Put another way... Do you push a button on the pad, or do you Cirque-Du-Soleil the shit out of that triangle.
I ran into almost that exact scenario/dilemma on the last two tours.
We needed a mark tree (bar chimes) for one song, to be used one time. Once. Just a standard gliss from high to low. One time only per show.
I have a lovely sample of that actual mark tree, but Al wanted it to be played live. So I brought it along, made him pay for a special arm for it, and for a clamp so that a dedicated mic could be mounted to the arm, with its line taking up a channel of its own, and our stage manager having to 'baby' the chimes for set-up and tear-down 60+ times on each tour.
Oh, did I mention that they get played... once?
Were the chimes in a solo spot, or was I lit up or otherwise featured? Nope. Did having live chimes sound any better to me or the audience, or did they somehow allow me to play the part better? Nope. Was I expressing myself or expanding musical or artistic boundaries? Oh please, they're bar chimes, played one time! But it's what the boss wanted. He who pays the drummer, etc etc.
And I'll end up doing the same in 2021. It's not that I necessarily advocate simplicity, but I could not determine any advantage to using the live version over the sampled version, other than perhaps balancing the right side of my rig with the left.
Yeah, you can tell I'm pretty happy about it.
Bermuda
PS: For those with a keen eye, yes, I'm wearing a Skins 'n' Tins tee shirt!
PPS: Yeah, I really should clean my cymbals more than once every never.
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