[sdiy] Wakeman

[Glen]

At 11:11 AM 7/7/03 , Paul Maddox wrote:

>But again, all 3 also dont offer anything radically new..

I think that user interfaces offer the most immediate opportunities for
advancement and innovation. I'm not just referring to "knobs and menus",
but also to how the notes are triggered and affected during play.

Isn't everyone tired of push button interfaces using unlabeled hidden
functions? Why don't we have controls that change their legend in response
to the particular mode they are in at the moment? The legends could be done
with individual LCD displays (would take a lot of LCD's), or the whole
control panel could be a single touch screen. This would seem to be an
economic hurdle, but surely this could be overcome eventually?

Is there nothing better to control synths with than the typical
velocity-sensitive keyboard and a couple mod wheels? Of course there *are*
alternatives, but why don't we see them implemented more often?

In this case, I think it's a problem of musicians not wanting to explore
new tools, unless they first see someone else using them successfully to
create the very same kind of music they do. (Monkey see, monkey do?) 

This is so sad. There is so much to explore, but such little interest in
doing so. I once repaired a Chroma Polaris for a fellow. All his presets
had been lost, in addition to whatever else was wrong with the unit. This
fellow had been using the original factory presets. We offered to give him
the newer updated version of the factory presets, which sounded *much*
better in almost all respects. There was only one snag. The various voices
were stored under different patch numbers. For example, if patch number one
had formerly been a piano voice, it might now be a saxophone, and the new
piano voice might be patch number three or something like that. When he
found out that he would have to learn a new voice mapping, he told us to
forget the update and stick with the older, crapier voices. The less he had
to learn, the better--even if it meant knowingly sacrificing quality. 

It's sad, but true--and it happens far too often.


later,
Glen Berry