Wiardgroup

Grant wrote:


>The jack assembly needed to be offset to make room for the 
ground lugs on one side. If I made the panels wider, they would 
not fit into the 17" rack standard. Any compromise that was 
made, was made for the benefit of the end user and has been 
agonized over more than I can explain.<

But I don't understand why you did not take this overhang into 
account when designing the panel as a whole.  If the jacks are going 
to overrun the graphics, what's the point of having the graphics 
there?  Didn't it occur to you that the jacks would be off center and 
that if you used a particular design format, it would be partially 
obscured?  Something should have changed, but did not.

Mind you, the point here is not to browbeat you for design choices in 
jack, graphic, and callout placement that strike me as oddly 
slipshod.  I just don't get the Wiard aesthetic gestalt.  Really, 
what do you expect from somebody who loves the Moog look and is 
generally annoyed by asymmetry?  :-)

>Up to the point where music became big business, it was not 
treated as a craft where "results" are expected and predictable. It 
did not use "tools' to produce these predictable results. (and 
certainly not "weapons" for an "arsenal" of War)<

>It used precious "instruments" for a personal journey of 
discovery and enrichment with an outcome that is unknown. The 
fact that the destination is unknown, is what makes the journey 
exciting.<

Yes, were that only true.  Do you think that when Beethoven sat down 
to write a symphony that the destination was unknown?  When an author 
writes a book (at least a good one), do you think he just pens a 
bunch of random thoughts in the hope that they will solidify into a 
plot?

Good instruments are important to the creation of art, but their form 
must follow function.  This is not some kind of Bauhaus (ugh!) 
dictum, but one that Mother Nature herself follows.  Things are 
created a certain way for certain reasons.  Does a pen create any 
better art because it has gewgaws carved on it?  No.  What a pen 
needs is a well-wrought nib, a comfortable, ergonomic design, and 
good ink.  Thus it is with synthesizers. Kind of.

>Music is for your personal enrichment, you are not obligated to 
produce music that anybody else likes, or even recognizes as 
music<

Again I disagree.  Art is a form of communication.  What good would 
Tolstoy have been if his novels were written only for himself?  Of 
what use would Mozart have been if he had locked himself in a closet 
and composed music for his ears only?  Creating music for oneself is 
enjoyable, but it is tantamount to aesthetic masturbation.  It may 
good, but will never bear any offspring.

>(consider the original reaction to "The Rite of Spring").<

Actually, the reaction was mostly to the disjointed, mechanical, 
almost spastic dancing Nijinsky had choreographed.

>The attempt to produce art which is "popular" has led to all my 
artist failures. The Wiard is not intended to be popular. I can 
accept that you dislike it,<

Actually, "dislike" would not be accurate.  I don't care for certain 
physical aspects of it, but am open to further exploration of it's 
sound.  My favorite piece in the recent aleatoric competition was 
done on a Wiard, and I was impressed with some of the sounds created 
at the recent Bay Area AH gathering.  If you wanted to send me a 
system for a free evaluation, trust me, I would not stop you.  :-)

>but please don't think I'm obligated to  produce "tools" for a 
process that I do NOT want to be industrialized.<

Yet your product seems targeted to producers of "industrial" and 
other sequencer-based, mechanized sounding forms.  Curious.

At any rate, thank you for a very interesting post!  And please do 
not get the impression that I'm in any way anti-Wiard.  Indeed, I've 
sent a couple of prospective buyers to your site.  I also very much 
appreciate being allowed to speak freely on your forum which--unlike 
another forum--does not censor contrary opinions.

Best,

johnm