it's all about access - less about sound quality

[astroman]

a slightly provocative label, as we have the almost unquestionable best Sound in Scope... but see yourself

here's a short presentation of the Animoog app
you'll find a comparison to a real Moog on the sidebar as well.
Of course the filter is not that smooth as we're use to from Minimax - you can drive it into aliasing with ease.
But who cares ?
You actually CAN MAKE sounds within the blink of an eye that fake the complexity of a modular system.
While this thing is just a 4 oscillator synth with smart modulation capabilities.

Part 1 and Part 2 of Jordan Rudess' introducing his Geo Synth app...
for sure the most fancy and strange synth controller out there
and it does midi and yes, you can use it with Scope
(not sure about the number of CCs you can assign to it's modulation, but even a single one gave great results for me)

unfortunately the Moog does not yet output notes and CC in midi, that XY-Path Pad would be a helluva device
cheers, Tom

[jksuperstar]

There's plenty of other apps that do just the keyboard thing, but also offer hex/harmonic layouts, too.

[garyb]

yeah, i'm still waiting for this revolution in music. haven't really heard it yet....

so now it's even easier to do something mediocre. great.

[petal]

I firmly believe that accessibility and userbility is as much as important for creating good, new and interesting music as great sounding instruments. I even believe that accessibility and userbility in many cases are more important when it comes to facilitating workflow and the creative process than having "the perfect" or "best achievable" sound possible.

I've said it before, but maybe recreating a hardware interface on a screen might not be the best approach when it comes to mapping the range of sounds and controls available in a synth, while working with a computer, screen, mouse and keyboard.

Maybe Gary is right, that it is now easier to create mediocre results than ever before, but the explosion of mobile audio apps, we've seen since the rise of the game controllers (Wii, kinect etc.) smart phone and tablets (touch, gyro etc.), really is a revolution within creating next generation interfaces to create and work with sound and music. Yes, lots of it will be crap or just mediocre. But instead of judging it all to be utterly useless now, lets talk again in a few years when the dust settles. All the experimentation we are seeing now, will most likely produce it's own soon to be classic gems which we will all approve of. Just as crappy "new instruments" that failed at introduction, in time turned into genre producing and defining objects, like for example the Roland TB303.

Creating good music isn't all about sound - interface, accesibility and userbility is just as important.

Also, why don't we have a decent "undo" function in scope?

Cheers,
Thomas

[astroman]

well, the latter question is easy to answer:
it's just to complex to have another meta-instance controlling an exististing meta-instance of processing.
Scope is very abstract by nature

some of Rudess stuff may look a bit overflashy, but his Sample Wiz app is a breakthrough in usability of creative sampling.
his interfaces are functionally well thought-out.
Decaying lightbulbs on hit keys may look fancy from a distance, but if you hit those dots a 2nd time, you can mute their sound while the rest of the patch continues playing.
The sample editing window has a vertical grid to set pitch for playback, smart way to check loop points...

The auto-octave extension of Geo Synth could be implemented on small keyboard as well, but nobody did yet

I found that Moog app really inspiring, as it offered all controls needed to play and tweak.
The virtual keyboard does poly aftertouch at no cost and it IS smart to hit the key and just push a little extra to make the filter sweep
While this would be in fact difficult in hardware, the rest (in Software) isn't stellar at all.
You tweak an ADSR curve the common way, you have popup menu lists to choose modulation source and destination.
There is NOTHING that you couldn't do in a Scope environment either - but nobody HAS.
That's my point.
There's always the focus on more, bigger, better ...

Gary, I've been waiting for years, too, for just the same
That very 'problem' exists within any musical app, regardless if it's called Cubase, Omnisphere, or VSL.
Anyone can have access to tons of tools - while talent or inspiration remain a different cup of tea

cheers, Tom

[siriusbliss]

Agreed.

We live in an age where we have all the resources and tools that were mostly a fantasy even just 5 years ago.
We live in an age where we have ready access to things that at one time in history was only available to the privileged and/or kings/queens.

So to me it's all relative.

If SC had more resources, then I could easily see more and more integration between the world of Scope DSP and the 'intelligent' interfaces such as iPads, etc.

In the meantime I'm having a lot of fun playing my acoustic 12-string. It 'grounds' me.

Greg

[astroman]

... If SC had more resources, then I could easily see more and more integration between the world of Scope DSP and the 'intelligent' interfaces such as iPads, etc. ...

actually I wasn't thinking on them in the first place but more on 'us' as sound fanatic customers ...eh, kind of...
the best punch, the smoothest filter, the most complex modulation possibilities
In fact I haven't been playing much synths at all recently - it was annoying. Preferred the (real) 6-string.
Then comes along this Moog thingy as a 0.79 Euro no-brainer... and it's fun... lot's of.
That made me really think... conclusion: fu** the scratchy filter in extreme positions who cares anyway ?

but you COULD have 90% of what the Moog delivers without a touchscreen interface

cheers, Tom

[garyb]

yes, if you have to fix the pipe under your sink, and it's just the one repair and then the wrench will rust in the bottom of the tool box, buy the cheapest one possible, make your repair and feel gratified.

if you are a plumber, you better buy a good wrench, though....


access is great for selling product, but it's rarely any real help for the real musician trying to make a living. you know what? sometimes old values like working hard for your gains have more value that things that are too easy. maybe that's why there hasn't been anything new for years and years and years. if you think that there's real innovation happening now in music because of this technology, i'll bet you're 30years old or less, and that you're focused on one genre.

i'm not dissing the tools, i love these new tools, i'm dissing the idea that having these tools will help one to improve one's work or one's ability to work. maybe they will and maybe they won't. it depends on the quality of the musician. access is wasted on a dilettente, but that's in the title of the thread, i guess. it's more important to have toys than a good game to play with them...


[\old man mode]

actually, i get the point that something that's cheap and sounds cool enough is pretty fun and pretty cool. the problem is when people can't tell the difference anymore. that's when things get kinda sad and people start looking like Devo's spud boys....

[siriusbliss]

Devo - heh.... man do I have stories....



Greg

[dawman]

yeah, i'm still waiting for this revolution in music. haven't really heard it yet....

so now it's even easier to do something mediocre. great.

No shit.
Kids suffer from ADS and can;t concentrate enough as their XBox games haunt them intheir sleep.
But we do have some excellent Drone Jockeys....