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Eurorack Knob Idea

(mitxela.com)
312 points po | 1 comments | 25 Apr 25 13:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.25s | source
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smj-edison ◴[25 Apr 25 20:37 UTC] No.43798283[source]▶
Tangential idea, but I've wondered if it would be possible to make synthesizers a lot cheaper by only having a couple rotary encoders. You could have hundreds of parameters on the panel, but each parameter would just be a neopixel LED and button. You could link the rotary encoder with a parameter by pressing it and the parameters' button at the same time. Certainly not as nice as a dedicated knob for each, but you'd also get an interface that is ~$40 instead of ~$600...
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1. munificent ◴[25 Apr 25 23:23 UTC] No.43799419[source]▶
There was a trend in 80s synthesizers along these lines: Yamaha DX7, Ensoniq Mirage, etc.

They were famously hard to program. The DX7 in particular is known for basically being a preset machine because almost no one could figure out how to build patches with it.

Muscle memory is really important and it's hard for users to build a mental model of the internal architecture if the external architecture doesn't reflect it at all.