[sdiy] EMS SYNTHI 100

[David Ingebretsen]

My 2 bits...

I bought (well pre-ordered) a John Bowen Design Solaris keyboard, pure
digital emulation of an amazingly capable 4 VCO per voice analog synthesizer
as my first foray back into the world of electronic music late last summer.
That night, I also ordered my first batch of modules for the analog modular
I'm now building and loving.

While soft synthesizers are very capable, I bought the Solaris and am
building the modular because I want to turn knobs with my own fingers. There
is something very satisfying about the tactile feedback of having a knob and
a patch cord in hand. Digital versus analog doesn't bother me much, although
I understand and love the inherent vagaries in a full analog implementation.
I also have a couple of software synthesizers, (Arturia Moog Modular,
MiniMoog, and NI FM7 and 8) but for as great as they sound, moving patch
cords, pushing buttons, and turning knobs with a mouse just isn't as much
fun.

If memory serves, one driving motivation for Mr. Bowen's keyboard
implementation of his soft synthesizer was for this very reason, he wanted
to turn a knob with his fingers again, not a mouse...

David

David M. Ingebretsen M.S., M.E.
Collision Forensics & Engineering, Inc.
2469 East Fort Union Blvd. STE 114
Salt Lake City, UT 84121
www.CFandE.com

801 733-5458 Office
801 842-5451 Cell

dingebre at CFandE.com
dingebre at 3dphysics.net




-----Original Message-----
From: synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl
[mailto:synth-diy-bounces at dropmix.xs4all.nl] On Behalf Of David G. Dixon
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 1:38 PM
To: 'Richard Wentk'; 'synth DIY'
Subject: RE: [sdiy] EMS SYNTHI 100

> > There's a reason people are still buying and building analog
> > synthesizers,
> > and I suspect that it has very little to do with how "powerful"
> > they are
> > relative to soft synths.
> 
> For something like this, I suspect the real reasons are consumer
> status-symbol posturing and nostalgia.

Abhsolutely I agree, particularly about the nostalgia part.  I think a big
selling point of modulars is the fact that many of us drooled over pictures
of them when we were little but couldn't have them.  Now we can.

However, having said that, I know that I have more fun twiddling the knobs
on my little Sound Lab Mini Synth than I ever had with any soft synth
program (except Reason: that's some serious fun!).  It really has to do with
having physical knobs to twiddle (and assigning functions to sliders on a
MIDI keyboard controller is not the same!).  Now I'm also finding that
understanding what is going on in the circuits really adds to the fun (as
does having a scope to look at while twiddling!).

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