-----Original Message-----
>>I have never heard anyone who actually uses MOTM say that they have any
trouble distinguishing between modules. Nor have a heard anyone else
besides Mike Peake make such an absurd comment.
Then you must not have looked far enough back in the archives. About every
14-18 months, we discuss the heck out of this. People have tried tape, brass
extrusions, paint, all sorts of things.
And, yes, I have considered sanding the paint off the edges. At one point
early on, I pondered angling the table on a disk sander to about 10 degrees
and sanding the edges while creating a sanded forward bevel. In the end, I
don't want to do anything that would risk destroying or lowering the value
of my MOTM modules, but the yearning is there.
I second everything that Moe wrote, about getting lost in the sea of knobs,
the wise compromises Paul made, and so on.
When you look at other modulars (okay, let's take Moog, for example), every
module panel layout is very different. There is more black space to let the
panel "breathe," different knob styles and sizes, different layouts. Each
module has its own character. Heck, you can look at a postage-stamp-sized
photo of an old Moog and rattle the module count off pretty easily! That
level of visual personality helps distinguish every module and adds
tremendously to the user experience.
MOTM, on the other hand, conforms to a very strict and uniform grid for
layout. This lowers costs, makes for easier kit building, and even offers
its own visual style to a system. And I applaud this decision, I really do.
If a compromise of any kind had to be made, this is surely a better one than
specs or features! But step back a few feet and, honestly, the brain does
have to fumble for a half second or so to remember what module is what, or
to find that VCO in the sea of filters. As Moe pointed out, sure, if you own
three modules, you hardly get lost. But try thirty or forty!
So while I've kind of "gotten over" the edging issue myself, please don't be
too quick to dismiss the whole thing or to say that no MOTM'er ever wanted
edging.