Poll: What do you use your Moog gear for?

[Kevin Lightner]

I just wanted satisfy my curiousity (and opinions) by putting up a small poll.
The subject regards who the users of Moog synthesizers are.
Feel free to participate.

You may check up to 3 boxes at the same time (if logically sound.)
You may not change answers afterward.
The poll runs indefinitely.

[Just Me]

Over a hundred MU of modular. 9 Foogers and a Voyager and it ends up being just for my own amusement. I've done some shows, but in this town you have to work your butt off to make fast food salary in music. I have a good 'real' job, so playing free or next to it doesn't bother me. I just don't do it often. I turn down about 50% of offers to play for various reasons.

[Sweep]

I think this raises an interesting issue.

What is a musician? Indeed, a `professional' musician?

It used to be that `professional' meant you earn your living by doing something. It still does mean that, because we have a society geared more or less entirely to money.

But is the musician who earns money by it necessarily more professional in skill and attitude than someone who earns nothing from it?

Personally, I prefer to earn my money in other ways and leave my music completely free of all commercial and financial pressures. I regard myself as more skilled and more committed to music than many people who make money from it. Of course there are skilled and dedicated professional musicians, but there are also plenty of people who have little idea what they're doing and little interest in music for its own sake, who do a bit of vague knob tweaking and make a fortune out of the absurd state of the present music industry.

I prefer to ignore people like that. They don't interest me and they have no bearing on what I do. I'm certainly not jealous of their success because the price paid for such success is too high. I'd much rather make real music than have that kind of `success.' There are other ways to make a living, ways that don't damage your musical sensibilities, leaving you free to make the music that really matters.

But that being so, we really have to question the whole concept of a `professional' musician.

[Bald Eagle]

I think this raises an interesting issue.

What is a musician? Indeed, a `professional' musician?

It used to be that `professional' meant you earn your living by doing something. It still does mean that, because we have a society geared more or less entirely to money.

But is the musician who earns money by it necessarily more professional in skill and attitude than someone who earns nothing from it?

Personally, I prefer to earn my money in other ways and leave my music completely free of all commercial and financial pressures. I regard myself as more skilled and more committed to music than many people who make money from it. Of course there are skilled and dedicated professional musicians, but there are also plenty of people who have little idea what they're doing and little interest in music for its own sake, who do a bit of vague knob tweaking and make a fortune out of the absurd state of the present music industry.

I prefer to ignore people like that. They don't interest me and they have no bearing on what I do. I'm certainly not jealous of their success because the price paid for such success is too high. I'd much rather make real music than have that kind of `success.' There are other ways to make a living, ways that don't damage your musical sensibilities, leaving you free to make the music that really matters.

But that being so, we really have to question the whole concept of a `professional' musician.

It really depends on the context of the term. Many still consider professional to mean that it is your primary job and primary source of income. Semi-pro's earning some money and amateur/hobbyist making no money.

This categorization is not the same as skill level. Someone may very well be a "professional" and make millions of dollars but have very limited skills. On the flip side I know many who are highly skilled and classically trained who choose to play only for the enjoyment and make no money at all.

That being said the poll should have included a choice for "makes some money".

[Kevin Lightner]

Some interesting points to be sure.

My definition of a professional musician is one whose profession is music.
That is, their income and personal identity being directly tied to their music.
Whether a performer, engineer, recording artist, sound designer or whatever, that's what they do and get paid for it.
It has nothing to do with skill level or style. That's subjective.

I agree there's grey areas too.
There could be a chef who loves synths, but makes more money cooking.
His passion is music; his skills are in cooking. One supports the other.

It's not a perfect poll.
I've omitted pissing off the dog next door for a fee too.
Just curious that's all.
What is a rough profile of Moog users?
Nothing serious afoot here.

[fyvewytches]

Strange that you have left out what I think would be a large proportion of users… that is those people who are not professional musicians but who do make some income from gigs and releases. Your options go from all to nothing.

[MC]

I'm a systems engineer in my day job and that is where I earn my income. I have played piano since age 3 and could had chosen to make a living as a musician but I decided to make it a hobby. My day job pays for my hobby. The only time I make money is local gigging, and at the moment I'm not even using any synths in the southern rock band.

I had a prog rock band who was really putting on the hard sell for me to work with them. I would had loved the challenge of prog, but they rehearse four hours away and they gig theaters all over the northeast and canada. I had to turn it down, there was no way I could had squeeze that in with my day job and the fuel expenses would had eroded any profit, not to mention consuming almost all my personal time.

[robotmakers]

My response is entirely parallel to MC's:

I have a serious day job and that's where I earn my income. I've played piano since age 5, etc. and my day job pays for this hobby. The only music related income I make is from a couple of songs authored for the Rock Band video game, and 0.001 cents per stream of a couple of tunes on the web.

The Smashing Pumpkins contacted me to be their keyboard player. I would had loved the challenge of that, but they're on the west coast and I live in NY. It would have been ridiculous. Both ridiculously cool and impossible.

Cheers,
Roger

[thealien666]

For those who said, by voting, that they want to irritate the dog next door with their Moog, they'd better have liquid cooled tweeters (not Twitters), otherwise they might see smoke, or smell something funny coming out of them before the dog next door even hears something annoying...

[Vsyevolod]

My Tannoy Ellipse 10's go up to 50K... is that enough?

Stephen




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[unfiltered37]

Sorry, gotta "refudiate" you on that, as Sarah Palin would say. Dogs can be annoyed by all frequencies in the human range.

[thealien666]

@unfiltered37
Yeah but the neighbor himself might be annoyed long before the dog, then...

@Vsyevolod
Yeah, but are they powerful enough (and cooled enough) to reach the barking dog next door, and shutting him up, before blowing up in smoke ? (especially if you play a 20KHz sine at full power for more than a few seconds continuously without hearing it yourself)

[Kevin Lightner]

Strange that you have left out what I think would be a large proportion of users… that is those people who are not professional musicians but who do make some income from gigs and releases. Your options go from all to nothing.

I tried to cover that with #2- but obviously made a mistake of omission.
I suppose I could have also included "I make less money from music than I invest into it", but someone would probably find an error there too.

The point of all this was based on a pov that few pro musicians spend their time online.
They spend it making music.
It wasn't meant to create hostility, guilt or whatever.
It was based on a conversation about 30 years ago at Roland where an employee took the point of view that Roland's customer base were mostly pro musicians.
I took the other side of the argument: that most buyers had a day job that paid the bills and music was a hobby or sideline.
The poll was to see if i was wrong, things had changed or whatever. That's all.
Sorry if I offended anyone.

[filtered]

Cool thread, and a topic I've always wondered!
My case scenario: I play in multiple bands live and squeeze in some day job work (not much, but enough to smooth out the dips) This schedule creates an amazing lack of time to do anything other than maintain, if you know what I mean- So I dont have as many opportunities to grab a beer, get online and peruse forums, although I wish I did!

[Vsyevolod]

If you ask the same question over at the Keyboard Corner forum, you'll get a very different response. A lot of Pro musicians hang out over there and spend inordinate amounts of time on forums. One main reason why I don't hang there anymore...

Stephen




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