New analog synth poll.

[Don Tillman]

   From: "David Kean" <mellod at netwood.net>
   Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 12:10:38 -0700

   We have been asked to take a consensus from AH and DIY about a new
   synth on the drawing board.

   It is being built as a "end all analog (mostly) synthesizer" from
   one of the Fathers analog synthesis.  You can guess who, but I can't
   say. 

   It will be 1500.00 or less, smallish in size on the scale of a Prophecy.

   Questions:

Okay... 

First off, what is the main goal of this synth?  No really, what is
it's place?  What is it supposed to be known for?  What's the appeal?
The machine of choice for technofests and raves?  Maximum number of
features for your entertainment dollar?  A soloing musical instrument
you can really wail on?  Something that emulates other keyboards or
synths?  A machine that does everything (for some arbitrary value of
"everything")?  Prog musicians' delight?  A profitable unit that demos
real well on the Guitar Center sales floor?  Something that can get
jiggy widdah turntables and beatbox yo-yo-knowhatahmsayin?  A synth
that sounds like nothing else?  Is the player supposed have instant
gratification and get funky with it out of the box, or are they
expected to spend some time learning how synthesis works and exploring
the subtlties and mastering it?  Is your customer going to play it, or
connect it to their computer?  Do you want to have a microprocessor in
it, and if so will the user interface be roughly like programming a
VCR?  Will it have patches, and if so do you expect the customer to
depart from the factory patches? 

Issues like this pretty much determine everything else.

   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?

There are a large number of unmusical (ie., crappy) digital oscillator
implementations, and a couple of nice ones, so this sort of sounds
like asking for permission to cheap out, knowwhatImean?  And
randomness is not the good feature analog oscillators, subtlety of
control, musical phase relationships and audio modulation are the big
wins.

That said, analog oscillators are pretty much required for a solo
instrument, or one where you want to get your sonic balls from
modulating oscillators with each other (like in the Arp Odyssey).

Digital oscillators can be nice for polyphonic instruments (Chroma and
MemoryMoog type of setups, not that those have digital oscillators) --
Oscillator-to-oscilator tuning is vital, and more control over the
tuning, especially for non-standard scales, is nice.

   Would you like to see some wood in the cabinet?

Would you like to see some wood on a guitar/Hammond/piano/bass/etc? 

More to the point, I think looking like every other black plastic
keyboard would be marketing suicide.

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

My preference would be for the prog musicians' delight, a machine
takes a while to understand and develop a relationship with, a single
voice instrument with no microprocessor control, no midi, a machine
that you can really use to stand up and testify with.

   Sequencer?

You're getting into Casio territory here.

   Touch, aftertouch issues?

Yes, of course.

  -- Don