Christopher Dobrian

Featured on the Ableton website, and getting lots of online buzz lately among computer music aficionados, is the set of Max for Live plugins called "Group Humanizer". Amidst all the reviews and comments I've read, not one person appears to have mentioned the thing that immediately leapt out at me: the naming of two of the plugins "MASTER" and "SLAVE". Really? For humanization? There's any number of naming possibilities: host/client, leader/follower, groover/groovee, etc., yet the author chose that particular metaphor. Apparently I'm the only person bothered by this, but I find it disgraceful and disturbing. Of course I realize this is a commonly-used pair of terms in technological fields, particularly having to do with clock-based devices. Apparently nobody at Digidesign (as just one example) had a second thought when naming their product "Slave Driver". I suggest to rethink the use of the master/slave paradigm when naming new technologies.

ot-humanistic-word-choices

Interesting is how could come that these words were commonly used in technology fields in the last thousand years ...

Should it be a taboo ?
Interesting is how could come that these words were commonly used in technology fields in the last thousand years ... 

It might just be a cultural thing, christopher. You're american, right? There's a lot of work being done there to sort of "clean up" our language of any negative connotations of the past, but actual "slave" taboo doesn't exist in such a great extent in Europe. That might be part of the explanation?

I actually prefer "master" and "client", myself. IDK, it seems more... official. Professional.

+1 on what Christopher says. Sadly the terminology is well established in the audio world (and not only there…)

I agree with Andreas, Christopher. It may well be a cultural issue alone. European history has had a different 2 or 3 hundred years, so word baggage is different across cultures. Interesting question/point though. I like client and server, perhaps because I work in assistive and inclusive design and those terms imply reciprocity. Incidentally, in the US the term "handicapped" is widely used amongst many populations, I think, but has been abandoned here (certainly in the UK) because of European cultural-historical stigma associated with the origins of the word.

Hi
I agree with Andreas, Christopher. It may well be a cultural issue alone. European history has had a different 2 or 3 hundred years, so word baggage is different across cultures. Interesting question/point though. I like client and server, perhaps because I work in assistive and inclusive design and those terms imply reciprocity. Incidentally, in the US the term "handicapped" is widely used amongst many populations, I think, but has been abandoned here (certainly in the UK) because of European cultural-historical stigma associated with the origins of the word.

why is "client-server" better than "master-slave"? the etymology of "server" is obviously "servant", which implies a particular (rather old-fashioned) power gradient wrt the "client"... it might be an issue if and when electronic devices gain some sentience and become offended at such labelling... in some respects "master-slave" is a more honest terminology

"if and when electronic devices gain some sentience and become offended at such labelling"

We should really ask Ableton Live what it thinks of the terms. BTW I said "I like" client-server, not that it is "better". For me, server means . . . bla bla wordy rapping hood. Lost interest right there

we should also stop calling piano libraries "black and white" and of course we need to use only grey keys on real pianos as next step. (with the additional option to order pianos with randomly colored keys - for enhanced piano players (or for blind people))

what i really like in the audio world is that the master has to do all the work and the slaves just consume his output. i dont really want this to be replaced by a peer to peer clocking system or a communal sequencing network.

if you think this is contradictionary, you have probably not yet heard of some funny programs around.

like the totally illogical "logic" for example, or the tool "pro tools", which is in fact a tool for users, and not for tools. well, of course, if you are american, you can replace "logic" with "performer", which is more logical than logic, but raises the interesting question who the actual performer is, when you use it on stage.

did you ever notice that "open sound control" can only be used for midi but not for sound?

and that "fast fourier" is one of the slowest processes around?

under such circumstances i am actually suprised that the "orange vocoder" is not green at all.

lets put some blockfish in the mixer and serve it the next random client.

if you think this is contradictionary, you have probably not yet heard of some funny programs around.
like the totally illogical "logic" for example, or the tool "pro tools", which is in fact a tool for users, and not for tools. well, of course, if you are american, you can replace "logic" with "performer", which is more logical than logic, but raises the interesting question who the actual performer is, when you use it on stage.

and that "fast fourier" is one of the slowest processes around? 

according to wider parts of the industry, who is currently trying to sell us tons of their "mega money ferrari ultra trap bass bitch sampling construction kits", ableton will soon have to rename their "masters" and "clients" into "chaboz" and "niggahz", because otherwise young people will no longer be able to understand what the product´s names mean.

i finish with a classic: "microsoft works".

[OT] Humanistic word choices