GarageBand eller Logic Pro? En studie i föreställningar om professionalitet och konsten att välja arbetsredskap inom digital musikproduktion

Abstract

GarageBand and Logic Pro are Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) developed by Apple for recording and producing music. The former comes for free with every Mac, iPhone or iPad while the latter comes with a price tag and are marketed to the professionals. Although Logic Pro has more features, GarageBand has gradually become more advanced to the point where the average consumer can make a recording that sounds professional on their iPhone. This democratization of advanced technology challenges the status and identity of the professional music producer, which in turn can make their choice of DAW important for reasons beyond their technical requirements. This thesis investigates to what extent the professionals view of music technology is guided by technical reasoning related to the actual production of music, versus social reasoning related to discourses about what it means to be a professional. Using the theory of discursive fields, wherein discourses competes about giving meaning to a discipline, I analyze interviews with professionals using Apple products and their reasoning in relation to GarageBand and Logic Pro. My study demonstrates that there’s a correlation between the notion of professionalism and marketing within the discursive field of music production. In other words: To be fully recognized as a professional, you probably need to use Logic Pro – even if GarageBand meets your technical requirements. It also demonstrates how notions about professionalism and attitudes towards music technology can be related to gender.