New DSI Synth - Mopho x4

[Andrew Robinson]

On 2 August 2012 23:39, Tony Scharf <noisetheorem at gmail.com> wrote:
> Modern synths, on the other hand, give you a wide parameter space and more
> parameters and dont protect you from noise (here is a rope, go hang
> yourself).

This was the DX-7's problem in a nutshell - it got a reputation for
being tough to program because only a tiny fraction of it's parameter
space wasn't a horrible digital mush. The TB-303 on the other hand was
exceptionally tweakable because it's entire parameter space was
musically useful. I think there's a big user interface lesson here for
synths with multi-function knobs - work out what ranges of parameters
make a continuous, useful parameter space for each preset, and present
those where they can be reached easily. It doesn't matter if these are
different parameters for each algorithm, they just have to be useable
performance parameters, constrained to useful areas. The useful
parameter space for 2 knobs may not be square (if you have 1 control
that varies a waveform from sine to sawtooth, and another that adds
FM, the musically useful range for the FM control gets smaller), so
turning 1 knob might scale another - this is a good thing if it keeps
the tweaking user in useful sound space during performances.

- Andy_R