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Comment by lwn | Hacker News Reader

As a synthesizer enthusiast, I'm excited to read about this. A well-designed button layout on a synth sparks my creativity. Tweaking knobs on a touchscreen doesn’t work for me because I constantly have to check the screen to make sure my fingers are on the right control.

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the obvious consequence of electric vehicles is live configurable filters and patches for performance tuning. I want an ADSR for my accelerator in different modes. give me an EQ for acceleration and braking, along with a feedback cycle for cruising, and the era of performance personalization will be huge.

I would buy a tesla instantly if you gave me a eurorack dashboard insert!

eurorack module designers have moved hardware interface design to where they can create intuitive design languages as well.

Plus of course, you'd be allowed to swap out the pedestrian-warning spacehip noise that EVs make at low speeds with a synth creation of your own.

Similarly, I find mixing on a tablet slower than mixing on a console with tactile controls - because you can do things like change multiple things by different degrees at once (you don't have to look at both controls to ensure your fingers are tracking) and adjust a control while looking at the stafe.

A poorly designed synth doesn't generally cause a car accident though, far less of a legislative impetus to stop softwaring everything in synth-land =)

i'd argue the interface on the old yamaha dx synths with FM synthesis was a bit of a car crash

I certainly never got my brain round them.

;-)

Going full OT here but... Yamaha's DX synths had major impact on music. And there are lots of great FM synths nowadays with excellent interfaces. See https://www.twistedelectrons.com/twistfm and https://elektron.se/explore/digitone-ii

Its so great when you know where the buttons are located, that you can touch them in the darkness without them suddenly selecting anything. When you need to make sure "is this the second one from the left?", then apply some force to actually change its value.

Ah but have you tried the conductive touch pads on the Strega that make your body’s conductive properties a human patch cable?

No but I have a microfreak that has something similar :) It's cool but buttons and knobs are better.

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