MOTM

I had the same reaction to this ongoing thread.

We're a group of people that sit around waxing poetic about the strange
behaviors and unique personalities of all this vintage gear, and yet we're
going to lose sleep over some unusual characteristic of this one module
that, as Paul pointed out, no one even noticed for four years?

Maybe 15 years from now people will be trying to emulate the action of the
Rev2 MOTM-EG!

Brian Eno once commented that when his synthesizers broke, he didn't get
them fixed, because 'NOW they start to have some PERSOINALITY.' While that
may be a little extreme for most of us, it's worth noting that odd behavior
is kind of a major part (I think) of why we're using this gear in the first
place, instead of perfect, flawless digital emulations that never stray.

-----Original Message-----
From: jhaible [mailto:jhaible@...] 

Just one thought:
Not all of the "vintage" envelopes work as we would expect it, either.
Nobody complains about a Minimoog envelope going above its nominal
peak level with fast repeated triggers. Most people consider it a "feature",
even though it is originally a design flaw.
....

MOTM is doomed!  Well it's a minor problem if no one notices it in four
years. Let's face it: everything has minor (or worse) problems. It's our
job to minimize them but we are only human.

The curse of the engineer is to see everything as "in need of
improvement"!

My HP DeskJet is a great printer but it has a "feature" that I would
like to "talk" to the engineer about (with a baseball bat...). It
figures out when you are running out of ink (based on what I'm not
sure..) and puts up a screen notice (which you have to cancel) every
time you print. The problem is that it is woefully inaccurate; often the
ink lasts months beyond the first appearance of the notice! Maddening!

Paul is right about  negative comments though. People don't read all the
words anymore and don't really look for the "whole story". They tend to
see a negative comment about a company and run the other way!

It would not take much to shut down the "nano" size modular "industry".
OTOH, MOTM has about 1000 kudos to one gnat's ass size negative....

Regards,
-----------------------------
John Blacet
Blacet Research
http://www.blacet.com

Yes, I agree with Ken.  I hate looking at scope screens and numbers 
when it comes to this stuff.  I use my ears first, and then my brain.

Unless there is some critical calibration that cannot be performed 
by ear, I won't try to use DVM or scope.  

Well, maybe that's a lie.  I *do* like to see what effect a certain 
tweak may have on the waveform, and for this I use a scope.

This is not to deny that there is an issue with 0 ATTACK settings on 
the EG.  Paul has already said there is.  But it's not an issue that 
affects me in the least.  I seem to be able to find the texture and 
timbre that I want every time I use the machine.

BIG CAVEAT - I don't do imitative synthesis.  This application may 
require more precise behavior at super fast attacks (though with a 
modular, there are *many* ways to accomplish the same thing).

Mike

--- In motm@y..., "Tkacs, Ken" <ken.tkacs@j...> wrote:
> 
> I had the same reaction to this ongoing thread.
> 
> We're a group of people that sit around waxing poetic about the 
strange
> behaviors and unique personalities of all this vintage gear, and 
yet we're
> going to lose sleep over some unusual characteristic of this one 
module
> that, as Paul pointed out, no one even noticed for four years?
> 
> Maybe 15 years from now people will be trying to emulate the 
action of the
> Rev2 MOTM-EG!
> 
> Brian Eno once commented that when his synthesizers broke, he 
didn't get
> them fixed, because 'NOW they start to have some PERSOINALITY.' 
While that
> may be a little extreme for most of us, it's worth noting that odd 
behavior
> is kind of a major part (I think) of why we're using this gear in 
the first
> place, instead of perfect, flawless digital emulations that never 
stray.
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jhaible [mailto:jhaible@d...] 
> 
> Just one thought:
> Not all of the "vintage" envelopes work as we would expect it, 
either.
> Nobody complains about a Minimoog envelope going above its nominal
> peak level with fast repeated triggers. Most people consider it 
a "feature",
> even though it is originally a design flaw.
> ....