u/Mad_Ave_Cycles

Source -> Audio in -> USB out -> DAW record w/efx.

I'm continuing to be amazed with what this can do.

Pinned by @CO-SG @SadieLove86

1. What is a composer? A composer is someone who creates original music — melody, harmony, rhythm, structure — regardless of the method used to capture it.

A composer may:

• write notation by hand
• hum or sing ideas
• dictate parts to a musician
• Use a DAW
• tap rhythms
• improvise and have someone transcribe
• play an instrument
• not play an instrument

All of these are valid.
The method is irrelevant. The authorship is what matters.

Historically, many composers dictated music without playing every instrument they wrote for.

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2. Did Michael Jackson compose? Yes — and we have receipts. Michael Jackson:

• wrote melodies
• wrote basslines
• wrote chord progressions
• wrote full arrangements in his head
• beatboxed entire drum parts
• sang every instrumental line into a tape recorder
• directed musicians to play exactly what he envisioned

Musicians who worked with him (Greg Phillinganes, Brad Buxer, Quincy Jones, etc.) have all said the same thing:
Michael would sing the entire arrangement — chords included —, and they would play it.

That is composition.

Knowing the names of the chords is not required to invent them.

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3. “But he didn’t play piano well enough to write chords” — irrelevant This is where the YouTube commenter is confusing technique with authorship.

You do NOT need instrumental proficiency to:

• hear harmony
• invent harmony
• choose harmony
• direct harmony
• compose harmony

If you can hear a chord and intend a chord, you can compose it.

Some legendary composers couldn’t play their own works.
Some couldn’t play at all.

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4. So what is arranging? An arranger takes pre‑existing musical material and decides:

• instrumentation
• voicing
• structure
• stylistic interpretation

Arranging is transforming something that already exists.

Composing is creating the thing in the first place.

Michael didn’t just arrange.
He originated the musical ideas.

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5. What Michael did is closer to Mozart than the commenter realizes Mozart famously composed entire pieces in his head and wrote them down later.
   Michael did the same — but used his voice instead of notation.

He would:

• sing the bassline
• sing the chords
• sing the string parts
• sing the horn stabs
• beatbox the groove
• layer harmonies
• dictate dynamics

That is composition in its purest form.

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6. The “you must play piano to compose” argument is a myth
   If that were true:

• Hip‑hop producers wouldn’t be composers
• Film composers who dictate to orchestrators wouldn’t be composers
• Non‑instrumentalists in global traditions wouldn’t be composers
• Many pop, R&B, and soul legends wouldn’t be composers

It’s a narrow, Eurocentric, instrument‑centric misunderstanding of how music is actually made.

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7. So who’s right? The commenter defending Michael is correct. Michael Jackson was a composer, not merely an arranger.

The other commenter is arguing from:

• a limited definition of composition
• a misunderstanding of how harmony can be created
• a bias toward instrumental literacy as the only valid creative method

Music history does not support that view.

I know it's going into a DAW at some point but the creation without the screen part is a welcome change.

Found a good deal on a used one, first groovebox since my old Rm1x. Would highly recommend these baddies!