Wiardgroup

Here is a little humorous piece. Some people may remember 
the Dewar's Profiles from Playboy and Saturday Review.

This is not a dig at anybody, this is about the interior right 
brain/left brain dialogue of synth designer's who are trying to 
meld the humanities and sciences.

The East Coast / West Coast schools seem to fall out along 
these philisophical lines, one following the European tradition 
and one the Oriental. But it takes some of each to make a synth.

NAME: Precision A. Perfect
EDUCATION: BSEE with minor in music theory
WORLD VIEW: Sees mathematical functions as divine perfection 
unobtainable because of ever present darn pesky thermal noise. 
The way to make the best sounding synthesizer is to make 
functions as close to mathematically perfect as possible.
LIKES: Signal, the more perfect the better.
DISLIKES: Noise and noise generators, I busted my ass to get 
the noise out of the system, why the hell would I deliberately 
introduce a noise module!!!
What about coupling through the power supply rails???
QUOTATIONS CITED: Engineering, mathematics
MEASURES INFORMATION CONTENT BY: BPS = Bandwidth * 
3.32 * log(Signal / Noise)
SCOTCH: Dewar's on rocks

NAME: Zen A. Buddhist
EDUCATION: Music theory with minor in electronic engineering
WORLD VIEW: Sees mathematical perfection as clinical and 
sterile. Considers music and sound in regards to biological 
evolution with the imperfect human voice as primary model. The 
way to make the best sounding synthesizer is to understand 
traditional musical instruments and their imperfections. Thermal 
noise is the "reverb tail of the Big Bang" and OK to leave some 
in.
LIKES: Wabi, some amount of noise desirable to keep "warmth" 
in signal. Signal and control sources based on elaborate noise 
processing considered essential as "quantum decoders".
DISLIKES: Excess emphasis on technical perfection over 
creative and imaginative design.
QUOTATIONS CITED: Biology, physiology
MEASURES INFORMATION CONTENT BY: BPS = Bandwidth * 
3.32 * log(Signal + Noise / lim>0)
SCOTCH: Dewar's neat with water back