#6 = Best Comment Ever!

"higher end music hardware" like a MicroKorg?

"Aren't the terms "all tube" and "digital" contradictory?"

It's not just that the output is digital (i.e. numbers) - but the reason the thing is so complicated is - and I'm guessing here - that it works like a tube computer - the earliest computers used thousands of tubes but were as digital as any PC.

Thanks Babylonian - Nice to have someone say something positive in the comments for once...

Those links in unscrambled-o-vision:

The Lightsnake:
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/04/lighsnake-usb-guitar-cable.html

The GuitarPlug:
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/01/add-usb-port-to-any-guitar-and-some.html

The Behringer iAxe:
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/03/messe-whats-on-behringer-photocopier.html

Remember what people thought about the iPod when it came out? It's not as if anyone thinks that Apple invented the digital music player:

The Mirror

October 25, 2001, Thursday

HEADLINE: KELLY'S I: IPOD HITS THE WRONG NOTE

BODY:
BURSTING with excitement, Apple boss Steve Jobs finally unveiled the firm's massively hyped iPod digital music player to a slightly bemused audience.

Bemused because the Apple PR machine has spent weeks priming everyone for something "ground-breaking". Instead, out came this hard drive MP3 player. Very nice, but not all that different to other hard drive MP3 machines on the market.

Yes, the pounds 330 iPod looks good and yes, it's a great accessory for Mac owners. But it's hardly revolutionary.

A five-gig hard drive capable of storing 1,000 tracks and a 10-hour battery life are impressive, but nothing we haven't seen before.

What is cool is the Firewire connection that downloads an entire CD in around 10 seconds. But Macs have had Firewire for more than a year, so it's hardly the breakthrough we were expecting.

Fans on Mac discussion sites were notably crestfallen. "What does iPod mean? I Pretend it's an Original Device," said one.

So all in all it's very small, very cool, but pricey. Just like Apple's last "breakthrough" device, the G4 Cube. And that was binned earlier this year after disastrous sales.

LOAD-DATE: October 25, 2001

#2 - Is $499 for a DSI Evolver an arm and a leg? You should value your body parts a bit higher, dude!

And the correct link to the story is: http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2006/03/potentially-very-clever-sonoric-synth.html

Hi SoniCron:

So, this column isn't written by Ryan, it's posted by him. It's written by me, Tom from Music Thing. I wish they'd explain it in the copy somewhere.

"Now why would you want digital output on an analog synth?" Well, you might want to record the output digitally. In this case, the synth is meant to be integrated into a computer system as a harware/software VSTi plugin. The outputs of the oscillators are going to become digital somewhere along the line - why not build it into the unit, rather than taking up an input on your souncard?

Analog synths sound great because the sound is generated by analog circuits. Plenty of modern analog synths don't have all-analog signal paths (although the Moog Voyager does) It's quite possible to record analog-generated sounds digitally, without losing all the goodness. It's increasingly hard to distribute music through all-analog channels (i.e. vinyl).

"MIDI is *bad*" Midi certainly isn't bad, but there are neater ways to transmit it than through double DIN plugs. Midi data travels along USB cables all the time. i.e. The old Nord Modular needed two MIDI cables to communicate with a computer. The G2 connects with a single USB cable. Also, if this box is built to only be computer controlled, it might make sense to use higher resolution control paramters, which MIDI finds it harder to transmit.

"This product isn't intended to be a hit. Analog-anything appeals to people with tons of money to burn, vintage fan-boys, and professionals."

This isn't entirely true. There is plenty of low-end analog gear: The wonderful DSI Evolver is semi-analog, and costs around $500 new. A second-hand Waldorf Pulse is pure analog and I bought one last month for �120.
The developers of this box are looking to come with a price point well below the DSI Evolver (but still above the Pulse). Certainly they're saying the analog outputs are there for people with Apogee converters, but I can't help thinking a one-cable solution would be cool and much easier to use. Decent converters (like those in the EMU 1820m soundcards) aren't that expensive.