{"id":5293,"date":"2014-01-16T08:45:53","date_gmt":"2014-01-16T16:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/?p=5293"},"modified":"2014-01-16T08:45:53","modified_gmt":"2014-01-16T16:45:53","slug":"the-return-of-analogue-synth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/16\/the-return-of-analogue-synth\/","title":{"rendered":"the return of analogue synth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Forbes Magazine<\/i> has noticed the return of the analogue synthesiser<\/a>. I’ve seen a lot of people buying old and rebuilding; I wasn’t aware how many of the classics were back in or about to return to production.<\/p>\n

Korg MS-20 (courtesy Wikipedia)<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There seems to be some idea floating out there – and certainly in that Forbes<\/i> article – that it’s a matter of rejecting digital, with it’s an implication that it’s some sort of Overdue Retreat From False Progress, and similar foolishness.<\/p>\n

That’s not just wrong, it’s stupid. It’s the kind of derpitude written for people who don’t understand a subject and are wearing their late-middle-age everything-was-better-in-my-day nostalgia crap goggles.<\/p>\n

Never wear those<\/i>.<\/p>\n

But something real is<\/em> happening: a recognition that these were interesting and unique instruments in their own rights, and that new “versions” of the instrumental idea are not the instrumental idea<\/em>. Just as the successors of the lute were not lute version 2.0<\/em>, the successors of these synths are are not these instruments, version 2.0<\/em>. They’re new<\/em> instruments, with their own merits and flaws.<\/p>\n

The technology model of continuous improvement doesn’t apply to everything, no matter how hard you try.<\/p>\n

Similarly, just as MIDI violin doesn’t preempt real violin, emulations of the actual instrument – while useful, I’m a huge fan of the Animoog implementation on my iPad – do not always replace the actual instrument<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Particularly not with players<\/em>. Not with the musicians<\/em>. All of these things have their own physicalities, and for a lot of players – like me – that’s important. There are tens of thousands of bass guitars out there; there are a few I love. There are far fewer Irish Bouzoukis out there; and there are two, so far, I love. Part of that’s the sound; part of that is the physicality. It all matters.<\/p>\n

I’m glad that’s finally being recognised for these classic analogue subtractive synths. The recognition that they are unique instruments, of a kind and a type, and of value not as a step to something else, but to themselves<\/em>, and their unique sounds – it’s long overdue. Returning them to production is no more some kind of reactionary step backwards than is continuing to produce fiddles.<\/p>\n

And I’m all for it. Welcome back to the fold, subtractive synths. We missed you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forbes Magazine has noticed the return of the analogue synthesiser. I’ve seen a lot of people buying old and rebuilding; I wasn’t aware how many of the classics were back in or about to return to production. Korg MS-20 (courtesy Wikipedia) There seems to be some idea floating out there – and certainly in that [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-coolness","category-recording-gear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crimeandtheforcesofevil.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}