Fundamentalism - A usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition.

Often Fundamentalism movements rise in response to great change, or significant deviation from the status quo.  When things get too complex, or when things are perceived to have gone way too far.

Maybe, this explains the current up tick and return to retro synths, the new analog synth movement.  Maybe this explains why some of us are going back to the days of two oscillator monophonic synthesizers.  Of course some of us never left (but that’s another story).

Maybe these big flagships from Yamaha, Roland and Korg are just too complex.  Maybe they’ve just gone too far. Thousands of waveforms, dozens of oscillators, all this computer integration, plugins, VSTs, audio channels, super audio advanced routing options, gazillions of parameters, touch screen calibration, programmable-virtual-toggle-software-definable-options. Maybe its just all too much.  Whatever happened to the days when you could just turn a knob?  LOL

Fundamentalist movements yearn to go back to the way things were.  Back to how things used to work. Fundamentalist movements want to go back to a simpler time.  A time where it was clear what side of the railroad tracks you were on.  None of this hybrid same sex synthesizer, neutral gender oscillator stuff. And Fundamentalist movements often convince a certain amount of the younger generation that the old ways are the best ways. So you usually see a certain percentage of the younger generation buying into any given particular fundamentalist movement event if they weren’t even born during the good ole days.

Is that what we’re seeing now with all of the re-issues of the class ic synths, and the new offerings like the ASM’s HydraSynth, Waldor’sf Quantum, the Novation Summit, etc.  The dozens of new little boutique analog synths, The renewed interest in modulars (e.g. Moog System 35 or Behringer’s Neutron) all patch cable ready.  Going back to the days of taking a picture of the knobs so you can recreate the patch.

Are we in the middle of a Synthesizer Fundamentalist Movement?

One of the hallmarks of fundamentalism is the intolerance of others.  If you’re not part of their movement then you’re not legitimate.

Is that what’s going on?  If you’re not doing old school analog synthesis , then you’re not doing real synthesis?  Is this the result of a Synthesizer Fundamentalist Movement?  LOL

Younger musicians are discovering the older Analog, FM, and hardware synths via VST’s.  Once they get a taste of a knob-based softsynth, they want to see what real knobs and sliders are like and go out and buy one.  Some get hooked!  I like the hardware synths better myself, I like to be able to tweak the settings with a real controller while I play.  I don’t like fumbling around with a mouse to get it over just the right screen controller, a real knob is so much more fun!

javelin276 - 21 March 2020 10:46 AM

Younger musicians are discovering the older Analog, FM, and hardware synths via VST’s.  Once they get a taste of a knob-based softsynth, they want to see what real knobs and sliders are like and go out and buy one.  Some get hooked!  I like the hardware synths better myself, I like to be able to tweak the settings with a real controller while I play.  I don’t like fumbling around with a mouse to get it over just the right screen controller, a real knob is so much more fun!

Yea, you’re right, I guess the soft synths or VSTs do point the way to the real thing.  And they start trying out the analog stuff and then they come to believe if its not analog then its not real synthesis :-) But I’m neck deep right now into sound design and synthesis on my Motif and I wouldn’t trade it for any of those old school analog synths.  And I’ve heard, seen, or played just about all of them LOL.  Its a nice walk down memory lane, but drifting sound, not being able to save settings, 2 note, 4 note and on a good day 8 note polyphony, naw you can leave that stuff back in 80’s Give me my Motif XF8 it has all the knobs and faders I need and I can definitely get the job done with that LOL.