As a fan/user/creator of modular synthesizer stuff and design observer in general I can usure you that you are quite definitly not the only person that feels like this. Vinyl record sales have surpased CD for the first time again not long ago, people crave for physical interfaces, modular synths and everything hardware is getting more popular despite the ton of plugins you can get for your music software. People are going back and build physical interfaces for menu-diving-synthesizers from the 80s like Yamaha’s infamously unprogrammable but amazing sounding DX7.
People are rediscovering mechanical keyboards etc.
Modular synthesizers are a wonderful playground for physical interface design. Because of course you want to expose a lot of functionality of your module, but on the other hand your panel will get big and your module will end up taking up a lot of space. Of course you can get away with using a screen and an encoder but hoe wrll can you use it live while making muic then? Of course you can add 20 dials, but maybe 3 clever ones that abstract over those 10 in just the right ways are better? Also: people might not use your module for a month, how can the design remain in their head just enough to kick a spark?
Physical interfaces. Use them blindly, shile wearing gloves, in your pocket.
I agree with all of your points, especially around synths. I'm getting back into making music right now, and the gear lust around physical synths is strong.
> Vinyl record sales have surpased CD for the first time again not long ago
This says something about vinyl but even more about CDs. Vinyl sales are up but still only about a fifth of what they were in 1982.
CD sales have plummeted. That makes sense because the form factor really has nothing going for it. It's a digital medium, so in terms of sound quality, it's exactly equivalent to the SD card in your phone. But the latter is about a thousand times bigger, a hundred times smaller, read/write, and can be easily updated from the Internet.
A have a few thousand HP of Eurorack and definitely agree that modular synths are easier, more fun, and more interactive to control than most other interfaces. But even then, they're clunky for some things, and I feel that there are further designs that can achieve control even more efficiently.
I agree. There is even more possible and not all modules are really well designed (e.g. why did Dieter Doepfer feel the need to swap around the otherwise identical inputs between his SEM- and Wasp-Filter?). Other modules just don’t go far enough. many lack attunoators/attenuverters (for economical and space reasons).
You have to really fight to get a decent physical interface, to get a good one takes even more.
I believe the future of modular interface design lies especially in more visual feedback which makes usage easier and more intuitive and systems more reliable during live usage. There we can learn from modular and semimodular synths from the software side.
Random aside on the "analog is in" train: I've heard three different people reference cigarettes as "analog" (as opposed to "digital" vapes) in the last week.
I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop on hipster backlash against social media.
For me Vinyl never was about the sound, it was about having to actively take out the thing of a beautiful cover and put it on and listen to it. I could esily imagine something that would do the same with a digital storage.
That aside: there are all kinds of modules in modular synths — digital, analog, hybrids, electromechanical stuff, ...
The first thing people ask me when they see me playing somewhere is usually: “is this analog?” or “how do you know which cable do what”
The redeeming quality of a modular synth lies mostly (nomen est omen) in it’s modularity. It is however very physical in a sense: if you didn’t create a connection it doesn’t exist.
People are rediscovering mechanical keyboards etc.
But this seems like so much a matter of failure. I grew up in the 1970s, with Moog and Arp synthesizers the best you could get.
The potential of that plus programability on every level seemed astounding.
Obviously, the way that unfolded was into a world where fine-grained interactions within instruments were abandoned. But it doesn't have to be that way. That people aren't playing with modern interfaces just the promise has been abandoned. It doesn't have to be abandoned.
I mean, I can afford spinny Midi wheel but I can't afford a touch-sensative keyboard. I should be able to afford a touch /speed sensative keyboard.
I agree, I was actually refering to mechanical computer keyboards.
As a guitarist I was always curious for more haptic and less piano-like ways of control. Have you checked out Aturia’s microbrute? A touch keyboard and a synth for ~300 €
People are rediscovering mechanical keyboards etc.
Modular synthesizers are a wonderful playground for physical interface design. Because of course you want to expose a lot of functionality of your module, but on the other hand your panel will get big and your module will end up taking up a lot of space. Of course you can get away with using a screen and an encoder but hoe wrll can you use it live while making muic then? Of course you can add 20 dials, but maybe 3 clever ones that abstract over those 10 in just the right ways are better? Also: people might not use your module for a month, how can the design remain in their head just enough to kick a spark?
Physical interfaces. Use them blindly, shile wearing gloves, in your pocket.