MMMMMMBox

This story on yesterday's All Things Considered really encapsulates the possibilities with the great home-studio software out there.

A Home Recorder's Dream: Playing with Pros Online

It strikes me as a fairly equivalent situation to some of my blogger vs. professional critic ponderings. The possibilites of digital media allow for amateur writers or performers get their stuff out there, but with a form that blurs the obvious lines between those with "capital" and those without. And as for the fears that this will somehow devalue the professional - because of the digital media, it is only the quality of the content that really distinguishes one blog from the other, and becomes the standard of achievement. So too, with home-recorded music. No matter how good your Powerbook is, there is only so much that one can do with pitch manipulation and online session players to make a crappy song a great one.

Quality being the final arbiter of worth - with a little help from a good amplification system.