It is probably a funny word choice that keeps the recording field intimidating to the casual observer, or the hopeful novice; but the act of building songs in the world of sequencers and synthesizers has long been stored under the catch all term of “programming.” The word probably becomes more accurate or inaccurate depending on how one chooses to equip one’s studio. The controllerists can easily imagine themselves as device wrangling borgs from outer space as they tie feature after feature to conveniently placed knobs and indulge in wild bursts of inspired creativity after a hard day of device building. On the other hand, the guy sitting with an acoustic guitar and a microphone probably looks at what they do as simply recording.
Programming has always been what I called it, but I also started at a time when a hardware sequencer was tied to hardware synths, drum machines and …
