[sdiy] presets on a modular

[Paul Maddox]

Don,

> The first is that they're way too complex.  Whether you measure that
> by the parts count, by the cost, by the panel space, or by the time
> spent building it, the value of the patching circuitry comes in at
> several times the circuitry being patched.

Yep, and thats why I've held off, doing anything more than thinking it
through and making oodles of notes.

> The second is that the preset schemes suffer from a bad user
> interface.  Remember, you're building a Musical Instrument (capital M,
> capital I), and for that a bad user interface is unacceptable.

Yep, no matter how you do it, its going to be less than ideal.
That said, many people will argue that a tonne of patch-chords is less than
ideal.

> And third, the patching schemes are all based on the awful patching
> model found on any modern computer-in-a-plastic-box keyboard, where
> arbitrary sounds are selected by a binary number.  No real Musical
> Instruments use that preset model.

I struggle with this.
How many 'real musical' instruments have multiple sounds?
A piano, err no, A flute, err no, maybe a violin, err no...
So I think the need for this is different to that of a 'real musical'
instrument.

> Instead of forcing a bad preset model on an analog modular synth, I
> think it would be better to develop a new preset model that's more
> appropriate to the instrument.

Agreed, its less than ideal.

> Consider what other Musical Instruments do for presets; guitars,

guitars don't have presets?

> organs,

organs have 'ranges' that you can add/remove, again, no presets.
You can't have a 'Big juicy organ' button that turns on all the stops, you
do it manually, one (or two) at a time.

> other keyboards, etc.

define keyboard.

> Consider not trying to present any
> arbitrary set of patches and control settings.  Consider better ways
> of selecting a patch than a binary number.  Consider your actual
> musical needs; the sounds you want to use and how you want to go
> between them.

Agreed, there's half the trick of designing a new synth.

Paul