etc. They have heard the alternatives. They just prefer digital.

Neither camp is right or wrong. Sound is completely subjective and everyone is entitled to like whatever they like. It may not have occurred to some of you, but the very same tearful reaction that you experienced to a song in the 70's, is experienced by the youth of today to the very songs that you can't stand.

As for the OP's question? Possibly? Though laziness is context dependant.

The point of technology is to make things easier, not harder. But the tools are still going to be used by the artist or producer in the way that they use them. One producer might make, mix and master a song from start to finish in 2 hours using 4 instruments and nothing but presets for every stage. Whilst another might use the same DAW and spend a couple of months on one track, have their computer on the brink of meltdown due to the sheer amount of instruments and fx and still not have finished.

Whilst it may seem that the later is the less lazy, how do we know that Mr 2 Hours didn't create a club masterpiece that can't be technically faulted from a production standpoint and just simply knows concisely what he is after and how to achieve it?

The person taking ages might be taking ages because they procrastinate? They might be using a gazillion instruments and fx because they are missing the talent of simplicity?

Bob Ross, would crack out a finished landscape in 27 minutes. I have no doubt that the traditional painting folks at that time, probably thought that he was garbage too. But he did spawn thousands of painters who paint just like him from his show. Whether that's good or bad, is again subjective.

[whyterabbyt]

OP seems to be proposing that the DAWs of more than ten years ago were somehow magically different and this has had an effect on the commercial output of music from 'kids'

Nice to see someone starting to flex their sad, middle-aged 'get orf my lawn' chops.

[ariston]

My own experience is this: technology has made me lazy. I can play instruments, I can write music, I can improvise pretty well. Back in the days of my old four track Yamaha, I was forced to play in time for 5 minutes, be it percussion or guitar or whatever. There was no looping there. I had to be able to play from memory. A lot of it was in my mind before I even played a note.

Using a modern DAW, I was able to get things done faster than ever before. Loop this, loop that, jump to the third verse and correct some midi notes here... I actually believe it made parts of my brain atrophy. Not to mention losing the ability to play in time for more than 20 seconds. Muscle degeneration. Composing in little snippets of one or two bars. Over-reliance on FX gimmicks instead of using musical ideas.
Mind you, none of this HAD to happen, I could have been more disciplined... but the technology made it easy to be lazy. Getting fast results was quite a rush, but I feel that most of my material of the past 8 years since I've been doing this DAW thing is lacking something. Which is why I started getting back to the old way of doing things. I haven't touched Ableton in over a year - I record in Reaper, basically using it as a multi-track tape machine. I no longer fix midi notes, I play until I get it right. I record more live audio. I get up out of my chair a lot more - making music while sitting down... hrm. Music is as much about movement as it is about sound. I even try to make do without a f**king metronome. Music has to breathe... and it won't do that if it's nailed to a grid.

If you've seen Wall-E... you have seen a funny take on the danger of relying too much on technology. I'd love to be all Star-Trekky optimistic about the future and how technology will let us be the best version of ourselves, but hey... looking at the state of the world and humanity, who are we kidding?

So I guess my take is: technology doesn't HAVE to make us lazy, but it probably will.

[DJ Warmonger]

My own experience is this: technology has made me lazy. I can play instruments, I can write music, I can improvise pretty well. Back in the days of my old four track Yamaha, I was forced to play in time for 5 minutes, be it percussion or guitar or whatever. There was no looping there. I had to be able to play from memory. A lot of it was in my mind before I even played a note.

Well, for me it all started with DAW already. Never owned any instrument before or couldn't play one. These are simply expensive for me, even now.

So can't say anything made me "lazy", been always producing in the box. I am technology geek and constantly try new techniques and plugins to create new sounds. Without tehcnology we have today it wouldn't be possible in a short spare time I have now. It's all about what you want and what you do, not the "technology". If people are lazy, technology allows that. But if someone wants to be creative and proliftic, technology also supports it.

[Aloysius]

I'm surprised at how bad the music scene is since so many seem to have the opportunity to study full time these days. That was unheard of when I was a lad. So, I blame the teachers.

[do_androids_dream]

Nice to see someone starting to flex their sad, middle-aged 'get orf my lawn' chops.

Yup, classic case of juvenoia.. we all get it sometimes (just some of us keep it in our heads mostly.. unless it's that shit morning where you wake up, someones got the radio on and f**king Sheeran's the first thing you hear..).

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

I don't think DAWs are as much as at fault as the producers themselves.

[jancivil]

The technology can't make you be any certain way if you want to be literal. I don't know what it encourages in a person other than apparently being able to import loops in place of laying down tracks yourself has created the "I'm going to produce some beats" monster.

I don't compose in patterns, or have one or two-bar ideas to loop. It takes me a long time to create a track, for a whole lot of reasons.
In the studio, which I saw the insides of last in the late 90s, it was expected you did the thing in real time and in my situation within a couple of takes. I started with a DAW this way but eventually learned that I didn't have to. When the input is keyboard, which I'm not very good at (being the keyboardist in my own composition was intense in the studio), I don't have that pressure. And I can simply pencil in the part. OTOH hitting the record button with people in the room and I'm leading from the guitar, it's one take and then you might overdub.
I've done that in the DAW, there's nothing stopping me from using it as a very able tape deck.

I think the technology has been mind-expanding for me, in terms of exploring time. It's more direct than dealing with ideas on paper; you can erase and replace right away after hearing it. A sequencer provides a very well-specified and direct visual for looking at your rhythm vs having to draw things which line up on the page. You couldn't very well stretch time; razor blade/white grease pencil/literal scrubbing editing chops vs an audio editor is a different sort of chops which I'm sure has atrophied severely but fortunately I don't have to.

[learnkeys]

Technology in general CAN make people lazy, but doesn't apply to everyone.

The use of sample packs, loops, chord progressions, templates and presets can help get things started and going much faster. But, it doesn't mean you have to keep those elements. A lazy producer would just drag and drop then twiddle a little bit and call it good.

Also being limited to only the piano roll can be attributed to being lazy and the unwillingness to learn how to actually play the keyboard or instrument. It's much easier to paint a bunch of blocks on your screen then spending decades perfecting performances and learning music theory.

The software and tools only allows for laziness to creep in, but it's ultimately the producer that decides to elaborate on those or not. The rare few tend to push beyond the norm and reach past their own limitation, while always trying to improve daily. Which comes down to work ethic and the lack of procrastination.

Modern software with automation, generators, pattern makers, scalers, artificial intelligence, etc all can teach people and help make a difficult job easier. But, they can also be abused by excising less effort, not stimulating actual creativity and producing more of the same cookie cutter approaches.

There's good and bad from things that make a job easier, etc... Just like fast food, it may satisfy the instant craving and give an immediate reward, but the long term effects may be worse then once thought.

[Yorrrrrr]

DAWs don't have anything to do with it. On the contrary, modern DAWs today are easier and more powerful music creation tools, and as such they promote better music. It's the producers fault and the trends in music today.

[learnkeys]

DAWs don't have anything to do with it. On the contrary, modern DAWs today are easier and more powerful music creation tools, and as such they promote better music. It's the producers fault and the trends in music today.

If DAWs didn't exist you would be doing it the long and hard way, so they do make things easier, which equates to lazier and less work.

[Distorted Horizon]

Spent a whole day tweaking the perfect fart sequence.. Lazy me -_-

[highkoo]

Which came first, lazy musicians, or lazy music?

What would the kids think if a real trained, motivated, hard working musician did trap or dubstep.
Woof, thatd show em.

[Distorted Horizon]

Which came first, lazy musicians, or lazy music?

Most obviously the one that has problems with premature...