Wiardgroup

I often refer to Doepfer as a "Middlecoast" synthesizer.  Modcan also 
has middlecoast aspects.

Grant wrote:

>The same should be true of synthesizer companies. Those of us
whose standards are too high to allow us to copy other designs,
are more deserving of your support and respect than those who
take the MUCH safer path of covering the "Golden Oldies".<

Ah, but there is a reason those oldies are golden. They work well and 
we all know how to apply them. Let's face it: a filter is a filter is 
a filter--at least in theory. Indeed, the best analog filter would be 
a digital filter, as only in that realm can you achieve *absolute* 
cutoff. And that is, after all, what a filter is supposed to do.

New instruments that are truly new are rare as hen's teeth. How many 
new instruments have popped up in the symphony orchestra?

New instruments also tend to be novelties with limited musical 
usefulness. They are mostly about visual entertainment. Consider the 
theremin--it is poorly designed as a musical instrument, but has a 
lot of visual appeal. Hence it hasn't enjoyed much in the way of 
popularity (and rightly so, I daresay). Or consider the instruments 
of the Blue Man Group. Entertaining? You bet! For an evening. Outside 
of that venue, they don't exist, nor are likely ever to. And leave us 
not forget the Harry Partch (sp?) instruments. They have been around 
for decades, yet have never left their academic confines. 

Buchla is much the same way. It is valuable mostly because it is 
rare, not because it is unique. If Buchlas were as common as Moogs, 
they would fetch far lower prices today. But they weren't as common 
as Moogs because they were limited to one kind of music and simply 
would never sell like a Moog. New? Yes. Unique? Yes. Useful? Only 
within the confines of atonal experimentalism.

If I were dictator of the World of Wiard (which I command you all to 
proclaim me anyway!) I'd add some more modules to make the system 
more "middlecoast". That way it would find the wide market that 
Buchla never did. That is, pending you WANT a wide market. :-)

johnm