how does the look of a synth affect your perception

[KBD_TRACKER]

of its musical value ???

this is a tough question as many may not consciously aknowledge the role of mechanical aesthetics ( ie the physical appearance of the gear) on their own perception of the value or usefulness of a synth. (i am not talking about ergonomy, or reliability or build quality : just talking about LOOK).
blinking LEDS, wood panelling, cool retro look, complex-mad scientist-looking gear ("you got to be so smart to use this") , etc. are those factors significantly affecting your buying decision ??

which leads me to another and final tough question : do YOU acquire gear taking into account, in some ways, the expected "endorsement" of or the impression it will produce on your social entourage ?

[Synthacon]

The sound and programming side come first, looks do not enter in to it and neither does the branding.

[novielo]

i don't care how it looks. the s6000 looks terrible without a faceplate. the shermann filterbank with its clumsy knob placment to. but they sound great so as they are to use.

[griffin avid]

are those factors significantly affecting your buying decision ??

I can't imagine anyone saying yes since those factors only come in to play 'after the fact'. If you have non-musician friends, then they don't/can't distinguish between synths so any board might as well be any other. Blinking lights only occur when the gear is running and friends aren't usually part of the song making process so they don't see the studio fully powered up.

My peoples (usually artists) care about the parts that affect them so they were keen to appreciate the boom mic stand that I use instead of the standard 'flag pole' kind. They only care about the lights that flash when their vocals are being recorded...

I've had about a dozen keyboards set up and people just say "Wow, you have a lot of keyboards!". When I started buying stuff it wasn't until I bought a crappy Behringer 32 channel (big) mixboard that everyone started calling my set up "The studio". It seems a big mixboard is still more impressive than a bunch of synths- analog, vintage or other.

The flip side is people in the know. Like on this site, the amount of gear someone has can be thought of as impressive. And in that case, it's what it is that's important, not how it looks.

And to be honest, I think the opposite is true. People are surprised when a cool sound comes out of something looking funky/toyish/unimpressive. The KORG Kaossilator comes to mind.


Lastly, the only mad-scientist product I can think of is a modular. And I don't know who would buy a modular only to impress their friends.

[RD9]

I never allow the physical appearance of a synth to affect my judgement of how good an instrument it may be, no matter how ugly, colorful, or unsophisticated it may look. Even if a synth looks like a toy, it can still sound amazing. And even if a synth looks impressive, it may not really be worth its price.

That said...

I would take these


over these


any day.

[Alex E]

If something is beat to s**t or just ugly in the first place it can be distracting, but as a musician I need to remember if it's useful or not. I mean that's what it boils down to.

[nvbrkr]

I don't want to spend a lot of money on something that I don't find physically appealing as well. I got my own share of units that are a bit sore to the eye, but they tend to be the cheaper ones. I think it's more about the shape of the design and the overall colour scheme that I am partial to, I couldn't care less about the fancy lights and s**t like that. The backlight on my Voyager RME is the most useless thing I can imagine. Other than that, of course the Moog layout and the classic look appealed to me, and perhaps made me choose it over the Studio Electronics products that I was considering as well.

Do I buy certain type of gear in order to impress others? Well, I seldom get visitors to my home and gig with the cheaper s**t.

[D-Collector]

It is always positive when a synth looks good as well as sounds good. But sound comes first. What I really do care about is build quality. I hate it when synths warps and bends!

[EmptySet]

I do remember as a youngster being ENTHRALLED by the sound of two particular synth brands: ROLAND and SEQUENTIAL CIRCUITS. Every band that I loved had them on stage with that bright white branded label on the back of the synth. So, I suppose at some point in my life, "looks" were important (I already *knew* that they sounded good). And the hilarious dead-pan gaze of early 80s synth players while they're arps played out of control sequences… heaven. So, yeah, there was some 'tude in it for me in the earliest days of my synth love affair. Anymore, though, no.

[sequentialsoftshock]

Looks can matter to an extent; some synthesizers appear more welcoming than others, which can draw one to it over another one when you're looking for a new one, or even getting to a song. But, I guess by looks you mean completely physical, and not the knob setup, and flow..?

[code green]

I'd say that aesthetics (which generally have some overlap with functionality, no matter how one tries to separate them out--the hope, at least, is that they're dictated by functionality) can consciously or unconsciously augment my positive perception of a synth (c.f. PPG Wave) but not substantially detract from it (c.f. Alesis Fusion).

[Shreddie]

Personally, I don't like anything with blue LEDs, blue screens (I find blue lights terribly horrible to spent time in front of for any length of time), wooden side panels (it looks c**p in car dashboards too), anthing in garish colours (Mopho :vomit: ) or anything with the Moog logo.

I do like stuff laden with knobs/buttons/faders... And ideally looking like it's been designed by Darth Vader... BLACK! Or failing that, silver/bare metal. The Roland V-synth and the JD-880 being two of the most gorgeous synths ever made IMO.

But that's just me, I like lots of control and muted colours, everyone is different and looks alone wouldn't prevent me from buying a synth if it had all the features I wanted.

[polyklinik]

i don't care how it looks too, but who wants to play with it?

[Polarelch]

Oh, I do care about the looks but it's not the highest priority.
But if a synth looks appealing I might try it out before I try out a less appealing one.
And I already refused to even listen to a synth as soon as I have seen it (Alesis Fusion). Irony of fate is that the 2nd keyboarder in my band has one
And I don't either like its sound.

So yes, the look of a synth definitely affects my soul = my music. But sound and playability is just as important.

[glassofwater]

the kind of synths I'm into tend to look pretty good, anyway (70-80s analog stuff)