Dumbest thing you've ever heard someone say about synths

[Ry-Fi]

And on the flipside, I'd like to mention something positive that really surprised me. Last Sunday I paid a visit to my mother to fix some hail damage on the roof of her house. I brought her a couple CDs of my music for her to listen to, one of which that had a few tribute Jan Hammer songs on it. Before I left, I asked her what she thought of my musical efforts. The first thing she said was, "You got the layered synth intro to Between the Sheets of Music wrong. Otherwise, it all sounds pretty good."

That left me a bit nonplused, since I considered that particular track one of my best attempts at getting everything to sound as close as possible. When I got home I compared my track to the original and sure enough, the second layered sound below the buzzy fifth was way off.

And BTW, my mother just turned 88 a few months ago.

Awesome, way to go Ma! I liked that story. You're a lucky fellow to have a groovy mom who knows and appreciates music and can provide insight like that, and glad to hear that at 88 she's still got it all.

[cartesia]

"You need a preamp to use synthesisers"

[Mr Knesh]

"You need a preamp to use synthesisers"

He was almost right

I was at a trade show and someone was asking about a product we had. He asked if it would have AES/EBU digital audio. I said no it has SP/DIF. He then said we should add AES/EBU because it sounds better.

I almost lost my water all over my keyboard because of this one, and my girlfriend looked over at me and asked what was so funny. I read aloud the post and she gave me a blank stare....

All in all, there is some great and terrible things being said to synth players

[Primal Drive]

And on the flipside, I'd like to mention something positive that really surprised me. Last Sunday I paid a visit to my mother to fix some hail damage on the roof of her house. I brought her a couple CDs of my music for her to listen to, one of which that had a few tribute Jan Hammer songs on it. Before I left, I asked her what she thought of my musical efforts. The first thing she said was, "You got the layered synth intro to Between the Sheets of Music wrong. Otherwise, it all sounds pretty good."

That left me a bit nonplused, since I considered that particular track one of my best attempts at getting everything to sound as close as possible. When I got home I compared my track to the original and sure enough, the second layered sound below the buzzy fifth was way off.

And BTW, my mother just turned 88 a few months ago.

Awesome, way to go Ma! I liked that story. You're a lucky fellow to have a groovy mom who knows and appreciates music and can provide insight like that, and glad to hear that at 88 she's still got it all.

Thank you!

She's played and taught piano for most of her life and has an incredible ear for music, regardless of style. Many people who meet her for the first time often think she's only around 60.

I'm 52 and I sometimes feel like I'm 100. I can only hope that when I reach her age I'll know the difference between a sequencer and a samich.

[tekkentool]

i hope when i am as old as her i'll be able to tell the difference between a sequencer and a samich

either way you can't really go wrong. 8)

[Christopher Winkels]

Many years ago friend of mine asked me to program a saxophone patch on his then-new Korg Poly61. I told him that it wouldn't sound exactly like a sax, to which he replied, "It's a synthesizer, man! Synths are supposed to be able to make any sound you want!"

In fairness to him, he probably got that from reading about synthesizers in the general media. In the early days of synths reporters often confused being able to produce an infinite number of sounds with the ability to generate every sound. The distinction is, to the uninitiated, a minor one when in reality nothing could be further from the truth. That sort of fiction got perpetrated for years afterwards.

I agree with the whole misrepresentation/misunderstanding of the sonic capabilities of early analog synthesizers. I once had a book (circa 1974) that said (paraphrasing) "Everything from a cathedral organ, to a human choir, to the sound of a baby crying can be accurately reproduced by a synthesizer."

The unfortunate irony with my friend is that he had been a working keyboard player for almost 2 decades by the time he bought his first synth (the Poly 61) and had used various "borrowed" synths for several years. Apparently his own experience had taught him nothing.

Ah, okay. You're right then: that was about the dumbest thing he could say.

[cartesia]

i hope when i am as old as her i'll be able to tell the difference between a sequencer and a samich

either way you can't really go wrong. 8)

mmmm.. tact switches

[Automatic Gainsay]

Many years ago friend of mine asked me to program a saxophone patch on his then-new Korg Poly61. I told him that it wouldn't sound exactly like a sax, to which he replied, "It's a synthesizer, man! Synths are supposed to be able to make any sound you want!"

In fairness to him, he probably got that from reading about synthesizers in the general media. In the early days of synths reporters often confused being able to produce an infinite number of sounds with the ability to generate every sound. The distinction is, to the uninitiated, a minor one when in reality nothing could be further from the truth. That sort of fiction got perpetrated for years afterwards.

This problem continues, and it is a nightmare... but it's not just the media who is to blame. Synth companies early on jumped on this premise to sell synths... Moog, ARP, everyone... which is the point at which they mislead the world.

[masyst]

After getting my Moog Rogue, a conversation with my guitarist went something like this:

Him: Dude, what is that thing?
Me: It's a Moog.
Him: What the h**l is a Moog?
Me: A synthesizer.
Him (pissed): Goddammit! Why'd you waste your money on that thing? Why couldn't you just get a Triton? It does everything.


To his credit, he's since wisened up quite a bit since then.

Can't resist it...


My father said he hated synthesizers, because he heard way too much DX-7 e-piano in the eghties.
But he loves the music of Pink Floyd, Manfred Mann's Earth Band, Genesis etc...
Since I started playing synth, he have learned that synth is not equal to DX-7.

My mum always ask me when I buy another used analog synth; "are you sure those syntesizers aren't outdated? They are over 20 years!"
Me; "Yes, they are outdated, thats the thing!"

[retrosounds]

Here's a few more.

Friend: why do you want the OB-12, it's not a real Oberheim.

Some dude (a customer) in Guitar Center: dude your pretty mad under them keys.
(It's not a keyboard fool!)

[synth3tik]

"Additive synthesis is the future". HAHA!

That same person also said, "Dude, the Prophet '08's filter sucks, and it's c**p for bass sounds" say what?

[breitt]

I was playing some Crystal Method and someone at the BBQ said "Turn that disco s**t off."

[Mr Knesh]

I was playing some Crystal Method and someone at the BBQ said "Turn that disco s**t off."

Ive got some bad news for you buddy....
Crystal Method and a variety of other electronic dance, techno, trance, ebm, house, et cetera, use SO MANY techniques, tones, rhythms, and flare that was developed in the disco era that at times they are interchangeable.

Sometimes I wonder what a lot of artists out there are actually thinking when they come up with their beats and melodies.

[gtivr6fan]

Sometimes I wonder what a lot of artists out there are actually thinking when they come up with their beats and melodies.

Everybody knows Al Gore invented Disco and Techno! Geez

[chrisrnps]

"Hi:

My dream MIDI keyboard is a musical keyboard that has 88 keys and relies purely on digital AFM [Advanced Frequency Modulation] synthesis [not sample playback or analog synthesis] to generate tones. It has a headphone jack. It can store and produce .mid files. In addition, it is able to somehow record and store songs digitally [as .wav files] so I can directly burn them into a CD. It has an internal HDD. It also has a CD burner/player which can record/playback any and all formats of CD-sized discs. It also has an external HDD which I can use to import/export to/from the keyboard and my PC.

In addition, the keyboard’s synth is purely-hardware [not a softsynth] and freshly generates its tones [i.e. it does not use any sampling or sampled sounds to any extent]. The synth is purely-digital too. The only part of the audio that is analog is after it is passed through the DAC. My dream keyboard is also completely free of any clipping or aliasing in any and all parts of the signal chains.

The AFM synth in my dream MIDI keyboard has as many operators, voices, channels [OPL3 has 18 channels, OPL2 has 9], voices-per-channel, and operators-per-voice as physically-possible with the size of my keyboard being the same as that of the current highest-quality keyboard available.

This keyboard also has a display screen as well as controls, settings, and effects which are as sophisticated as that of the most advanced keyboard.

The audio from my dream keyboard is stereo but it sounds exactly the same in both the L and R channels. When audio is played back, the audio signals in the left and right channel are exactly the same in terms of amplitude, frequency, and phase. There are no settings to change this.

Last but not least, my dream MIDI keyboard makes the most efficient use of Realtime Convolution and Modulation.

I would like to make karaoke tracks using this hypothetical keyboard and then burn the karaoke songs into CDs.

Sadly my dream MIDI keyboard is way too good to ever be true because no one is willing to design or build such an excellent keyboard for any reasonable price.

It’s possible for me to hire someone to make the keyboard but the costs will likely be something only Bill Gates, if anyone, can afford.


Regards,

Green Xenon"