200e

The first thing I would go after would be the very existence of the analog 
studio in this day and age. It's purpose might not be as apparent to those not 
yet as familiar.



________________________________
From: Chris Muir <cbm@well.com>
To: 200e@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, June 27, 2011 18:15:15
Subject: Re: [200e] Teaching a class on the 200e, suggestions?


On Jun 27, 2011, at 2:12 PM, jeshuaew wrote:

> Hi, I'm a student at Berklee College of Music. We have an analog synth studio 
>that is home to a beautiful 18 rack system. I have been using it quite a bit 
>lately and want to give a class on the basics within the system. If you guys 
>could go back to when you were first learning synthesis / modular systems what 
>would you want to learn? And what modules confused you the most on your 200e 
>system? 
>


What is the proximate background of your students? How long would a course be? 
How much lecture vs. how much hands-on time? Some general things I would want to 
see covered:

Some discussion of basic synthesis types is a good place to start, additive, FM, 
subtractive, granular, etc. This is good because it may help soften any 
preconceived notions of "patch cords == subtractive," at the very least it will 
remind people of the wider synthesis world.

I would spend a little time on gestural control. They probably already know 
MIDI, so I would contrast voltage control with MIDI. Talk about various control 
systems that have been implemented on top of MIDI (keyboards, wind controllers, 
mixers, dj controllers, etc.) 


Crossfade into gestural control vs. audio modulation and how they're different 
on the Buchla. (sort of a natural coming from a discussion about MIDI)

I would spend a lot of time on whichever waveform generator the system has. 
Knowing your way around a 200e waveform generator is pretty key. Generating the 
stuff you want with a Buchla is fundamentally different from getting rid of the 
stuff you don't want with a normal subtractive synth.

Of course, sometimes you have to get rid of stuff you don't want, so I would 
spend a fair amount of time on the magic of the Low Pass Gate. Teach them how to 
"pluck" the LPG with a very snappy envelope.

– C

Chris Muir                    | "There are many futures and only one status quo.
cbm@well.com             |  This is why conservatives mostly agree,
http://www.xfade.com |  and radicals always argue." - Brian Eno





------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]