WHY? (was Re: [sdiy] ... Simulating a Moog)

[Rainer Buchty]

> 3- follow the old "plug & play" rule, so that anyone
> with a minimum of musical skills can make nice sounds
> from built-in patches as soon as the gear is out of the box
> without spending 2 weeks learning the manual,
> 4- learning curve not to steep, so that the most adventurous
> users can start exploring all the possibilities,
>
> I think the DX7 made it because it matched all these features.

Especially #3 and #4, hm? :)

Using the DX7 as an instrument is easy. Just like a piano is easy. But I
would say the learning curve for the synthesis and the user "friendly"
interface kept most people away from programming it.

> Last but not least : emulating existing acoustic and / or electric
> instruments is still the goal of many musicians / sound designers /
> manufactors, just like photo-realism is still the main marketing goal
> for 3D image synthesis, simply because no existing technique can
> perfectly emulate real sounds yet.

Ah, but there's a difference. 3D image synthesis does not focus on
recreating digital artwork of existing pictures, sceneries, landscapes
etc.

Photo realism here means that you can't tell that this actually was no
photo but a completely artificial rendering.

Taking that back to synth would mean that people focus on sounds which
sound a lively and organic as real instruments. However, the usual
understanding is "making it sound like a piano" -- where it should be more
like "making it sound like a piano on Jupiter during a Methane hurricane
played by Volcan overlords".

Rainer