[sdiy] Modular - sound or song

[Ingo Debus]

Am 09.04.2009 um 06:41 schrieb David G. Dixon:

> Analogue is more spontaneous; fleeting, even, and
> thus lends itself to improvisation,
[....]
> Analogue is more of a toy, in the best sense of something which  
> invites and
> inspires play.

Of all synths I've owned so far, this description fits best to the  
physical modeling synth Yamaha VL70-m. It's 100% digital.

This does not apply to patch editing. In fact, patch editing on the  
VL70-m is extremely difficult. Most parameters aren't even accessible  
from the device itself, only via MIDI sysex.
But they mapped a few parameters to the outside world, controllable  
with MIDI CC messages. This works best with non-keyboard controllers.
I have to say, as a synth programmer and builder I was somewhat  
sceptical about that approach at first. But as far as playabiltiy,  
spontaneousness etc goes, the VL synth is still unbeaten IMHO.

Ingo