-Letters- Analog Synths Review

[P4DQt at aol.com]

Hi, long time fan, love the Mag.!  
I'm writing this letter in reply to the analog synths review, while Mr. 
atkins did a fine job writing the review, I'm puzzled by something. After 
visiting Keyboardmag.com, reading the article, listening to the Real Audio 
demo files associated with the article, I'm left with this thought.  this is 
not the way one can compare 2 or 9 Synths.
 First, one should use the same technique across all the synths involved in 
the listening test, when trying to determine the sound spectrum of a given 
synth.
 Second, the audio demo files, are recordings from different "styles"? Of 
music, Virus-1.2 .ra for example was a 39 sec. techno like song that to my 
ears, the auhor of the composition was inspired by the name of the synth in 
the review, used to make the song for the review.  I think that if one is 
going to use a sequence pattern to compare the sound capabilities of a synth, 
one should use the same sequence across all the different synths, though I 
understand why it's not done this way, it would be boring, and boring is not 
a wanted quality for an article. 
    Now conceder this, when one is comparing the sound spectrum of a synth, 
one should use the Synths editor to create random patches and try to cover 
all the possible parameter settings (agrhhh), recording them all into ra or 
mp3 files and letting us hear them and compare them all. But this is the 
stuff that dreams are off One comes to the conclusion that it's almost 
impossible and not enough time in a life time to accomplish this. Then enter 
the "standard", something like the pre set banks of any synth, you know ... 
the Base, Drums, organs,  strings, winds, Pads, sweeps, arps, Fx, etc.  sound 
banks of your favorite work station, this way you can try to compare banks 
across 9 synths, or better yet, record the actual pre sets that come with 
each synth, i guess single key strokes across the keyboard would be OK, but 
better yet one could use a sequence in a style that is appropriate for the 
type of sound, this will give the listener a good idea of the Synths sound 
creation capabilities. But this is all to good and complicated to get done, 
maybe it will be the future of synth manufacturers online shopping, one can 
demo all the manufacturers websites and listen to their synths pre sets.
That's all, thank you all at keyboard for making all of this happen and have 
a merry Christmas to all who read this, Happy new year!!!
Sam from NYC