on one side (A) we have something which is a very flexible synthesizer, within certain limits.
On the other side (B) we see a selection of electronic parts which can be connected together to make nearly anything electronic, so you could make the synthesiser of your dreams without limit, or a sequencer, or a sampler!!
Take Derek. Derek likes making music
With system (A) Perhaps Derek is a beginner and might struggle a little, there are oscillators, filters, and envelopes he recognises those names. Perhaps a beginner might understand that connecting cables might make a noise. Leave a beginner alone and they might soon connect an oscillator to an output and make a pitched screaming noise. but that screaming noise told them something. They panic at the loud high pitched noise and turn the Oscillator pitch control down, that mistake too taught them something!
In User Experience design this is called "learnability". Even the mistakes are lessons. So, they might even then go on to build on what they have constructed and connect an oscillator to a filter to an output. If they do it right it makes a noise, if they do it wrong it will make a very bad noise. They learn by feedback both positive and negative. They probably wouldn't need a manual of any kind during this learning process, in fact I bet by the end of a week they would have a patch where one oscillator is cross modulating another and a sample and hold is modulating a cutoff. Because each facet they learn on each area can be utilised in an other area, the system has a commonality of design, the learnability is built on "repeatability" . A Pitch input on a filter, is like a Pitch input on an oscillator.
Now lets look at the infinite possibilities of System (B). there are capacitors, resistors, and diodes. perhaps a beginner might get a book on how to make a simple circuit. Soon they have made an op amp but it makes a weird screaming noise. They look up a helpful electronics forum to find out why it's behaving this way - a forum user informs them that Op amps are usually unstable at unity gain. The user is confused and a bit stuck and a helpful forum user diagnoses the issue as a feedback issues relating to phase and gain margins and fixes their circuit. The user is slightly demoralised, however the promise of making the ultimate synthesiser will keep them going, and the helpful electronics community assures the user that anything is possible! After a week the user is attempting to make an oscillator and a ladder filter, but the circuit doesn't make a noise. It fails silently. The user once again visits the helpful forum. The user really needs to go on a course and learn the basics of electronics, because electronics is not inherently "learnable" in the sense that a resistor connected to another resistor will not inform the user of a mistake through positive or negative feedback, the circuit will merely fail silently. By the end of a week they would have a circuit which lies silent and dormant, perhaps a component is burned out, perhaps they used the incorrect IC, the numbers and letters are confusing.
Why is Derek doing this
What does Derek want? Why is Derek even approaching either of these systems?
Well, Derek wants to play electronic music, and he feels limited with what he currently has. He wants a personal system that suits him. He has been playing his DX7 and he wants it to have a nicer filter, he wants to customise it. He wants instant control and flexibility, he wants to have an intuitive musical experience which has fewer limits on his sonic creative potential .
To expand his sonic arsenal Derek can either feed his DX7 through the filter module of A, or he can make a WHOLE NEW DX7 with B, a whole new instrument with unlimited possibility.
Is it possible to make a WHOLE NEW DX7 he asks the B community?
"Of course it is! Anything is possible with B, just take a look at this link to a man who made his own DX7, and this man who created a controller which perfectly suited him, in fact . Truly anything is possible with system B. With one or two caveats, but we don't need to tell you about those just now"
So, Derek signs up on a course to build one of these
Derek is now an amateur electronics engineer struggling to build something from components, and not at all sure if what he is aiming for is even possible. he will only find out in a years time.
Where did Derek Go wrong?
Derek never wanted to be an electronics engineer, Derek wanted to make his DX7 go wawawaWAWAwawa. Derek is listening to electronics engineers and people who have an affinity for that as a pastime, they are talking about chebyshev polynomials and other amazing things. It's dazzling.
Derek listened to electronics engineers whose pastime was building instruments.
Derek wanted to make music, not instruments. Derek only needed to connect musical components together as part of a musical creative process.
Moral of the story
Max for Live is a wonderful thing, it has a lot of benefits and the potential is huge and although it has pitfalls I'm sure they will be overcome by the developers over the next few years.
However, I feel it is the wrong solution for the use-case.
Ableton Live is a modular synthesiser. It has sound sources, modulators and processors. We have learned to connect A to B to C.
Most people came to Ableton Live because of the intuitive Learnability. This made it the perfect tool for intuitive musical creation. Terms we know are represented visually and use familiar paradigms and terminology. We can plug-in an effect and modulate a sample, we can route through a filter and tweak the cut-off.
We need flexibility, but at a granular level above that of engineers. If engineers need components we need modules. We need Dieter Doepfer to make us a solid reliable Filter module, because frankly we would fuck it right up.
Ableton Live was created by passionate engineers, and their own passion is visual prototyping in Max by Cycling74.
Look at the picture at the top.
Who is system A appealing to, Musicians or Engineers?
Who is system B appealing to, Musicians or Engineers?
I have been waiting for software engineers to sort it all out for decades...
