[sdiy] Ways for innovation

[Gordonjcp]

On Fri, Jan 22, 2016 at 03:32:11PM +0100, Rutger Vlek wrote:
> 
> This leads me to believe that the market for an truly innovative product is very small, until it has really been adopted as the new standard (MiniMoog anyone).

The Minimoog was the opposite of innovation.  That came about by *reducing* the number of possible ways to configure a synthesizer, into the one that made the most musically-useful noises.

Up to then, people just used modular synths for making Dr Who noises (and indeed that's what they're mostly used for today).  There's only so much of that unlistenable bleep bloop whoosh blop emperor's-new-clothes pish you can listen to.
> 
> One of my personal pains is the lack of alternative to MIDI. Why, in this modern era, is there still no high-resolution version of MIDI standardized? 

Perhaps there's no high-resolution version of MIDI because there's no need for it?  About the only thing that the existing standard bothers with "high resolution" for is pitch bend, and I've yet to see a synth that used anything other than 0-127 for that anyway - the lower bits just aren't used and no-one appears to miss them.

> The other is: why is there so little hardware that helps integrating the hard work of the many DSP hobbyist making great code. Where is that hybrid synth with an open-sourced FX engine?

There are *shitloads* of little DSP boards out there, and high-speed microcontrollers.  Go and build one.  If yours is massively better than everyone else's, it'll become the most popular.

Where is the one single analogue synth that does everything I want?  Oh wait, there isn't one, because what I want is different from what you want, from what *he* wants, from what *she* wants...

> Why does my 150 dollar phone have a better screen than my 3000 dollar synth?

Would having a better screen make it make a better noise?  Frankly I'd be happy with a composite video connector like my old Roland S50, and maybe a USB keyboard socket.

> And my last personal pain: why is hardware life span so short on present commercial products? If I have a synth with a great keyboard with aftertouch (which is removed from more and more keyboards as a cost-saving measure) and a lovely set of controllers, why throw the hole thing, while the only part that needs an upgrade is the CPU board + DAC to support the latest audio quality and CPU-hogging new algorithms?

Because it's cheap crap.  Everything is cheap crap.  I used to repair video recorders when I was at school as a summer job, back when they cost 400 quid apiece and were worth repairing.  Within a couple of years they were 100 quid, then 40 quid throwaway items.

You can buy a DVD player in Tesco for £15, about the price of a boxed Chinese "takeaway" meal from their chilled food section.  If it breaks, bin it - it's just cheap crap designed to last a couple of years and be replaced by a newer, flimsier bit of crap.

I drive an old Range Rover, because if (okay, realistically it's *when*) bits break I can take it apart and fix them.  It's expensive, but it'll last a long time.  It's already lasted 18 years...

> I like to be realistic about things financially, but this is my musicians heart speaking.

So, you're saying the time is right for another Fairlight CMI or even better Synclavier (with its B52 bomber push switches)?  Okay, I'm in, I'll have some of that... :-)

-- 
Gordonjcp MM0YEQ