[sdiy] Howdy

[Marc Jordan]

Oh, man.  Is this gonna be like the Mac forums? :)

-----Original Message-----
From: Grant Richter [mailto:grichter at asapnet.net]
Sent: Saturday, July 27, 2002 1:21 PM
To: Oren Leavitt; Marc Jordan
Cc: Synth (E-mail)
Subject: Re: [sdiy] Howdy


> from vacuum-tube synths to 'bleeding edge' digital technology to
> old-school 1970's analog modulars to early digital synths to Theremin
> to.........well just about anything you could possibly NOT imagine...

As a personal note...

It is well understood mathematically that when information is sampled and/or
quantized, the information content (entropy) is reduced. While digital
methods are the current craze, the results are inherently information
reduced in comparison to analog generation methods. From a mathematical
perspective, continuous time computation contains a much larger information
rate than discrete time computation. This is precisely why discrete time
computation is used, to reduce the information rate to levels that can be
computed by digital methods.

Analog methods inherently compute with continuous levels in continuous time
with a much larger overall information content.

The difference boils down to sacrificing data rate to gain an increase in
precision for describing any arbitrary data point. But the process of
sampling and quantization produce audible artifacts that some people
dislike.

The perception of "old school" vs. "bleeding edge" is really the product of
an over generous marketing campaign for a technology based on mathematics
from the 1850's (George Boole).

On synth-DIY, there is a great deal of "bleeding edge" analog design
happening every day.