[sdiy] new stuff (was Moogey jitter)

[elmacaco]

> gaving tried pure analogue, hyrbid (digital oscillator, analogue filters)
> and DSP.
> for price, size and bang for buck, DSP wins everytime...
>
> Paul

Ahh but sound?  Of course that's in the ear of the behearer ;)

I think there is something of a church of DSP thing going on here too. If
the desire is for new ideas, why specify how they should be done?

Most of the innovation that has come out has worked to make products cheaper
to produce rather than making better instruments.  Innovative products often
die by the wayside, making musical instruments is an art, not just heaping
more power and more bells and whistles into it.

The real race in the modern market is who's presets impress people more?
That's what gets them to part with the cash.  Plus, the key to alot of the
sound of the softsynths and digital hardware is the effects, which are often
used on every preset since the raw tone is generally bland.  Run an analog
synth through digital effects and you can do amazing things and still have a
great raw tone.

How many people program absynth/reactor?  Very Few.  NI even made a version
that only plays finished instruments, that should tell you something.
Innovation serves for novelty these days, not to actually blaze a pioneering
trail to the future.

I don't think analog has been exhausted in any sense.  I think analog design
has a horizon as big as anything else.  it is another class of instrument.
I had a Rhodes borrowed from a friend here and I compared it with many soft
synths and sample sets and I'll tell you, the Rhodes was the clear winner,
in sound, inspiration, in everything but cost and size.  Playing the Rhodes
just pulled music out of me.  Playing the emulation delivered an
approximation of the sound, but the nuance was missing, and as one who
spends more time making music than congratulating myself on the recording of
what I made, the process is important.

Sure, I might be able to get the same sound and make the same music in a
cubicle with a laptop, but I have sat at the Rhodes for hours and recorded
nothing and felt great satisfaction at the music I made that day.  Not
everything is product.

Analog synthesizers are similar to that. They are a class of instrument just
like an electric Piano is a class of instrument not just a more convenient
piano, since there are more convenient digital pianos and the EP's are still
out there.  Analog synthesizers has many possibilities that are currently
only enjoyed by modular users like feedback.  It may not be for everybody,
but neither is software.