AW: RE: The great banana debate

[gstopp at fibermux.com]

     My $0.02...
     
     1/4" is the standard for this business, no question. Always take this 
     into consideration.
     
     I've just finished my first banana system. So far I like it, as long 
     as I stay within that system patch-wise. The stacked-jack multiple 
     concept just might lend itself to horribly interconnected sounds not 
     practical on another of my machines, and I consider that a good thing. 
     Time will tell. I want to build many more panels.
     
     1/8" is weak and cheesy. Every time I patch up something on one of my 
     1/8" systems (even the ARP 2600) I end up spending half my time 
     wiggling jacks to get a nice connection (yes I've cleaned them). But 
     you can't beat the compact size that these jacks allow for. All's I 
     can say is, know your system and live with its faults.
     
     As for the noise/hum/grounding/crosstalk issues, on a 1K output, 100K 
     input, ten-volt waveform system, within that system, you gotta be 
     pretty pickey to be bothered by these issues. Juergen's point about 
     sharp-edged clocks is a good one, so watch out for that, unless of 
     course it's a sound that you're after. But I must admit that a 
     well-designed balanced tip/ring modular would earn my humble respect. 
     I would approach it like a car enthusiast would approach a Ferrari.
     
     All in all my personal philosophy is use it all, and enjoy the good 
     parts.
     
     - Gene
     gstopp at fibermux.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: AW: RE: The great banana debate
Author:  don at till.com at ccrelayout
Date:    2/20/97 5:34 PM
     
*Quality cables of all lengths are readily available and inexpensive.
     
*If you run out unexpectedly you can just steal more from a guitar 
player.
     
*You can have "normalized jacks".  Like on the ARP2600, the jack 
includes a switch contact to connect to something useful if there's 
nothing plugged in.
     
*You can connect to the outside world easily.  (This is very important 
for me.)  (And if you've got a modular system with normalized jacks, 
it could very well be that the jacks are more likely to be used to 
connect to an external device than something else on the modular!)