To all,
Interesting points made by all. One of the most interesting I find as a common thread, most all here seem to equate professionalism and creating pro/real/serious music with the equipment one uses. Following that logic, I'd ask you to consider this:
Would I. Pearlman, YoYo Ma, S.R.Vaughn, S. Wonder, C. Atkins,E. Johnson on and on be any less the professional if they were creating on less expensive equipment?
Thinking that buying a $3000. guitar as opposed to a $300. guitar is somehow miraculosly turning one into a pro great player....c'mon.
To be sure a Strad. violin sounds a whole lot better than a Palatino Pearlman would sound great on either and probably 99% of the people sitting in the audience wouldn't know the difference. The 1% that's left, is us the musicians who could hear the difference.
Don't totally misunderstand me, if you've been to my site, you can see I have quite a bit invested in high end equipment and love it, but I don't think that's the debate here.
Also those who look down at those of us that may prefer arrangers for whatever reason:
If one is a keyboard player say in the jazz genre.....Thelonius Monk or Oscar Peterson, didn't play a synth, just straight piano. Does that make a jazz synth pianist not a real "Pro"....of course not.
All of the equipment is just tools and taking advantage of the technology available.
If one plays in a band....you're doing exactly the same thing that an arranger keyboard does. 1,2,3,4 and the band starts to play, you don't run to each instrument and play it, even in the studio.
Think about Sgt. Peppers or Thriller or Dark Side of The Moon and all the tricks that went into produing these great albums. Are they not "pro" for using all the tricks to create a great album?
Jupiter....those are violins (that I play) in the picture. Yes that is a Karma too. If you look at my original post I had a Karma, then a Motif. The only thing I bumrapped them for was being too complex to be of value to me. I spent more time tweeking and stuff than making music. Also, to me they are far more slanted to dance and techno music and that isn't what I do. I'm rather surprised with your excellent musical backround that you would be so judgemental. Although your last post toned it down a bit.
The one last analogy I want to make is, are we cheating driving cars with automatic transmission instead of stick shift...I don't think so and driving either says nothing about one's driving ability.
What I suppose I'm trying to express in this thread is:
You want to take the first giant leap to being a pro? Then leave the musical snobbery at the front door and accept others music for what it is....creative expression. Appreciate it for that, not some judgemental baggage that you bring to the table about "pros" use......that's just a big boys peeing contest of I'm better than you are because.....
jam on,
Terry

[This message has been edited by Jocko (edited 11-09-2001).]