New gear (Beware of GAS)

[Tony Hardie-Bick]

Joost Schuttelaar wrote:
> On 24-aug-2007, at 22:04, Paul Maddox (Mail LIsts) wrote:
> 
>>> http://www.davesmithinstruments.com/other/prophet08.htm
>> God, I was sooo hoping this wouldn't make it to this list.
>> My tuppence ;- Why re-invent the wheel?
> 
> I like it :) It's not original *at all*, but it looks like a very  
> nice classical analog synthesizer. We've seen it before, but no  
> reason to stop making them. Would be like saying to not make any new  
> guitars.
> 

Yeah - not original - that's a valid criticism. However, I do see 
something positive in this - very positive! This particular instrument 
is now defined - as Joost says, like a guitar - it's suddenly become an 
archetype. Instrument designers can now explore the inner space of this 
domain, much as guitar luthiers investigate the properties of various 
woods, strings, soundboard reinforcements etc, (and as Stradivarius did 
his thing too, and as Miles Davis explored the trumpet & Flugelhorn by 
using different mouthpiece designs and mutes). It's not as exciting from 
an engineering point-of-view, and perhaps a little frustrating, as it 
suggests "synthesiser" means just this one thing. From a musical point 
of view, it is exciting, because the inner space of musical instrument, 
whether it be bass drum, polysynth or computer, is far greater than the 
outer space - the latter being restricted by the conscious mind of the 
musician, while the former is limited by the unconscious - which some 
might argue is unlimited.

Big question is: what OTAs is he using for the filter. To get that 
Prophet sound you need the SSM chips, which (I think) are expensive 
and/or well and truly out of production.

Tony (HB)