iPad deuce

[Tony Hardie-Bick]

On 03/03/11 14:42, Tony Scharf wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 8:38 AM, Tony Hardie-Bick>
>> Not that I think the keyboard is the ultimate interface... surely there is no
>> such thing, only a wonderful wealth of diversity :-)
>>
>
> Actually, ive been thinking a lot about interface lately.  Since I got
> my modular, I actually only hooked a keyboard to it once.  I dont feel
> the need.  I am thinking about a ribbon controller or some such.
>
> Anyone have suggestion in this area that are NOT an iPad?

FWIW, Try to use something that doesn't pretend to be something else (this 
dissonance is the reason why the keyboard feels mismatched). I certainly like 
the idea of ribbon controllers for modulars, also, anything theremin-like. 
However, in terms of your and your audiences' relating the gesture to the sound, 
I would say the modular works out of the box, is awesome, for precisely the 
reasons you already know. Those knobs are a phenomenal, dense, communication, 
both gesturally and in terms of electronics. Much as the piano, the guitar, etc, 
are good designs that have become stable, fifty years has shown the modular 
concept to be similarly robust, and increasingly obviously so, given that pretty 
much any sound can be produced, if you just spend enough time at a computer, but 
the comparison between watching someone tapping at a laptop, and someone 
patching cables and twiddling knobs (even if the identical sound results), 
requires no explanation.

But here's one anyway: Which one of these communicates unique effort, unusual 
fascination, diligence, determination, and which communicates convenience, 
rationale, conformity.

FWIW, I think it's possible for a laptop-based musician to communicate all the 
positive things I attribute to the modular, but... only if that's what they are 
genuinely putting in ;-)

Tony (HB)