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Looper's Delight
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>>I ask, why go analogue though? I must admit that when I
got into sequencing MIDI had already firmly taken over (1983-84) and
although I owned a Roland Juno 106, I never had the chance to work with
an analogue sequencer. What were their benefits?<< (mark s)
(I'm set to plain text at all times, btw- I don't know what happened there.... unless it's an exchange option when starting a new mail rather than replying. sorry, anyway).
as far as operation goes, there's much more difference than there is in the quirks of circuit design. an "analogue" step sequencer is usually taken to be one that allows editing of the pattern while it's running. this may not be dictionary-accurate, but it's the common interpretation. thus, the future-retro mobius is "analogue" while the tb303 from which it was derived is not. there are "analogue" sequencers that work in the midi domain- the doepfer maq, regelwork and schaltwerk, the frostwave fat controller &c &c. sometimes they have memories aswell, these things, but they all let you adjust the pattern while it's running, even if it's been recalled from storage. that's their appeal to a looper. things like the mmt8, the mc202, the tb303, the pro-1..... they just play what you record into them, and you're stuck with it.
"I'm a freak and I like to tweak...."
>>Have you ever come across a Serge 16 stage sequencer?....... I swear that music took a giant step backwards
when digital *everything* came around. Not because of digital per se, rather the brainwashing
that lulled most of the world into forgetting that what we have right in front of us works in ways
that digital can't, won't, and probably never will.<<
no, stephen, I haven't.... I wish I could find out more. this is what's driven me to design my own. I've tried most step sequencers and always there's something missing. they are hardware-intensive, and things like the latronic notron met with poor sales because no-one really understood it. and so now there's no support for them... :-( I will need to spend about 500UKP on rehousing mine and with better hardware.
for me, and this is something that comes up in interviews from time to time (the whole a versus d debate, the equipment arms race amongst electronic music acts... yawn.....), it was unfortunate that a growing culture of instant gratification should have coincided with readily available digital audio technology.
back in 1983, when the dx7 appeared, we were all still reeling from the shock of polyphonic synths suddenly being affordable (juno-6 et al) when korg responded with the poly-6 which had.... memories.....
so the dx7 had to have memories too. this tilted the balance in favour of the library-sound approach. the dx7 was an absolute swine to program, especially if one was used to dealing with the standard (minimoog) layout- oscillators over here, filter there and vca on the right.
(rick wakeman designed the panel for the prophet 5 on a napkin, laying out the controls per the mini but styling it after bang&olufsen hifi....)
and so everyone except brian eno used the dx7's library sounds.
same thing with samplers. I mean, if you bought a prodigy or a cs-15 or something, you'd get a little herb deutsch beginner's guide and some patch-charts ("violin", "bass guitar" and so forth). but the s900 came with discs with these sounds already on them, and very little by way of encouraging you to personalise the noises. the dx7 was prepopulated with useable (read: instant gratification) sounds, and it's been that way ever since. even "analogue" monsters like the supernova come replete with ready-to-go fat sounds that prod you along in a particular direction unless (like I did) you find a way to wipe them all so you are forced to start from scratch and actually use the knobs on the thing.
so my measured response is this: it's not about analogue vs digital, it's about how much encouragement and opportunity there is to go y'r own way sonically. and of course, it's also a lot easier if there are library sounds for a hopelessly inept synthesiser player to pretend they're a synthesist.
instant gratification is important to tech manufacturers because it assists in the commoditisation of music and this generates more business for them; that's why the market is awash with boxes that have presets and librarys easily available. meanwhile, the stuff that actually requires creative input from a sonic sculptor working from scratch to create something original, costs as much as a house.
d.
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