[sdiy] Radio Shack catalogs

[Colin f]

My observation...

Synthesizers were originally designed as abstract sound makers for people
who had previously been making abstract noises with things like general
purpose signal generators and audio filters, recorded to tpae, then
painstakingly edited into the desired result.
Some people who had been doing it the hard-way didn't like synths at all.
As synths became more sophisticated, it became possible to do 'imitative'
synthesis - recreate the sounds of 'real' instruments.
At that point, there was a divided future for synths.
One the one hand, those who still wanted abstract noise makers were
unimpressed when practically non-programmable synths like the DX-7 appeared.
But obviously for your imitative synthesis types, the DX-7 was game
changing.
I think most people here are probably on the non-imitative side of the
fence, hence the lack of love for the DX's interface.
That's not to say it isn't an awesomely powerful synth when the structure is
presented in a usable way.
Do people with large modulars still get frustrated at the lack of a
'trumpet' preset ?

Cheers,
Colin f