----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, June 19, 2000 9:40 AM
Subject: [motm] 2nd Try: Saturday Night Modular Musings
I did something yesterday that, while perhaps wasn't the smartest thing I've
done all week, really intrigued me.
Normally my ten-month-old son is locked out of my studio, for obvious
reasons, if you've seen the thing's he's stuffed down AC registers and so
on...
Yesterday I let him crawl in, and he went straight to my cluster of MOTM
modules (still wired as they appear in this month's EM, by the way). I mean,
who wouldn't, right?
I sat him in my lap and let him touch it. He started spinning knobs, then
flicking switches. He was bouncing up and down as happy as I've ever seen
him. I mean, he was squealing. Turning the Coarse knob on the VCO's really
got him excited.
My first thought was, "Ahh, we're going to get along just fine, son."
Followed by, "You know? I feel exactly the same way when ∗I'm∗ playing with
my modular."
I also thought about what a fantastic tool this would be for schools.
But then the big one hit me.
This is exactly why modular synthesizers are so wonderful. Seriously. When
even a 10-month-old child can get this happy over the user interface of a
"reality-shaping" device, you know that there's something 'right' about it.
We can debate about the ergonomics of a 1" diameter bakelite knob over
increment/decrement buttons on a digital GUI... but when you watch a child
with only 5 syllables in his vocabulary hopping up and down gleefully
because he can turn a knob and change a switch with instant feedback over
what change he has caused, what power over his environment he has... I mean,
that's ∗it!∗ You know? That's why we have the big knobs, the sealed pots,
the quarter-inch jacks, the big LEDs.
There's something "right" about it!!!