Wiardgroup

> 
> But isn't that kind of like designing a kitchen tool, then leaving it 
> up to chefs to come up with a use for it?  Form follows function, 
to 
> borrow a hackneyed Bauhaus saw.

Yes, that is the history of innovative synthesizer design. To quote 
a hackneyed cyberpunk saw "The street finds it's own use for 
things".

The waa pedal was designed for trumpet players to replace that 
toilet plunger mute they use. The original designer didn't try it 
with a guitar.

The TB-303 flopped as a bass guitar replacement, it found new 
life as a lead instrument.

Form can only follow function, if the function can be defined.
I suggest that the future will be full of surprises.

> 
> Also keep in mind that any "East Coast" synth can be patched 
to 
> produce "West Coast" music. It's harder to go the other way, 
though.
> 

Previously, yes. But the new generation of hybrid instruments 
support both methods. The Wiard is an excellent keyboard 
instrument, when used that way (precise 1 volt per octave 
tracking).

> Oh, but I can compare them--and have!  As you well know.  :-)
> 

Yes, but is it dignified to do so?  ;^)

>Musical instruments increase in value as time goes by 
because they 
> cannot be replaced with anything else.<
> 
> With this I must disagree.  Moogs *decreased* in value 
drastically 
> after the DX-7 was introduced--to zero in some cases.  That's 
because 
> the DX was seen not only as a replacement, but as an 
improvement. 

That is because the instruments were originally sold as 
machinery.

The Universities and others sold off their Buchla modules to buy 
TX-816s. Then two years latter, called the buyers back in a panic 
and wanted to get the Buchlas back. To quote "a TX-816 isn't a 
replacement for a Buchla, we can't get the sounds we want, we 
need them back!!!!!".

It was that experience, and the experience of all those people 
who sold their Mini-Moogs to buy DX-7s, then missed the filter 
knob, that caused the used instrument market inflation that led to 
the illusion of a new instrument market place.

Rex and Dieter were seduced by this illusion, which further 
strengthened the illusion, and them Paul and Bruce and I were 
sucked into the illusion, others followed.

But there was never a real marketplace. All we did was fracture a 
tiny group of enthusiasts into even tinier groups squabbling over 
plastic potentiometers and connector types.