MOTM

Even with the dotted line there it's confusing

 It's just the opposite of what you stated---you would NOT plug something in
there in order to maintain a connection to the upper mult. You plug into the
key jack to break the connection and take priority over the panel from that
point downward.

[Don't worry-I'm not taking this personally. But my degree was in Industrial
Design (ages ago) so I find these 'human factors' discussions interesting.]

For me personally, it's easier to glance at the jack and see that nothing is
in the cutoff position rather than to squint at a switch (maybe 'squinting'
is overstating it, but you know what I mean).

Using the normally-closed lugs of the jacks just seems more elegant to me,
and less cramped. I dunno... it seems natural to me---since my earliest days
of playing with my MS-10, the idea of a plug cutting a normal has always
been pretty straightforward, especially if there's a front panel graphic
showing that realtionship. Certainly on a modular you don't want to go too
crazy with normalization, but in the case of a multiple, it's a little
self-contained utility module, not a VCO-VCF-VCA normalization scheme.

Some of the old Moog modules used similar normalization--the triple
attenuator panel for instance. You would plug something into the INPUT, and
then you could pull three (was it four?) outputs, each with its own
attenuator. But if you plugged in a second input anywhere along that chain,
the normalization was broken with the prior gang-point and the two split
sections acted independently. Very elegant. And not confusing at all once
one gets used to it (anyone using a patchbay in their studio would already
be used to this kind of thinking.

Of course, if one *were* to go with the switches, more room could be made by
eliminating one of the quads, leaving three and two switches. That conforms
to the existing MOTM "graphic layout grid" more closely.

Interesting discussion.



		-----Original Message-----
		From:	Crawley, Eric [mailto:esc@...]
		Sent:	Thursday, January 27, 2000 3:00 PM
		To:	motm@onelist.com
		Subject:	RE: [motm] Multiple Personalities

		From: "Crawley, Eric" <esc@...>

		I like the switches because I can visually see what is going
on.  Normalized
		jacks are for patch panels and inserts.  I would find it
confusing to
		remember that I should plug something into a specific jack
to keep it
		connected to the upper mult...