It's my personal opinion that it is the development of certain "tools" like this that slowly drains away all that is human in music. Arguably, they drain away all that is musical in music these days.

A car's engine has rhythm. It has tone. But, I wouldn't buy a recording of one and listen to it in my living room.

The world needs to give music back to musicians. People who take the time to learn and understand why "D minor is the saddest key". People who learn to play their instrument over years because they want to be able to express themselves freely.

Let's rip the music industry out of the hands of those who buy hardware, steal software, copy, paste and call it music. I hate that guy. He pisses me off. He's a no talent hack that would be lost without his laptop. Sit him in front of a piano and where is he? Put a banjo in his hands and what has he got? Nothing. Music used to be accessible to anyone who had the time learn to play on any old junky piece of wood. A penny whistle is comparable to a Stradivarius in the right hands.

A calculator is the same for everyone. The nicer the calculator, the more complicated the calculations you can make. Therefore, the more money you have, the better you sound. It's a materialists game. Designed for the talentless. Loved by the ignorant.

Sorry. Ranting.

A naturalist... I agree with a good portion of what you said, but I'm still very curious about technology. Certainly, nothing beats the pure, natural sound of "real" music played by real people and still, without technology we wouldn't have the instruments we have, nor the means to capture the music created with them on any medium. As a tool I find a lot of software, and hardware too, interesting (not that I can afford or own much of it) although using software strictly for the creation of music without the use of a physical instrument and a trained hand to skillfully play it, I would agree is cheating. Then again... it's a skill in its own right.

Using your analogy of math, a calculator is a useful tool in this fast-paced world, but with it's creation has come a degradation of the ability of many to do the simplest of mathematical calculations. We've become so lazy and reliant on it that we've forgotten the math it does and the math we're suppose to know how to do.

I'm a musician first and a sound engineer (in training) second. I own a set of electronic drums out of necessity and have grown to enjoy them and their ease of recording, but prefer acoustic instruments. For musical creation I think a physical instrument or voice should be used where possible, but as an effects tool on some genres of music, I think that manipulative software has its place. Used sparingly I thought a plug-in like Stutter Edit might add some subtle, interesting color to a song. Maybe not. I don't own it and unless given to me, probably never will. The technologist side of me just found it kind of cool and it amazes me that we've come so far that we can create a tool that can alter a sound or compilation of sounds the way it does.

Any other thoughts?