MOTM

I think what Kenneth is talking about are the differences between the 
pioneering synth LPs of the past versus what is out there today.

a) in 1968 (S.O.B), the Moog modular, to most people, was on the level of 
'Star Trek'. It cost the same as *4* new Corvettes. And people back then 
still thought TV was 'magical'.

b) there was also back then a greater "appreciation of effort" for lack of a 
better term. Electronic music, up until S.O.B., was BugMusic on the highest 
order (all that tape splicing, musique concrete stuff). Then SOB rolls out, 
complete with NY Times articles about replacing musicians on Broadway, etc. 
But as to the technical tour de force required, many folks back then in the 
electronics hobbyist clan (like me) fully appreciated the work involved. 
Especially if you wandered into a music store and played with say a ARP 
Odyssey or MiniMoog for 5min. The first thought was "Holy Crap!, they could 
create those LPs from THIS??!?"

Remember, no ProTools, no super-whiz-bang plugins, no real fancy external 
effects processing.

Today, it is very difficult to find "sympathetic" people towards technology. 
iPods, cell phones, GPS? Meh....$100 at Best Buy. Nowadays, people just are 
not interested in the HOW, just the WHAT. The days when I used to read 
Popular Electronics like the Bible are over (I spent HOURS reading the 
'Build a Nixie Tube Clock' issue. To me, having an explanation how you use 
the 60Hz line frequency to then count with circuits was just the coolest 
thing in 1971 I could hope for).

The example I like to use is Toshi Doi of Sony and the CD player. (see 
http://www.eetimes.com/disruption/profiles/doi.jhtml) I personally think he 
is the smartest EE on the planet. When he was working on the CD player, his 
job was to figure out the physical format of the data on the disc (Philips 
part was to design the player itself). So, how long do you think he worked 
on it (the error correction, the indexing, the interleaving, etc). 1yr? 
3yrs? How about *10 years*, by *himself* all hand calculated on legal pads. 
Most people don't realize that the audio data content on a CD is about 40%, 
the other 60% is error correction and other stuff that allows horribly 
scratched CDs to play anyway. The audio you hear from a CD player was 
actually read off the disc about 400ms prior, you have to do the block 
Reed-Solomon ECC stuff before the DACs.

But CD players?...Pffttt....$29 at Target. Mostly now in cars. Toshi Doi? 
Who is THAT?

Sadly, I too miss the "good old days" of synth LPs (I used to collect them). 
Even the most cheesy Moog records, I bought EVERY ONE *just because*, well, 
it's Moog record! But to 'draw' the line' between a pure modular synth 
record (again, SOB) and a 'synthesizer record' (say Fast's first "Synergy") 
and then to a mostly synth CD (Robert Rich anything) is going to fall on 
deaf ears (so to speak) in today's world. With a bazillion bad YouTube 
videos, every record is sample-based and crappy MP3s on iPods played back by 
11 cent earbuds (yes, the stock Apple earbuds cost 11 cents) what do you 
expect?

I have no reservations that Kenneth could make a CD that would make SOB 
sound like it was played on a Casio. But who, besides a handful, would 
APPRECIATE it?

Paul S.