Hey Andy.

I personally don't believe there is any sort of line that separates composer from programmer, or sound designer, except that at the two extremes of the spectrum some programmers can be obsessive about technical methodology and never explore aesthetics, and some composers can be nonchalent and dismissive about technical rigor and chase aesthetic results at the expense of understanding and repeatability.

Well said. Same goes with analogue purists who have not yet embraced the software world.

The force of industry is continually to divide programmers from practicioners, to demark roles like "creative sound designer" from "audio programmer" and create neat conservative little pidgeonholes for HR people to fit CVs into. Of course this is nonsense. Any good sound designer or musician is greatly enriched by a knowledge of programming, DSP, physics etc, and at the same time any programmer is greatly enabled by understanding the aesthetics and big picture of a product they work on.

I completely agree. I think that a balance between technical and aesthetic disciplines would be a god-send.

As for "elitism" I either honestly don't see much or unconsciously choose to rise above it.

Yes, as far as forums and lists, 'rising above' is definitely the best policy. My main frustration with elitism (that I've raised in this thread) was rooted in the fact that this elitism has polarized the academic landscape; and that I can't find a curriculum that fits my needs. Higher education is so expensive....I can't justify paying for something that I'm not passionate about....But, don't cry for me Argentina :-)

The greater danger imho is the opposite problem, a dumbing down of technology to black boxes, proprietry tools, entrenched conservative thinking, "not invented here" syndrome. This makes any composer/designer/creative a slave to tools and methods they don't understand. It also hurts industries, like film and games, that become entrenched in very conservative production methodologies and softwares like Protools. This saps all the real creativity from the job and acts as an anti-progressive inhibitor of new ideas.

Amen!

But to attact the kind of people that would go with Max or Reaktor we could do with more people building, sharing and documenting high quality synths and plugins.

That's a great point too. I think that the PD community, as a whole, would greatly benefit if 'pure composers' (for a lack of a better term) were using it as much as 'patchers' were using it.

By the way, I really love what you're doing with PD. Very useful, indeed. Thanks. What happened to your VST's? I can't seem to find them on your site.

Take care,

Jared