AI made quality available to everyone, and made it average. What sets work apart now is a decision you can see.An AI assistant helped me write this. The ideas, the data and the final edit are mine.E.PIANO 1In 1983, Yamaha released the DX7, the first digital synthesizer to sell in large numbers. It was powerful and almost impossible to program: no knobs to shape the sound, only menus on a small display that few musicians ever learned to navigate. So it shipped with factory sounds, 128 presets that two specialists had put together in less than four days. Most owners never went further.The Yamaha DX7 (1983): a membrane panel, a small display and no knobs. Photo: iixorbiusii, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain).One of those sounds, “E.PIANO 1”, imitates an electric piano. It sounds professional from the first note. The music theorist Megan Lavengood counted how often it shows up on the...