DLovas wrote:bouzoukijoe1 wrote:Automatic Gainsay wrote:For clarity:
Demo: Someone who shows functionality.
Performance: Someone who plays something.
not necessarily imho. demo is short for demonstration, no? which is a broad term. if it's strict functionality you're after, I believe that is specifically a functional demonstration or feature demonstration. but a demo can be a performance too. if you simply want to hear an overview of the breadth of capabilities of a synth, you don't necessarily need to show its features in a dry way. kind of like when you test drive a car... that's like a demo. but the salesman doesn't necessarily have to show you how to disassemble the back seat and fit a sofa in it. he/she can just take you for a spin around the corner, which would constitute a demo too I think.

exactly - demonstration - performance, in this context, are interchangeable
I appreciate your opinion, but as a guy who was among the first to ever do this on YouTube, I have to tell you that your viewpoint is based upon your perception more than the history of the situation.
The difference between a demonstration of a keyboard/synth/whatever and a performance ON a keyboard/synth/whatever is defined by those two terms.
A demonstration of someone's musicality, performance skills, ability to perform the music of others, is not a "synth demo." It is a demonstration of their all of the things I listed above. Primarily, it is a demonstration of THEIR PERFORMANCE SKILLS. While you're free to jump to all the conclusions you want based on your perception or motivation, words have
meanings.
A synth demonstration is a
demonstration of a synth. Can this be achieved through performance? Absolutely... but not through performance
alone. Otherwise, it's a goddamned "performance," and not a "demonstration." If some douchebag runs through all of their prog rock riffs on appropriate sounds on a synth, the synth is not demonstrated. Their interests, skills, etc. are demonstrated. If someone shows you what a synth is capable of... then the synth is demonstrated.
Listen, I can write a shitload of great patches on a synth, and perform lead lines by other people... but what the f**k does that actually demonstrate to you? You're not going to be able to duplicate those patches (unless I demonstrate how they're done), and you're not going to be able to or want to duplicate my duplication of some other d**k's lead lines. As such, it's a PERFORMANCE.
This democratization of words is getting ridiculous. Just because words have overlap does not mean they are synonymous.