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Looper's Delight
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At 11:47 AM -0700 8/3/09, Mark Sottilaro wrote:
>
>For triggering everything else I find an actual midi keyboard to be
>worlds better. Almost as if it were designed for it from the start.
>;)
Equal and opposite viewpoint here: I go back & forth between praising
and demonizing good old Bob Moog for attaching a keyboard to his
famous synthesizers.
I want to praise him because attaching something people were familiar
with to this alien noise machine arguably did more to popularize it
than any other innovation. I want to beat him, though, because
that's inadvertently stuck us with the dominant playing paradigm of
"synthesizer = organ" for almost a half-century now. I still wonder
what this world would be like if someone like Buchla -- with his
wonderful whacked-out interfaces -- had become the dominant force in
the field back in its formative years of the 60's-70's, rather than
Moog.
Anyway, I've been playing keyboards and synthesizers for over 30
years. And for the past decade I've tried my hardest to use almost
any controller *except* a keyboard for user input. Frankly, for most
sounds, I HATE using a keyboard and find it the least expressive
interface out there for most of my purposes (with the caveat that
traditional keyboard instruments -- like piano -- are usually better
played with a keyboard).
I've had guitar- and wind-controllers since the '80s. And in terms
of expressiveness, I really prefer both of them over traditional
keyboard-controllers. There's an organic quality that's a lot more
difficult to get if you're dealing with an interface that's not much
more than a glorified set of buttons. I've got many, many synths
that take on a completely different (and interesting!) character
merely because I've switched to using a different type of control
interface. Occasionally I'll use a keyboard for something relatively
simple/sterile like a 303-style bass line or, for convenience's sake,
to quickly audition sounds, but little else.
At 7:48 PM +0200 8/3/09, Christo Jota wrote:
>
>But even with that you have to concentrate a lot on playing very accurate.
>Otherwise you hear wrong notes very soon.
>This was the same when I still used the Roland GR 33 guitar
>synthesizer with an external Midi pick up. Those permanent wrong
>notes inbetween drove me crazy and made me selling the gear. It kept
>me from having fun playing guitar.
I completely agree, however, with the frustration over the typical
Roland-style "pitch-to-glitch" MIDI tracking. I'm using this now
merely as a matter of convenience (most of my gear is in storage,
waiting for us to save enough cash to bring it over). But I've never
been so impressed with that architecture and, for monophonic lines,
will often now just use my WX-11 wind-controller instead.
My continuing weapon-of-choice for guitar-controllers is still the
Yamaha G-10/G-10C setup. I've had one since about '89 and still
swear by it.
Best points: Nearly flawless tracking. I've rarely been able to get
it to glitch due to playing style. Admittedly, I'm not the world's
fastest guitarist by any means. So I've had it test-driven by
friends who are traditional 'shredders' and they couldn't get it to
glitch either. There's a reason they call this the 'poor man's
Synthaxe'. It's also more configurable (tunings, splits, curves,
etc.) than most other MIDI controllers. Once the G10 and the synth
module are properly set up together (it takes a little work to get a
combination to gel) it becomes much more like playing a single
organic instrument than a MIDI synth.
Worst points: It's a MIDI controller, not a true guitar. While it
uses real guitar strings, all six are the same .016 ("G") gauge and
are all tuned to the same note. This takes a little while to get
used to, and it has a tendency to freak out some traditional guitar
folk. The feel is different (because all the strings are the same)
so novices often get lost on the fretboard. And you *have* to listen
through the MIDI module output; listening to the strings themselves
sounds like a jangly mess. It took me about a week to get used to
it, but many guitarists don't give it that much chance. Also, it
looks like a damn boat oar, or a laser rifle, so the "I look cool
wearing this" factor goes right out the window. On a more practical
note, the controller module is heavy as hell. Get ready to pay some
overweight baggage fees if you're flying.
The biggest downside for me, though, is that the Yamaha's getting to
be "vintage" equipment, so I have to spend nearly as much time
maintaining it as playing. That's another reason why I dedicate more
time these days to VG synthesis than true MIDI guitar.
--m.
--
_____
"when you think your dreams are shattered, it's time to dream new dreams"