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Only the world's best CNC machines!

#221
If I had to choose between computer technology and the Louvre, it's adios for Aphrodite.
Iridescentone said:
Too bad computers can't tell us how, when, and why the Giza Pyramids were built.
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Kknowing trivia about the pyramids won't cure cancer or end disease but the computers that can probe and sequence our DNA might have a shot.

They might not be able to probe into the past but no other tool can either so that is kind of a high bar to set for judgement. But they do help make your life better in about 18,400 ways that actually have a meaningful impact. Such as the ability to debate the importance of computers instantly with anyone in virtually any location around the world.
 
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#222
Canadian APII said:
An art museum is a repository of our emotions and it must be experienced slowly. To get close to a masterpiece and see each individual strand of hair on the subjects head, to see the blemish on one of Michelangelo's models elicit emotions and wonder hundreds of years after they were painted. Will computers do that in two hundred years? A computer is a tool like a screwdriver. Nothing more. Why not worship the screwdriver. A paintbrush is a tool like a computer but a brush is the tool used to put emotions and feelings to canvas and is not greater than the painting.
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I fell asleep on a bench in the Louvre. Too much to process. I get the idea of art and it's role in preserving history and capturing emotion but really, it is hardly what drives our society. As much as artists like to believe it does.

Ironic that the computer is the most powerful and adaptable tool every created for artistic and literary expression to date, and virtually free worldwide dissemination of this expression for anyone who wants to see it. Not to mention the repository of instantly shared knowledge and art that makes the great Alexandria libraries and any single museum look like a floppy disc by comparison.

Don't give me the 'ya gotta be there' thing. I have, Seen the Prada, seen the Louvre, da Vinci's works in Florence. I stood next to Michaelangelo's David in an empty room with no guard, I couldn't believe you could just walk up to it like an ordinary statue. I stared right into the eyes of the Mona Lisa. I get it but honestly, to trade our computer technology and the repository of knowledge it contains for art would be a tragedy.
 
#224
Big Brother said:
If I had to choose between computer technology and the Louvre, it's adios for Aphrodite.
Kknowing trivia about the pyramids won't cure cancer or end disease but the computers that can probe and sequence our DNA might have a shot.

They might not be able to probe into the past but no other tool can either so that is kind of a high bar to set for judgement. But they do help make your life better in about 18,400 ways that actually have a meaningful impact. Such as the ability to debate the importance of computers instantly with anyone in virtually any location around the world.
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Who's talking about replacing computer tech with "art"? I mean, besides you?

There are tools (including computers) and technologists with the expertise to probe the past, but access to the subject matter is currently being denied. My point is that we don't actually possess "the entirety of human knowledge", as you put it. We don't even know exactly what goes on in our deepest oceans, our uppermost atmosphere, our rain forests, etc. Let's not pretend like we already know everything and have loaded it into data banks.

Curing cancer and revealing lost human history are not mutually exclusive. We can do both, so long as we don't allow narrow minded, doctrinaire extremists stand in our way.
 
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#226
Iridescentone said:
Who's talking about replacing computer tech with "art"? I mean, besides you?

There are tools (including computers) and technologists with the expertise to probe the past, but access to the subject matter is currently being denied. My point is that we don't actually possess "the entirety of human knowledge", as you put it. We don't even know exactly what goes on in our deepest oceans, our uppermost atmosphere, our rain forests, etc. Let's not pretend like we already know everything and have loaded it into data banks.

Curing cancer and revealing lost human history are not mutually exclusive. We can do both, so long as we don't allow narrow minded, doctrinaire extremists stand in our way.
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Oh for Pete's sake...
 
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#228
Big Brother said:
I fell asleep on a bench in the Louvre. Too much to process. I get the idea of art and it's role in preserving history and capturing emotion but really, it is hardly what drives our society. As much as artists like to believe it does.

Ironic that the computer is the most powerful and adaptable tool every created for artistic and literary expression to date, and virtually free worldwide dissemination of this expression for anyone who wants to see it. Not to mention the repository of instantly shared knowledge and art that makes the great Alexandria libraries and any single museum look like a floppy disc by comparison.

Don't give me the 'ya gotta be there' thing. I have, Seen the Prada, seen the Louvre, da Vinci's works in Florence. I stood next to Michaelangelo's David in an empty room with no guard, I couldn't believe you could just walk up to it like an ordinary statue. I stared right into the eyes of the Mona Lisa. I get it but honestly, to trade our computer technology and the repository of knowledge it contains for art would be a tragedy.
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And this sounds so realistic.
 
#229
Canadian APII said:
And this sounds so realistic.
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I don't understand. You doubt that computers can blow away the sum total of the works in ancient Alexandria? Or that I saw all the art that I mentioned?

Secret: This is just between you and I. Any numbskull can blow his student loan money on a 6 week backpacking trip to Europe, and many do. In Europe I also visited the Anne Frank house and checked out her hiding hole. I saw the Rembrandt museum, I did the running of the bulls in Pamplona, I was almost kidnapped by angry extremists in Morocco, I was robbed as I slept on a train and forced by police to de-board in Bordeaux, France to testify against the thief, I then spent 2 weeks with relatives on the south coast of France in Hyeres and in the center of Paris. All for $650 airfare through AirHitch and a backpack.

The world isn't ALL that big.
 
#233
CNC's can be spot-on, but only if the operator plugs in the right numbers. Carvins look like they're put together beautifully, but time and time again to me, they play like total ass. Roscoe, on the other hand, no, the asthetics might not be CNC perfect, but their playability and sound completely blow Carvin out of the water. There's a lot, in a very significant sense, to be said for an instrument that's truly made by hand. Yes, it takes longer, and for good reason--it's being given attention by a human, and not a machine not knowing anything more than what numbers it's given.
 
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#237
I think he is being how you say, facetious....

I don't understand this argument, a CNC machine is just a repeater that does precisely what it is told to do. It is the same thing as a sampler - it just repeats what you put into it good or bad. The magic is still in the hands of the designer and as far as I know, CNC machines haven't got to the point where they pick their own wood. People do that too.

it's just a fancy cutting blade, to think that it has any effect on tone is pseudoscience.

Not mentioned in this debate is the effect that wood has at all on tone. If people can build a bass out plywood that can compete with expensive boutique wood basses, how much 'hand mojo' can you add to such a tiny effect in the first place?

The wood used on the body matters very little. You can get virtually the same tone with the raw block of wood you started with. To insist that the method you carve it makes an audible difference is just not realistic.

The pleasure of having a hand-made bass might make it more valuable to you and I get that, but it won't actually sound any better than a bass with the same quality wood and the same shape.
 
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#238
Big Brother said:
I think he is being how you say, facetious....

I don't understand this argument, a CNC machine is just a repeater that does precisely what it is told to do. It is the same thing as a sampler - it just repeats what you put into it good or bad. The magic is still in the hands of the designer and as far as I know, CNC machines haven't got to the point where they pick their own wood. People do that too.

it's just a fancy cutting blade, to think that it has any effect on tone is pseudoscience.

Not mentioned in this debate is the effect that wood has at all on tone. If people can build a bass out plywood that can compete with expensive boutique wood basses, how much 'hand mojo' can you add to such a tiny effect in the first place? I believe the plywood was CNC while I built the basswood with hand tools.

The wood used on the body matters very little. You can get virtually the same tone with the raw block of wood you started with. To insist that the method you carve it makes an audible difference is just not realistic.

The pleasure of having a hand-made bass might make it more valuable to you and I get that, but it won't actually sound any better than a bass with the same quality wood and the same shape.
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If it is pseudoscience then show us the science to back up your claim. The best tone I have us from my custom build, one single piece of basswood for the body with PJ pickups. The worst I have is a plywood PJ. The plywood is dead with no real sustain while the basswood is super bassy with super sustain.
 
#239
Canadian APII said:
If it is pseudoscience then show us the science to back up your claim. The best tone I have us from my custom build, one single piece of basswood for the body with PJ pickups. The worst I have is a plywood PJ. The plywood is dead with no real sustain while the basswood is super bassy with super sustain.
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I would say that the burden of proof is yours to carry. You're the one making the impossible to explain claim. On the other hand, you are comparing two different basses, and that never goes well. I will say though that as little as I believe the body actually contributes to overall sound, plywood is probably not ideal. I suspect it's too dense and stiff, with grain running in different directions layer to layer.
 

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