No apologies necessary, you said with humour what I was trying to say with venom. Within 10 years I can see your commercials becoming reality. People just don't get it.
HW is only a crutch at the moment, and with a crutch you still must possess limbs to use it; HW can only address people that must have considerable skills in music to take advantage of it, still... In a few years, it's mostly a matter of algorithms - [ever heard of LISP? yes, I also have done computer synthesis at university, writing code in three different languages, worked with max, csound, etc. and have contributed to electronic music concerts] - the crutch could become full prosthetics triggered by mental commands (walk, run, dance! etc.), allowing a poor legless soul to function; it will be physically him walking running, dancing, but he'll be doing it with someone else's steps. The prosthetics and their sophisticated programming won't make him a good runner or dancer, but he won't be laughable either, since his running programming could be emulating an Olympic champion (similar with the dancing). The Rolls-Royce model could perhaps allow him to play football as well ("Play like Zidane today!"...) This is not an exact parallel, but I believe conveys my misgivings about future film composition. It is not HW I am targeting; it is the philosophy of over-reductionism. Jansensmith, I know the director won't care. That's why the composer should care doubly.
I know these kind of programs if relied upon exclusively will produce execrable soundtracks; but that's with today's ears. I submit that soundtracks are execrable today already, but you usually need "older" ears to realize that. Not because older soundtracks are not available for comparison, but it is different to compare something older, to something you have been born into, than be exposed to the new as a concrete adult. Same with future soundtracks if they go the direction I have been dreading - and I hope they won't. Young composers of that day will not see too much wrong with them, It will be the modus operandi of the day, even if not condoned by everyone (I hate the banality, triviality, obviousness and indigence of 90% of soundtracks today, but how many would agree?...)
Lastly, software such as the VSL does not fall in the same category at all. Isn't it patent?! Giving you a major octave string-run is not compositionally suggestive, it is too generic. Giving you building-blocks of E.T. and Indiana Jones synced to tempo not only is suggestive, it is the thing for which the program was specifically designed, targeting untalented pilferers. They welcome this library, along with others who would use it for faster results - like I would mortgage the house for a program that would take my Sibelius score and engineer it into a complete orchestral recording complete with reverb, E.Q., perhaps allowing me the choice of imitation conductor from a preset list: Karajan, Kleiber, Monteux, etc. But that's because I don't have access to an orchestra, I have no engineering skills to speak of, and I would not know how to conduct a digital orchestra. BUT, I do know how to compose. Those that don't I am giving you the following imperative: Go forth and do something else with your life and stop offending our sensibilities! However, since I cannot enforce it (I would!!...), refer to above Hasbro product...
String Quartet package - €400 (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven) w/t Extended Techniques - €600 (Bartok, Nono, Crumb)
etc., etc. up to
Full Orchestral Package - €8000 (Strauss, Stravinsky, Holst) w/t Extended Techniques - €10000 (Ligeti, Xenakis, Lachenman)
INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL:
Hollywood Orchestra - €5000 (Segments of FOP/ET as used by Williams, Elfman, Moriccone, Zimmer)
"We can't all be geniuses! But now, thanks to Hasbro with its elite team of programmers, we can dress up as our favourite composer, every day can be Halloween!!" [ed. remember how stupid everyone looked in Superman uniforms....]
Minimum requirements: 6.4 GHz Intel 3000, 1TB RAM, 6TB HD. Expensive? Upside: No minimum requirement in talent!
Ah Salieri, you were born too early.....