(disclaimer: all the statements below are personal opinions relating to
personal preferences for synth use. They certainly don't apply to everyone--
if they did, the manufacturers would all be building gear like I want them to.
I'm not picking a fight with Jon, merely pointing out why his measuring tools
don't align with mine. That being said...)
Jon said:
> --- In AN1x-list@yahoogroups.com, "Mike Metlay" <metlay@a...> wrote:
>> For me it's going in the wrong direction, mostly. Synths 10 years ago had
>> 90%
>> of what I wanted in a dream machine, and the number's been slowly dropping
>> ever since.
>>
>
> I find that hard to believe...ten years ago there were a only handful of
> manufacturers
> offering inovative features and some of them are no longer in business or
> succumbed
> to economic realities, i.e., ROMplers are cash cows. Workstations are light
> years
> beyond where they were in the early 90's and the plethora of boutique synths,
> V/A,
> and modulars is nothiing but on the rise.
Maybe, but they don't offer performance enhancement other than more knobs. I
look at these devices and see a few knobs on the front panel, still lots of
menus buried deep, and very little in the way of tools to let me grab my
sounds and yank them around.
>> Aftertouch sensors going away, or almost as bad, being made cheaply without
>> regard to feel and reliability;
>
> ...you get what you pay for - there are plenty of keyboards at a variety of
> price points
> that offer 'more better' aftertouch than low cost models. But you know this
> already.
Yes, and I'll concede the point. But it's gotten to the point where you have
to buy a VERY expensive keyboard to get decent aftertouch. I should probably
research whether the absolute cost in current dollars of a keyboard with such
a feature has gone up in recent years (the D-70, after all, has a great AT
sensor and is available for almost nothing, but it was over $2000 in 1990
dollars). I guess I mourn the fact that intro-level users don't learn about AT
because the tools aimed at them don't have it... a guaranteed way to gradually
strangle the development of AT as a performance idiom.
> poly aftertouch gone forever as an actual
>> keyboard-based control;
>
> probably true but not for certain. Unfortunately the market has proven over
> and over
> that this is not an option enough people are willing to pay for.
That's because the one company that got it right made a mistake elsewhere and
jinxed the reputation of their keyboards. Poly AT is practical and cheap but
no one wants to go there...there are issues of bandwidth, public perception,
and other things as well. I personally wonder if the advent of the CS-80V will
bring poly AT keyboards back in any form.
> And there
> have been,
> what, two(?) 'recent' keyboardds that even support release velocity (K5000s
> and XTk.)
Bah! Apples and oranges. Release velocity uses the same two sensors that
attack velocity uses, just in the reverse order. Adding it to a keyboard is a
trivial matter, done in software; no one chooses to implement it, that's all.
Not too surprising, as it's a tricky parameter to use, but I enjoy it when I
use it (my D-70 has it and my Xpander uses it very effectively, as did my
Prophet T8).
> arpeggiators multiplying in presets but not providing
>> actual editing capability any more;
>
> ...becuase it's better done in software. Geez, how many arp enironment layers
> can be
> had for Logic Audio alone? I'm certain it's a similar situation for
> Cubase/Sonare/etc.
Using a computer to operate arpeggiation on stage in a live environment? I'd
rather drink beet juice. I want solid firmware arpeggiation control inside my
live synth, right there, no computer.
> tuning tables and intonation adjustment
>> pretty much gone;
>
> ...again, not enough demand in the market for this feauture (you really should
> pick up
> a couple of 2nd hand Ensoniq keyboards: maybe a VFX-SD or TS10 and a MR Rack.)
I'm actually looking for a VFX or VFXsd for this very reason, primarily for
poly AT use.
>> vector synthesis gone;
>
> ...unless you count the ES2, XPhraze, and the upcoming Wavestation softsynth.
Software. Software. Vaporware. BZZZT so sorry, thanks for playing. (BTW, Korg
has cancelled development and release of that softsynth, along with the
others. They realized they'd be shooting themselves in the head if they tried
to compete selling softsynths.)
> wavetables almost gone (at least
>> until MX4 comes out and someone ports the PPG tables into it)...
>
> see above - not too mention the Waldorf PPG VSTi and the MW XT series.
The XT is still available, although for how long I don't know... and the PPG
plug-in is an enormous pain to work with and sounds like, well, an early
generation VST plug-in.
> User Interfaces and build qualtiy have improved dramatically. Have you checked
> out
> the Access Indigo or Waldord MicroQ keyboards? Built like tanks they are (as
> is the
> new Alesis ION and just about every Nord keyboard.)
Don't put the Ion in with the others until you do some research on its
reported reliability in the field. The MicroQ is decently well built, but it's
a Q and therefore not worth buying (sorry, but I get enough promises of
features in software that will be there someday soon in my computers, I don't
need them in my synths), and the Indigo2 weighs twice as much as it should,
it's possible to make a synth roadable and sturdy without giving it solid
aluminum end panels capable of stunning an ox. The Nords are a good example of
light-but-tough; Clavia needs to be packaging the Indigos for Access.
If anyone wishes to conclude that I'm an old curmudgeon who's simply never
happy with anything, they're free to. I know what works for me as a player and
composer, and it's going away, which was all I ever said in the first place. I
don't think there's no hope at all, but I don't get nearly enough encouraging
news.
>> Don't mind me... it's Monday.
>
> Okay ;-)
Sic transit gloria mundi, and Tuesday is usually worse. :)
mike
--
Mirai: "I predict in the future all music will be made and heard with
organic living technology..."
Rothwell: "You mean musicians?"
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metlay / atomic city / metlay@... / http://www.atomiccity.com