Analog DIY versus Digital DIY

[Scot Gresham Lancaster]

You are raising a very interesting question here, not just for novices, but
for anyone interested in this field, at all levels. I think one of the
things that has kept me fascinated with electronic and computer based music
hardware hacking is that it is constantly changing in content and context. 

Everything I have done, over the years, has always been a mish mash of
homebrew circuits and code and off the shelf stuff that I either hacked to
suit my purpose, or used as is (if possible). I am drawn to working in this
way because often it is the only way to get to a desired result. The best
example of this is in the realm of alternative controller ideas. Often
things that will work really well for some sort of expressive purpose in
music are not commercially viable, or if they are manufactured, they have
been "dumbed" down to make the user interface commercially accepted. This
often requires a hack of a commercial controller or starting from scratch
and fabricating everything. 

No matter how easy and straight forward the front end design for a sound
producing module becomes (aka Nord Lead) there will always be a need for a
well thought out means of controlling these sounds. That seems to be a real
moving target. It depends on the type of music the intent of the performer
and her/his audience. I doubt that this will ever settle down like it did
for traditional instruments, like the transition form the klavier to the
pianoforte and the technological advancements that accompanied that
transition. Now one can go anywhere in the world and play a standardized
"piano" and know what to expect. This my never happen with our field...and I
think that's a good thing. A lifetime of learning and reinventing new
practices, how exciting.




At 11:04 PM 5/5/98 +0000, Sean Costello wrote:
>Philosophical question time:  If a person is just getting into
>electronic music DIY, and is starting from scratch (i.e. NO technical
>background whatsoever), what would be more useful at this point in time:
>learning how to construct analog musical circuits, or learning how to
>program a computer to produce sound?
> 
>etc. etc......
>
>Anyway, enough rambling. What do the esteemed DIY deities have to say
>about this?
>
>Sean Costello
>
x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0x0
Scot Gresham-Lancaster                           scot at csuhayward.edu
MB1525a                                          ph: 510-885-3150
CSUHayward                                       fax:510-885-3461
Hayward, CA  94542	 

          <WWW    http://tesla.csuhayward.edu/~scot/sglbio.html  >