[sdiy] Buchla's back

[jhno]

>I would more like to think about "the ROMpler" -- especially Korg's M1
>-- being the death of "real" synthesizers.

maybe, but then there was a renaissance of 'real' synthesizers - mostly
occurring at a cottage industry level, but also reflected to some degree in
the offerings of the major label synth manufacturers.

ironically, this renaissance was perhaps the 'death' of a real synthesizer:

>I think Tom Oberheim was just a little too early in his ëcomeback.í From
>what Iíve read, the Marion rack box (MS-2?) was an improvement even over
>the capabilities of the Matrix line. Perhaps that with a third wavetable
>DCO and/or some nifty waveshaping could be a hot item now. Maybe.

tom considered the marion synth to be a technically superior to everything
he had done before. however, its release coincided with the onset of the
retro/vintage trend. hence, his view is that he was trying to market the
marion just as everybody started buying monosynths with lots of knobs.

it is true - at that time, people were waking up to the inadequacy of
periscope interfaces (2-line LCD + buttons + optional data slider). clear,
direct control became a more important issue than, say, polyphony.

thus: real synthesizers were the death of real synthesizers.

heh, anyway, this is based on conversations with tom about 7 years ago,
when we both worked for interval research in palo alto.

on the bright side, some of the surplus marion filter chips would later be
purchased by... dave smith, for the evolver - ! open one up, and you will
see...

jhno


PS - my evolver, serial number 13, was stolen in san francisco a couple
weeks ago. if you see it, please let me know... thanks