Hacker News Reader

Comment by puranjay | Hacker News Reader

I love this tool but as an amateur musician, I have to wonder: who is your target audience? Anyone remotely serious about making music won't use it. I'll play around with it but if I want to make a track, I'll just head over to Ableton.

There is value in making music easier, but you're only good enough for a little while before people move on to more professional tools

View on HN

There's a huge market for musical software and instruments that are ultimately just games. I would guess more than 99% of any music equipment and software bought is never used to create commercially used music, which is fine - it's fun and interesting, and it's challenging to learn.

A clear example is everything made by [Teenage Engineering](https://teenage.engineering) - check out the OP-Z. The interface is completely weird in the age of hi-res screens, but I'm sure it's going to be a hit.

Another point is that in a creative process, sometimes the 'easiest' way to produce output causes all the output to be similar and uninteresting. When you change the rules, and make the creation process significantly different, you can sometimes see new results you wouldn't have expected.

I've used the OP-1 and loved it, but I don't see it fitting into my workflow (Serum is a far more capable synth).

But I guess I'm approaching this from a very different perspective. I hope to go pro some day, so I also use tools that are not meant to "just have fun" (which the OP-1 is a whole load of).

The majority of musicians are just doing it for fun. For them, I can see something like this being another tool to play around in.

I take my comment back. I now understand what kind of people might use this (anyone not insane enough to want to be a professional musician)

Case in point, no clue about music but love my Pocket Operator!

I think the point is to get people interested in more serious tools, not to prevent people from using them. Crayons are great for getting kids to draw. Doesn't mean a professional artist would use them (well, now that I think about it I'm sure there's at least a sculpture or two with crayons, but you get my point).

If you're familiar with turtle graphics it fills the same niche. It's not for any use but a simple introduction and exploratory tool for novices. It gets you 0-30 as fast as possible, and let's you start playing.

I think this would make a fun max4live sequencer tool.

My first play: http://turtle.audio/play/9qz2ni

Reply on news.ycombinator.com