It's mostly ground that he's covered exhaustively in other interviews, but I'm looking forward to the next part.
With every sentence on the topic, it's apparent that Mr. Smith doesn't get modular. I'm not sure how that bodes for DSM, unless there's somebody else there with a passion for it.
I read it quickly, but my take was that he thinks "modular is cool as hell, but a hassle since you don't have presets". That's kinda how I feel about modular anyway... Maybe I'm projecting.
Anyway, what are we not getting?
If you take the adjectives out of his response, it's pretty dismissive. But, because you asked, I'll go through it:
"I refuse to predict"Imagine asking Dietrich Doepfer, Tony Rolando (Make Noise), or Olivier Gillet* (Mutable Instruments) "Where do you see this Eurorack craze going?" They're going to have lots of ideas and opinions because it's their passion. They're not going to say "I refuse to predict." Mr. Smith refuses to predict because it's not his thing, and he
can't predict. Everything else is a backhanded jab: It
looks cool, but wouldn't it be nice if people made real music with it?
"I’d like to see more real music made with them, but that’s difficult because any sound you get, you have to use it right then because you won’t get it again!"It's easy to find the music around without much trouble (YouTube!), and the lack of patch storage isn't a barrier as you spend hours learning the instrument that you've lovingly pieced together.
"I’d put a Prophet 12 or Pro 2 up against most modular systems. Obviously it doesn’t give you the advantage of adding some awesome wacko little module somebody built in their basement."I don't even know what it means to "put the Prophet 12 or Pro 2 up against most modular systems." In what sense? The comparison isn't apt in any way, except to see modular as a threat to market share, where one's money is spent.
My system has no wacko modules built in basements, and that's hardly the point of modular. The most interesting sounds come about through use of the most boring modules (mixers, VCAs, attenuators). A complete synth (as well as a complete catalog of products) is going to have lots of these.
"Having all those wires gives you that synth cred!"In my half-year of modular immersion, I've found members of the eurorack community (esp. at MuffWiggler) to be non-judgmental, eager to help, enthusiastic, generous with their time, and without cynicism. They (dare I say "we" yet?) appreciate impressive systems, but nobody looks down on those of us with smaller systems. The cred definitely comes from within here. It's the best kind of fandom.
"But just philosophically, I prefer to build complete instruments."And obviously, a modular synth
is a complete instrument**, and nothing's stopping DSI from building a complete eurorack instrument. The eurorack community would respond just as enthusiastically to a compact and well-featured mixer as to something crazy and unique, perhaps even more so.
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* See, for example,
https://www.keithmcmillen.com/blog/interview-with-olivier-gillet-mutable-instruments/, for thoughts from someone with a real understanding.
** When complete, mine will have three or four oscillators, six filters, six VCAs, two sequencers, five LFOs, five envelope generators, a ring modulator, two sample-and-hold circuits, two mixers, etc., in a case about the size of a Prophet 6 module.