Thursday, January 9, 2014

Robot metal bands

Well we have had virtual girlfriends, and robot waitresses, so why not robot musicians.

Apparently speed metal met the human limitation, and went beyond:

In Speed Metal, Fastest Drummers Take a Beating
Neil Shah, Wall Street Journal, 29 December 2013
When new technologies arrived, metal drumming standards entered the realm of the physically impossible. Today, many bands write songs using computers without even rehearsing them. When an English band recently came to Mr. Mynett's studio, "none of the musicians could play the parts they'd written," he said.'... Paradoxically, to make drum tracks sound more human, metal producers deliberately introduce mistakes into their own programming. "They cover it up," Mr. Mynett says. "The idea is to make people think the virtuoso is real."
This sleight of hand can cause embarrassing missteps live, but bands often rely on some computer drum tracks for concerts, too—especially if performances are recorded for a live album, says producer Russ Russell, 44, from Northamptonshire, in central England. "There are some 'live' albums where there's not that much 'live' on it."
 
Too funny. Where is Sarah Conner when we need her?
 
Apparently, a fuller version of the idea has already been explored.
Robot Rock (from video here)
 

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