From las8323@rs175174.ks.boeing.com Wed Nov 21 14:19:01 2001
Subject:Re: Some OT fun "What will they clone next"

Ok, I wanna chime in (don't look so surprised :-)
Couple caveats:

Instruments as you know them today are and have always been market
driven. Even the Strad was market driven centruies ago.

The classics we speak of were never ever thought of as "improvements"
on their standards. The pipe organ was king, the Hammond was a pretender.
The Steinway was king, the Rhodes was a knave ... etc. etc.

The change of these flagship pieces (the pipeorgan and steinway) has
been nil. Only in productions techniques to make them more accessible
or more easily imported :-)

More than one "composer workstation" out there is little more than
a Lowrey Teenie Geenie in cheap industrial plastic instead of cheap
imitation chipboard.

Samplers can reproduce anything that your ears can hear. The OTS
technology is there, fini, ended, complete. Just capacities and
refinements are all that can be left. 1meg sample? 1gig sample? It's
alla same now.

And finally (whew): In a day of instant gratification, more than
ever before, fewer and fewer people will take the time and effort
required to cultivate the requisite talent to learn ANY instrument,
new design or otherwise. My proof is in the term 'rap artist' or
'mix master'.

>
> What is going to be the rave in 10 years. What will our kids consider
> "classic 2001"? Perhaps 10 years is too far ahead.

> One final thought: Some futurists and trend-critics bloviate that the
> Simpsons and other shows that generate their material from recycled
> pop-culture, will result is the obliteration of new thought, ideas, and
> culture. I tend to think it a load of BS, but.....could the above
> thought be true of the future of keyboard sounds? ....not that there's
> anything wrong with that.

I happen to be one of these futurists. I can show you fields of endevor
where innovation, experimentation, and development are grinding to halt by
traceable, trackable, and provable metrics. Education is at an all time
low, along with craftsmanship, hueristics, and literacy. This does not
bode well for us for, like it or not, our instrumentation is at the hands
of these self same industrial failures.

The age of the Hammond is over. Ok, there are some trying to keep it
alive, but they're largely in denial. Clones are the future. I often
compare it to the rise and fall of HarleyDavidson of late. The chief
diff is that HD *still* makes bikes. There's no factory supply of
Hammonds -- even their own offerings are clones! But the Hammond
*sound* lives on.

Sooo... what does the future hold for "classics"?

First off, the word "classic" will fall into disuse. In 10 years, anything
but anything will be duplicated with OTS sampling tech so "classic" will
be of no value. 100000...'s of sounds available so any "classic" will have
1000 ...'s of variations -- we're seeing this already. "Classic" will be
meaningless even moreso than it is today.

> Personally, I like the wide array of keyboard
> sounds and the variations that can be made to suite taste, but I'm curious
> to see what will be considered "Classic" down the road. Our kids may one
> day start a list called: (WCSG) Wahler-Clone Systems Group cloning the
> sweet sound of the Wahler W42

My prediction (and my plan :-) is in the long awaited improvements in
human interface. No implants or brain plugs (sorry bri...) just good
solid keyboard design.

That is, consider taking midi from an inter-kb level to an intra-kb level.
IOW, you buy a selection of devices today that talk to each other and
play well together. Why put them inna rack? Why not all in the same
unit?
What if you could buy a chassis and switch out modules of different
manufacturers to create your own *layout and functions* for your own needs?

I want dual manuals. Ok, so now I can select from two or three upper
manuals and 3 or 4 lower manuals. Pitch bends? Whaddya want? Wheels,
old Arp PPC pads? You want it to look Hammond? Select 4 v5's to plug
into the 'control area'. Don't need that many? Replace one with
an intergrated FX/sim unit. Replace another with the touch screen
master unit...

See where this is going? (well, other than software headaches?). I'm
envisioning a keyboard system that's variable, adaptable, multi-sourced,
convertible, but mostly *playable*. The design YOU want, not some
technojerk engineer (like me) wants.

Outputs? well, ya gotcher master XLR's, or your discreet XLR's or your
lightpipe or your firewire.... and so it goes....

Sure, none of this is new. But it is an integration of the existing.

And I'm pretty sure it'll take about 10 years to get going at today's
pace. Beinz I'm getting laid off next Thursday, I'll have more time
to work onnit ;-)

Ranting Larry FrankenClone