[sdiy] presets on a modular

[Paul Maddox]

Don,

  So ok, go buy a minimoog, set a sound you want, the rip off all the knobs
except the filter cutoff.
Now you have your piano..

 The point is a Synth isn't just a single sound, or type of sound, its got
hundreds of 'basic' sounds and 100's of varients there of.

 Why am I explaining this? I don't understand why people can't see that a
synth is a totally different beast to a 'violin' and you just cannot compare
a synth to a violin or piano.

Paul


----- Original Message -----
From: "Don Tillman" <don at till.com>
To: "Paul Maddox" <P.Maddox at signal.QinetiQ.com>
Cc: <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 4:54 PM
Subject: Re: [sdiy] presets on a modular


>    > From: "Paul Maddox" <P.Maddox at signal.QinetiQ.com>
>    > Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 11:08:17 -0000
>    >
>    > 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...
>
> It's not the best example, but yeah... A piano has a soft pedal, which
> implements an alternate softer sound by moving the hammers closer to
> the strings.  And the middle pedal, which does different things on
> different piano models.  Some pianos have been built with a material
> that can be moved between the hammers and the strings for an alternate
> sound.
>
> Harpsichords have multiple manuals, stops, and dampers.  Vibraphones
> have a switch for the motor.
>
> A violin has presets to the extent that it can be played arco
> ("bowed"), pizzicatto, or with a bridge mute, or with the back side of
> the bow, or some alternate bowing techniques, or some alternate
> tuning.
>
> Flutes are easy enough to carry around that most flute players just
> swap between flutes.  Same with harmonicas.  The lesson here is that
> when the musical instrument is sufficiently small, it's much easier to
> carry multiples than to build up a preset switching system.
>
>    > > Consider what other Musical Instruments do for presets; guitars,
>    >
>    > guitars don't have presets?
>
> Guitars have presets in the way they select between pickups for
> different sounds, between preset volume levels, between pickup mixes,
> and between tone control settings.  Compare the electrical design of
> the Gibson Les Paul to the Fender Stratocaster and the Fender
> Jaguar/Jazzmaster in this regard.  Or the stereo wiring on
> Rickenbacker guitars.
>
> Part of the design of guitar electronics is how to get from a good
> chording ("rhythm") sound to a good soloing ("lead") sound without
> losing a beat, or how you balance pickup mixing capablity with the
> ability to easily get from one sound to another.
>
> Guitar stomp boxes basically work like presets.
>
> And old older guitar amplifiers had presets in the form of reverb and
> tremelo footswtiches, later amps had channel switching, and more
> modern guitar amps have more exotic switching features.
>
> Yes, you can learn a lot from guitar players.  :-)
>
>    > > 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
>
> Organs have stops, drawbars, the preset keys on the lower octave of a
> Hammond B3, etc.
>
> Leslie speakers have a switch to select between stopped, a low speed
> and a high speed.  And it turns out the transitions between these
> presets were more musically profound that the sounds themselves.  What
> can we learn from that?
>
>    > > other keyboards, etc.
>    >
>    > define keyboard.
>
> Clavinet, Mellotron, etc.
>
>   -- Don
>
> --
> Don Tillman
> Palo Alto, California
> don at till.com
> http://www.till.com
>
>