I think we agree that as of yet, there isn't a true replacement for the human feel of an authentically played instrument. Moving on ...
Speaking of authentically played instruments, synthesizers, when treated as such (and not simply a substitute for a traditional instrument) are designed with expression at the forefront. I too am not aware of bona fide IxDs at music technology companies per se, but companies for the longest time, even before we started calling ourselves IxDs, have been studying how musicians play music and how to make the musical ideas in their heads come out of the speakers. There's nothing worse for a musician, in the heat of a creative moment, to lose the idea because an instrument requires you to think about how to make things happen. Most frustrating both for musicians and a engineers/producers, are needle-in-a-haystack switches that cause everything to come to a grinding halt. I've lost so many ideas that way! I look to the music and audio world for ideas when I'm stuck on an IxD problem-- there are few industries that hinge so much on excise-free designs. A trend that has troubled me recently, though, is that some manufacturers think that replicating a synthesizer in software is as simple as translating the knobs on the box onto virtual knobs on screen. While a knob in real-life connects a player directly with the sound shaping parameter, a knob on screen requires a mouse drag, or in the best case, a physical knob in the real world with low enough resolution that subtle changes result in unpleasant "jumps" in the sound. In the software synthesizer world, we need people that can re-think the notion of creating interfaces for sound shaping for the 2-dimensional world. Products that are getting it right: Native Instruments FM8 (take a look at FM7 and you'll see the difference) Native Instruments KORE (an idea before its time-- the touch-sensitive high-resolution knobs are what I'm thinking of here) Moog Little Phatty (Digitally Controlled Analog Oscillators, I believe they call them-- interesting idea) The jury's still out for me on the JazzMutant Lemur-- their application of multitouch is a bit gimmicky, suffering a lot from the perilous physical-->virtual transition I mentioned above, though there are a few fresh ideas (e.g. animated bouncy balls?). But it's all software, so the field is ripe for a well-thought out do-over. - Nasir ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
