Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of canonpowershotA85

January 7th, 2009 – Today I read some sad news on Gizmodo regarding the discontinuation of physical piano rolls by one of the leading manufacturers of music rolls, QR Technology. This got me thinking about the rate of obsolescence of much of our technology, but in particular, music technology.

I’ve always thought of myself as somewhat of a luddite. All the gear and all the software out there are just tools, and if I don’t need something or think it will directly benefit the task at hand, I don’t let it capture my attention. I’d imagine many of you hold the same philosophy, especially given the typhoon of information that hits us square in the face everyday. But perhaps, I am not as immune to marketing as I’d like. After all, I post about new gear constantly on this site.

I am uplifted to learn of and experience the ingenuity of people out there. All over the world, creatives are not letting the “old” die out. While the attention-impaired everyperson is long off a trend, someone steps in and says “Wait a minute, let’s not waste this. It can still do a lot of good”. Whether it’s style, art, physical items, or philosophy, what was once ubiquitous becomes perhaps more important and special when it’s “obsolete”. In the music world, these would be the people that cling to vacuum tubes, SID chips, old GameBoys, tape reels and the like, and turn them into something useful, something unique. Big businesses selling the newest trends attempt to convince us that the present is superior. After all, if it wasn’t, then it wouldn’t have “advanced”. Buy buy buy! That’s how the record companies convinced everyone to upgrade their music collections from vinyl to CD.

While I’m sad that QR Technology is discontinuing the manufacture of piano rolls, I’m not sad for player pianos. Some genius is going to come along and capture our attention with them. It’s always been my feeling that the mechanical-ness of the player piano is its charm. All the new-fangled MIDI controlled digital player pianos miss the point and that the typical consumer doesn’t understand this, may be the saddest part of all.

via Gizmodo