Writing about Whistler on My Dream App's voting page, he said:
"Also, I hate to say it, but if anything should have set the world on fire with undiscovered musical talent, it would have been GarageBand. Unfortunately, GarageBand remains the ugly little iLife stepchild, the one that hardly anyone even opens. That doesn’t give me high hopes for Whistler’s adoption curve."Well, Garageband has set the world alight with undiscovered musical talent.
Here's a random selection, all available at iTunes.
Apologies to anybody left out. No slight intended.
Maggie Osterberg.
B&massa.
The Bananakiller.
Finer.
Bottled.
Me, for f*ck's sake.
And we'll remain "undiscovered" as long as the likes of Pogue and co continue their self-perpetuating ignorance about anything that happens outside of the music industry hype machine.
Garageband revolutionised so many musicians' experience of making music. For me, it was a Brian Wilsonesque sandbox. A plaything that became a serious tool very, very quickly and paved the way to bigger things.
Yes, Apple: that means I eventually "went Pro".
Whistler is a revolution. It takes the one thing that blocks Joe Bloggs out of Garageband - "but I can't play..." and dispenses with it.
"You don’t have to say anything, and you don’t have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and… blow."Yup. That's all it needs.
David, you missed the point. Because making music really should be that simple.
6 comments:
I voted for Whistler, David Pogue.
GarageBand has changed my life, for the better, David Pogue.
Who are you, anyway, David Pogue? I'd never heard of you at all until Sp3ccylad mentioned you.
"Garageband has set the world alight with undiscovered musical talent."
Not really. You named a handful of people listed on iTunes, none of whom anyone's heard of. That's not setting the world alight... that's a distressingly low percentage!
Believe me, nobody's a bigger GarageBand booster than I am. I wrote the bestselling book on the topic, reviewed it in the Times, predicted great things for it.
But compared to iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, etc., well, nobody uses it.
You also ignored the most important part of my critique of Whistler: it already exists. It's called AutoScore.
Did IT set the world on fire? Evidently not, since you've never heard of it!
--Pogue
There you go, Dave: making all sorts of circular assumptions.
1) David Pogue isn't everybody. He's just David Pogue. Got that, Dave?
2) Haven't heard of Autoscore? If I hadn't, it'd be because it hasn't been updated since OS9. What use is that to users of Intel Macs? But what do I know? I haven't heard of it.
I ignored the other point because it's a bit idiotic. The main crit of Whistler from other quarters is that "it can't be done." Your point, supposedly a criticism, is that it can be done. Ok, it's being done in a klutzy manner that's more suitable to pro users, who will probably have the skills to circumvent the program anyway. Whistler's potential market wouldn't touch Autoscore with a plastic pole.
Good apps don't always reinvent the wheel: they just make it accessible to everybody - you know, like the bicycle or the car?
WOW!!!
I'm a NOBODY!!!
NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD OF ME!!!
KILL ME NOW!!!
Hey, David:
I WILL EAT UR BALLZ!
That's the trouble with famous journalists (I work with journos, I know the type first hand), THEY haven't heard of somebody, so NOBODY's heard of them - sheesh!
Pogue, you're a knob. I've read your stuff for yonks and only occassionally do you call it right in my books. The rest of the time you seem to give the rest of us Mac users a bad name by seeming like a slavish hardware fanboy.
While I don't think Whistler will spawn genius music from non-musical geniuses, the fact is, it would be a great programme for schools, families, parlour games, even serious musicians looking for a quirky way into an idea. Go pour cold water on a burning man for a change.
My comments turned out to be so lengthy, I decided I'd just turn them into a blog post of my own. (Shameless self-promotion--you've gotta love it. :)
In essence, if Garageband hasn't changed the musical world, one shouldn't blame Garageband. There's an awful lot to change, not to mention the simple practical challenges of actually making good music.
Whistler sounds like an extremely cool idea, if it can actually be made to work. I'd buy it, if the price was right.
(And Mr. Pogue, when can I expect to buy my copy of "GarageBand 3: The Missing Manual"??? I've been waiting for months! :)
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