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Digital Orchestras
Posted by Steven Wu on Tuesday, November 12 @ 14:50:30 EST News
The New York Times reports that Broadway producers are quietly turning to digital orchestras to deal with a possible strike by the musicians union. We're not just talking pre-recorded music here: new technology allows for "virtual orchestras" that can be "conducted" by somebody tapping out the beat on a computer keyboard, thus allowing the flexibility that is one of the main reasons for keeping live music for live shows. Digital samples and encoded information about specific shows allow the virtual orchestras to sound pretty close to the real thing--at least to a lay audience. (The musicians, of course, beg to differ.) Virtual orchestras are also a whole lot cheaper than live orchestras, especially when the musicians union's various "minimum" requirements are taken into account (e.g., the minimum number of performers at each show).

It will be interesting to see how this developing technology affects the relationship between Broadway producers and their musicians. The union is already pressuring producers not to use this technology; whether producers will actually listen, or whether they will instead use this increasingly attractive alternative as a bargaining tool, is anybody's guess.

Read the story here.

 
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Re: Digital Orchestras (Score: 1)
by tompoe on Tuesday, November 12 @ 22:49:42 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.studioforrecording.org/
Hi: Just wanted to mention that the technology is working its' way down to the individual.

Imagine a community-based recording studio, offering free recording services to residents; a young, poor, disadvantaged, talented individual walks into the recording studio, and shortly, thereafter walks out with a recording backed up by a large orchestral arrangement, on state-of-the-art recording equipment; Open Source recording solutions on donated equipment, and users registering their works with the Creative Commons Project.

The future of music is bright, and the RIAA is in deep trouble . . . . unless there is silence by the public. Hope not, and I also hope there will be music officianados that will always insist on having live musicians at the events they attend.
Thanks,
Tom Poe
Open Studios
Reno, NV


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