I wanted to point out that the DX-7 is an exception to
> that. The DX-7 was a digital synth that involved wicked creative use
> of the technology, it wasn't trying to be a cheap copy of something
> it's not, and that sort of character, innovation and joyful
> exploration is rarely seen in digital synths.
----Agreed, quite probably the end of that era. Keyboards got more like
modern cars real fast after that, real hard to tell them apart. I know that
the biggest part of my preference for Korg's digital stuff is I just like
their basic sample set better than anyone else's.
> Actually there is; FM synthesis, by its very nature, is roughly
> equivalent to Sanskrit. That the price you pay to use FM. There are
> no filters, and the Bessel functions that describe the waveform
> warping are weird as all hell. So it's not really Yamaha's fault.
----To do it properly, absolutely, but the Korg experiment I mentioned
earlier was a nice but far-short-of-the-mark effort to harness it and make
it a little more intuitive, albeit less capable as well. The packet
synthesis idea in one of those synth videos sounds really promising.
Sounds a little like Wavestation-type wave sequencing with FM. I can't see
how it would not be possible for FM to be capable of creating ANY sound with
sufficient control over the parameters, and make it with more realism and
authenticity than any other form of synthesis.
> > The learning curve is a good thing, but if it is so steep that it
> > interferes with creating music, it doesn't get climbed by many.
>
> Sure, but there are ways around that. After all, many acoustic
> instruments have much steeper learning curves and people have always
> invested the time and effort to learn to play those.
>
> One way is for the student to be rewarded each step of the way as they
> progress up the learning curve. That way they're encouraged to
> practice, explore, and delve in deeper to learn more.
----Which was exactly what ultimately made me abandon FM. No puzzle pieces
ever really fit together for me no matter what, and there were alternatives
that let me get acceptably close to what I wanted to do without the arcane
ways. I anticipate the new developments, I just hope they will let me
figure them out!