a lot of these issues have to do with the interface. most people who
buy synths, are musicians, not programmers. and while for the average
musician it's not too difficult to figure out what a sound does if you
turn a knob on a minimoog, a lot of these guys simply give up when it
comes to parameter menu's, multi's, and whatever. that's why synths
with good tresets sell well: a lot of people want to play these things
and make music with them, rather than programsounds and try out all
kinds of exotic possibilities. it's pretty rare to find people that can
do both well. <br>
<br>
i did some digital programming (k1/4 and dx100, etc) but gave up with
my k5000. i still have it, filled with some wonderful patches from the
then pretty active k5000 users group, but that was one synth that went
just over my head in possibilities and a lousy interface. i have the
same with softsynths: i love features like the midi synced looped
envelopes of the fm7, but the tiny window you have to play in is such a
pain, that i gave up after several sounds. <br>
<br>
maybe if you could have these things on giant touch screens with infinite zoom, things would get better..<br>
<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 4/22/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Rainer Buchty</b> <<a href="mailto:rainer@buchty.net">rainer@buchty.net</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
>D-50, I did. [...]<br><br>On this list I of course expect a high "programming" activity, but take<br>the average Joe who made the D50 and especially the DX7 such a success.<br>While the D50 -- being basically a subtractive synth -- was still easy
<br>to understand, the DX7 was (and probably still is) way above the head of<br>its average owner and therefore made way for "sound consumption" rather<br>than "sound creation".<br><br>Just like the Commodore 64 -- sold like pre-sliced bread, people *had*
<br>to have one, but only a fraction of those owners really made full use of<br>its potential. But they had "all" the programs they could copy.<br><br>>Couldn't / wouldn't do that [programming] anymore today. Maybe that's
<br>>the _real_ problem with digital synths, that I don't spend much time<br>>with them?<br><br>Maybe it's because they are lacking the proper user interface?<br>Personally, I'd for instance rather use a Korg Polysix than the
<br>Poly61.<br><br>Although I'm not sure how a proper user interface for a digital synth<br>should look like -- citing DX7 again, there was the Jellinghaus<br>programmer. Far away from being a commercial success.<br><br>Rainer
<br><br></blockquote></div><br>