- on a 'real' instrument, a lot of effort goes into intonation itself,
but on the other hand it is immediate and accessible; with code, you
have to design the sound, knowing what sin oscillator sounds like,
but then you don't have to maintain the intonation in the same way
that is necessary on a 'real' instrument. - eh, for lack of right terms, complex musical elements, like melodies
harmonies, rhythms, feel rather like natural movements (eg. running,
walking, juggling) with a 'real' instrument, but with the same
limitations: you can only run so fast, juggle so many balls. The
code, on the other hand, has the feeling of being unnatural in a way
that is disconcerting (why should I need to type (choose [1 3 7 12])
to express a certain musical idea?) and enabling (I guess you could
call it a musical iron man suit?) in the end, the contrast is similar to that of other domains where the
computer mimics something real that we use (eg. files and folders).