New Eric Persing vid...

[muzines]

Well worth a watch.

https://youtu.be/t98BP-S7Ock

That Duduk sounds *incredible*...

[Eddy Deegan]

Truly amazing, thank you for the link

[IAA]

Lovely, really lovely.

[MarkOne]

Rant...

The CS80 gets me quite angry...

It seems like it's the peak of keyboard performance control, and you'd think in the intervening 40 years, technology would have allowed almost magical developments from that... But no we have mini-keys and even channel aftertouch is becoming something of a luxury - and that ribbon controller! fiddling little joysticks (I'm looking at you Roland) Pah!

It's a bit like Apollo and Concord. Where could we be if we'd continued pushing on from the Apollo missions? What could have happened if the aviation industry had all embraced SST?

It's like as a race we're hard-wired to embrace mediocracy, when excellence is within our grasp. /Rant

[Hugh Robjohns]

Good rant -- and I share your view!

H

[ManFromGlass]

I would hope to hear a fellow countryman from the Roli company to jump in. But they would be the exception to the rule.

[Martin Walker]

I would hope to hear a fellow countryman from the Roli company to jump in. But they would be the exception to the rule.

I've recently had this brought to my attention, and it's rather flavoured my opinion about Roli, despite the excellence of their products:

http://scannerdot.com/2018/09/exposure-is-not-payment/

Even if you're not familiar with the name 'scanner', then the fact that he's one of the interviewees for the Patch & Tweak book should establish his credentials

https://www.soundonsound.com/news/patch-tweak

Martin

[Drew Stephenson]

Yeah, someone messed up rather badly there.

[Eddy Deegan]

Quite an eye opener. One hears of this sort of thing going on but from a music tech company that's really shabby

to Martin for providing the exposure

[Eddy Deegan]

Rant...

The CS80 gets me quite angry...

It seems like it's the peak of keyboard performance control, and you'd think in the intervening 40 years, technology would have allowed almost magical developments from that... But no we have mini-keys and even channel aftertouch is becoming something of a luxury - and that ribbon controller! fiddling little joysticks (I'm looking at you Roland) Pah!

It's a bit like Apollo and Concord. Where could we be if we'd continued pushing on from the Apollo missions? What could have happened if the aviation industry had all embraced SST?

It's like as a race we're hard-wired to embrace mediocracy, when excellence is within our grasp. /Rant

The timbres, expression and music that Pedro Eustache is coaxing out of those tubes with holes in them are incredible. His marriage of that to technology is inspiring.

With regards to the synthesizer controllers I wonder how much of this is down to economics. Back in the 1970s the customer base for the CS-80 would have almost certainly been accomplished musicians with relatively large budgets willing to explore relatively new frontiers and thus it made sense for Yamaha (and others) to push the envelope in order to engage that market as well as to find out for themselves what they could come up with.

By the early 80s, synthesizers were more available to the mass market (still at a premium) and I'm sure that certain corners had to be cut to enable that to happen. Things like polyphonic aftertouch and keybed-length ribbon controllers would seem the obvious candidates for culling sad though it may be.

With the advent of digital synthesis, the DX-family and ROMplers there was a whole new arena of timbre to explore, prices dropped further and I suspect a whole lot more of them found themselves in the bedrooms of wannabe pop stars who were more interested in the timbres as opposed to the art of the performance.

Once a habit is learned, or a market established it's quite hard to break out of that pattern so I think we ended up stuck with a 'default' set of controllers that were tried and tested (and cheap to implement as a result) which are now ubiquitous on everything.

I agree with you that it's a shame ... there have been exceptions here and there. Kurzweil put a full-length ribbon controller on the K2500, Yamaha supported their breath controller on a number of digital synths, Korg have supplied headset-mics with some of their kit which can be used in creative ways, they included an interesting touch-screen modulation feature on the M3 (which turned the entire display into a configurable X-Y pad when engaged) and Roland included their D-Beam controller on synths for years and Korg, Yamaha (& I'm sure others) have included vector joysticks as well (the one on the Korg Kronos is extremely useful).

Also, with the advent of MIDI it became possible to modulate parameters on one device using a controller from another, or standalone controllers. Jazzmutant did some great work with the Lemur until they moved on, providing a lot of touch-based customisable functionality - and that's now available on iPad.

Combine all the above with the default expression pedals (as well as the good old knobs 'n sliders) available as optional extras on pretty much any serious board these days and there is a wide array of controllers available.

But who actually uses them? Could it be that the use of a pitchbend, mod wheel and expression pedal in the hands of a talented player is actually enough to coax most of what can be coaxed by one person out of a performance? I don't know, but it's pretty impressive when done properly.

Is it really about the lack of controllers, or more about the ability of people to effectively use what is already available? I don't know - I'm just posing the question.

I would be overjoyed to like see more polyphonic aftertouch, even as an optional extra on a specific model - that's one thing I think is really noticeable by its absence these days.

I'd also rather like a laser harp - I just can't justify the expense and don't have the space at the moment

[Dave B]

I'd also rather like a laser harp - I just can't justify the expense and don't have the space at the moment

I keep threatening to get one too. I've come dangerously close a couple of times!

[Drew Stephenson]

I'd also rather like a laser harp

Does it come with a free shark?
Asking for a friend...

[Eddy Deegan]

I'd also rather like a laser harp

Does it come with a free shark?
Asking for a friend...

If it does, I'll buy two

[Dave B]

I understand that there is an optional ill tempered SeaBass ...

[Eddy Deegan]

I understand that there is an optional ill tempered SeaBass ...

They missed a trick if they don't offer a Well Tempered Caviar as well

[Drew Stephenson]

Despite the frequent digression to fish-based puns round here, I do believe that is the first time I have heard that.

[Eddy Deegan]

Despite the frequent digression to fish-based puns round here, I do believe that is the first time I have heard that.

Hehe, respect to Dave for the perfect set-up there

[Folderol]

Finally found time to watch that vid.
Truly inspiring performance.

[ManFromGlass]

To add to Eddie’s list of controllables -
(Depending on the style of music) filtering and resonance are quite popular now even for a number of the more traditional patches like orchestral. Club track moves which are big on filtering are now creeping into tracks on "popular" radio, tv and film scores.
Synth makers must be scratching their collective heads in terms of what to implement next (or restore) as at one point it was their innovations that lead sonic exploration and now I can control almost anything with a CC mapped controller.
I can even buy kits of sensors to tape onto and even insert into my body that send controller info. (I’m waiting for the day when some major star has a hit courtesy of the butt-plug controller. How many copycats will that spawn! )