agree totally with what you say...
my point was, when I am at a party, I couldn't care how the shit was made... as along as it makes me jump around...
you don't go dining at a 5 star restaurant all the time, sometimes a big mac hits the spot
absolutely, to the listener it makes ZERO difference how it was made. long as it sounds good, the main riff might as well have been bought off itunes. in fact, a eurodisco act called "swedish house mafia" had a seriously big hit (platinum probably) whichs' main hook was a synth lead riff by Vengance, that was bought straight off their webshop, and chucked straight in the song. you dont even have to buy the whole sample pack, you can pick and choose between individual phrases and hits from genre specific categories. im sure youre aware of vengance, they are THE sample pack brand, the top shelf. i feel shitty just using a single hit by them, f.e layering kicks, keeping just the transient, but it happens when im desperate.
however, i think we do not listen to, or "consume", if you will, drum and bass
mainly in the club, but rather in our car stereo, headphones biking, or on the hifi at home cooking or drinking with mates, or whatever, point is you dont have to jump up and down in a room full of sweaty people and blinking lights chock full of drugs to like drum and bass. not sure where i was going with this, just a moment
ah no ok wait i remember, this is something i have thought about alot, because our creative process is arduous and long winded to say the least. we have gone pretty far to get a certain sound quality (analog, warm, harmonics, you know, all those words that you dont really know what they mean until you actually worked with the gear and heard the difference yourself, because its really 100% subjective) source all our samples ourself, by sampling old vinyl, recording instruments, synths, through loads of old equipment that weve accumulated through the years, most notably (its notable because i think it sounds awesome, thats the only reason) a revox reel to reel tape machine. if you make stuff on some weak freeware vsti and then resample it red hot onto the tape, it really comes alive. which is time consuming and really quite long, and on top of that, there isnt any guarante that the song comes out good or even "ok".
but the listener doesnt know that, all that matters is if the song is good or not. thats it. no amount of vintage unique zen gear from the middle ages or rigorous work ethic can change that. so then the question arises, for whom is it you ultimately create art for? what is the purpose? why do you write music. ive come to the conclusion i write songs because i have to, i do it to express something i cant in any other way, and 99% of my music has never been heard by anyone else, and the day i start writing songs to sell mp3s and top some fucking EDM chart on itunes or beatport is the day i really need someone to smash up my equipment and push me into a lake.