New analog synth poll.

[Blandon Ray]

David Kean wrote:

> It will have "mostly" analog circuitry, definitely in filters and
> envelopes...given that dig oscillators can be made to behave with varying
> degrees of randomity, how important would it be to you, as a consumer, that
> they be analog?

Not really. I think current technology can make up the difference for less
money... of course, I am not a purist, but cost is bound to be an issue, and I'd
rather see it go to other features.

> Would you like to see some wood in the cabinet?

Absolutely. Just ask my MultiTrak:
http://www.monkey.org/~blandoon/multi/woodends.html

> Monophonic with ALL of the tricks or poly with fewer bells and whistles?

I say mono. For one, we all saw what happened with the OB-MX for example. For
two, vintage analog monosynths are IMHO more overpriced (for what you get) than
are their poly counterparts. Finally, there is of course the cost factor.

> Sequencer?

I'd rather see a comprehensive MIDI and CV interface, so you can use your own
choice. (see below)

> Touch, aftertouch issues?
>
> Realtime controllers...the usual issues...wheels? bats? sliders? spring
> loaded?
>
> Voltage control is inevitable, which are most important to you?

Personally I find modulation possibilities as attractive as the sound of the
oscillators and filters, perhaps more so. That's what made me buy my Odyssey
versus, say, a Moog Prodigy. In fact, for my money I'd love to see a modern
synth with an ARP-like flexible voice architecture. There are some (like the
Pulse) that have mod matrices and things, but the Oddity is great because
everything's there on the front panel, and because the design forces you to make
interesting choices - it's not so much a matrix as a sort of binary tree,
really. It's flexible within very specific limits.

It would also be great to have external signals (audio and CV) routable to all
parts of the synth; somewhere between an Odyssey and a 2600, I guess. And I've
harped on this before, but I'd love to be able to do stuff like sync LFOs to
MIDI, use MIDI messages to modulate everything as if they were CVs, etc. I'd not
enough of a MIDI expert to judge the feasibility of this, but I'd hate to buy a
$1500 synth and also have to spend $500 on a MIDI-CV converter to gain just some
of this functionality (no offense Tony K. :). That said, the interface (in the
sense of CV/MIDI as well as of panel controls) is most important in my mind.

Hope that made some sense,
Blandon