There must be out there lots and lots of synthesists who by no fault of their own are non technical (nothing wrong with that, and probably a good thing). However, I’ve sometimes wondered how do such folk manage when presented with the bewildering array of controls offered by the jolly old synth.
These days of course, with the advent of digital technology, scores of presets exist, and the novice can tweak at their peril with the comfort of knowing that they can revert to the saved default with a push of a button.
Back in the analogue days though, unless one had a crib sheet the learning curve of synthesis was probably a bit of a journey on uncharted and often discordant or sometimes silent waters.
Even though I was never going to own a Mini Moog, I remember twiddling with its gorgeous control panel in several shops in London in the 70’s. Having a bit of electronics knowledge I was able to drive the thing without much difficulty as the layout was very similar to that of an electronic circuit. I could virtually “see” the circuits underneath, the signal flow was logical, in general from left to right, with words like amplitude modulation and pulse width being familiar rather than needing looking up in a manual or dictionary. The only thing that gave me any trouble playing with analogue synths was the row of white and black things along the front!
Then of course there’s FM!
So Jem and all you other ivory tinklers, what I'd like to know is - how do you synth?, by becoming a technical guru, reading the manual, or sucking it and see?
