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Re: [motm] 2nd Try: Saturday Night Modular Musings

2000-06-19 by alt-mode

Ken,

These are wonderful thoughts but the marketing it would produce has its problems...

"MOTM: The modular synthesizer preferred by 10 month-old children"
"Buy MOTM, your kids will love it!"
"Big knobs and jacks for easy use by small hands"

Eric (feeling rather stoogy on a Monday morning)

--- "Tkacs, Ken" <ken.tkacs@...> wrote:
> 
> 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!!!
> 
> 


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Re: [motm] 2nd Try: Saturday Night Modular Musings

2000-06-19 by Thomas Hudson

I couldn't agree with you more. I had a similar experience with
my two year old. I wish I had a picture of the look in his
eyes when he discovered he could turn the knobs and change the
sound. I'm sure it was the same "lightbulb look" of realization
that the first users of modulars had.

I had a young bass player in my studio recently and he saw
the modular and said "Looks like a telephone switch board.
You mean you have to manually plug in cables?" Somewhere
in the next two hours of him playing and me running his
bass through various modules and twisting knobs he
became a complete religous convert. 

Tomy

"Tkacs, Ken" wrote:

Show quoted textHide quoted text

> 
> 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!!!
> 
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Re: [motm] 2nd Try: Saturday Night Modular Musings

2000-06-19 by Al Wagner

Believe it or not I let my 3 year old play my keyboards and MOTM quite often (under close supervision of course!!!) Jenna is hearing impaired and part of her schooling is to immerse her with sound and MOTM is another tool for her to learn about sound!!! So now we have MOTM as therapy!!!

Show quoted textHide quoted text

----- Original Message -----

From: Tkacs, Ken

To: 'MOTM Forum All'

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!!!

Re: [motm] 2nd Try: Saturday Night Modular Musings

2000-06-20 by jwbarlow@aol.com

I disagree, this should be part of the marketing campaign:

"Have you been waiting for one since you were this age?"
"Children of all ages prefer MOTM!"
"Large knobs for small hands, but not for small ears."

JB

In a message dated 6/19/2000 7:00:40 AM, alt_mode@... writes:

Show quoted textHide quoted text

>These are wonderful thoughts but the marketing it would produce has its
>problems...
>
>"MOTM: The modular synthesizer preferred by 10 month-old children"
>"Buy MOTM, your kids will love it!"
>"Big knobs and jacks for easy use by small hands"
>
>Eric (feeling rather stoogy on a Monday morning)
>

Re: [motm] 2nd Try: Saturday Night Modular Musings

2000-06-20 by alt-mode

Indeed, there is an appeal:

"MOTM: makes you feel like a kid again"
"When was the last time you had this much fun manipulating electrons?"

...we could probably go on for quite awhile ;)

Eric

--- jwbarlow@... wrote:
> I disagree, this should be part of the marketing campaign:
> 
> "Have you been waiting for one since you were this age?"
> "Children of all ages prefer MOTM!"
> "Large knobs for small hands, but not for small ears."
> 
> JB
> 
> In a message dated 6/19/2000 7:00:40 AM, alt_mode@... writes:
> 
> >These are wonderful thoughts but the marketing it would produce has its
> >problems...
> >
> >"MOTM: The modular synthesizer preferred by 10 month-old children"
> >"Buy MOTM, your kids will love it!"
> >"Big knobs and jacks for easy use by small hands"
> >
> >Eric (feeling rather stoogy on a Monday morning)
> >
> 


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