Wiardgroup

East Coast, West Coast, Middle Coast....

As far as I can see, the caveat about the current state of the art of
offering eleventy million modules and having each customer choose is
there is no pedigological developement because everyone's instrument
is different.  

Discussions about patches are more like Bob Villas' home improvement
show - which is really designed to sell tools.  Why develop skill when
you simply add a few more modules?

I think that this utopian philosophy of providing choices for a
customer minus the bias of a system design is like offering people
parts to a guitar, expecting the average person or new comer to know
what to buy and how to put it together.  

What made a Buchla, a Moog, a Wavemaker, Electrocomp 100, Korg MS20,
or a 2600 isn't what biases the designer pandered to in module design
- it was that they were created by people who were trying to design a
complete music system - not simply providing a comprehensive catalog
of modules.

What makes a 2600 or a Music Easel great is not the module-for-module
comparisons with other synths - it is the subsystems that exist in
these instruments - the patch potential of the factory designed
system.  The genius was the systems, not the modules.

Minimoogs are not just a ladder filter - they are also the choices Bob
made on the patch and keyboard retriggering of the filter, and the
choices of keyboard tracking, the cv response of the vca...

The same idiosyncratic design elements are found all of the classic
systems.  Modular systems reflected similar biases - Buchlas had quad
VCA and Envelope modules, insuring that most Buchla systems had many
more of these than found on Moogs and Arps.  Why?  Because there
aren't any LFOs on a Buchla.   This doesn't mean that you can't make
normal sounds - it means that you have to think differently. (Imagine
that). 

Additional modules were offered as additional complement, but, by and
large, many of us spent our first experiences in front of a factory
designed system.

Can you make West Coast Music on an East Coast synth?  Who came up
with these terms?  Is the music of Columbia Princeton in the 60s any
less far out than that of "West Coast?"  Many "bug music" pieces have
been made on Moog and Arp systems.  

You might say that Buchlas and Wiards are the Macs in a world
dominated by Windows.  Most pros have both kinds - discussing which is
better is a moot point. 

How dare any of us to presume the potential of any of these
instruments?  As if the human playing these devices have no bearing on
 what we hear - it is predetermined by the circuit design - bullshit!


Are they over valued?  They are what they are. 

7 years ago, I bought a Buchla Music Easel for $8,000.  5 years later,
I sold it for $8,000.  You might say that I borrowed it for five
years, leaving an $8k security deposit, which was returned to me when
I passed it on.  


Gary


P.S. 

The Wiard systems doesn't need more midcoast modules.  That is easily
provided by a little bit of Midcoast thinking from the one standing
before it with the patchcords.