[sdiy] presets on a modular

[Don Tillman]

   > From: "Paul Maddox" <P.Maddox at signal.QinetiQ.com>
   > Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 10:46:53 -0000
   > 
   > 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..

Huh? 

   > 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.

I provided several examples of musical instruments with the ability to
switch between dozens of preset sounds.  Some of those sounds are
similar, but some of those sounds are very different.  And these are
examples where the implementation of the preset mechanism is
inexpensive, doesn't mess with the basic instrument, and the switching
operation is effortless and even musical.

Now, how many presets do you need on your modular synth?  You're
claiming about 100,000 (hundreds times hundreds)?  What the *hell* are
you going to do with 100,000 presets?

Seriously, if you're doing presets for the purposes of playing a gig,
you're probably not going to need more than a dozen of them.  

If you're trying to document every possible sound of a modular with a
preset number, I would think that's a very weird thing to do.  And if
such a preset implementation ends up musically, or financially,
crippling the synth, what's the point?

   > 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.

Dude, you were the one who brought up the MiniMoog, the violin and the
piano.  The discussion was supposed to be about implementing some sort
of preset system on a modular synth.  What exactly are you proposing?

  -- Don

-- 
Don Tillman
Palo Alto, California
don at till.com
http://www.till.com