George Cochrane

It’s a trip to watch the oscillations of the creative public’s relationship with synthesizers. Ostensibly, analog synths came first, many bristling with creative control methods (Ondes Martenot, anyone?) or awash in a sea of friendly, inviting control knobs. Then came the 80s, and a movement toward MIDI-based sound editing and rifling through thousands of presets instead of grabbing a fist full of patch cables, substituting repeatability for all of that delicious tactile control.

Then, as the 80s came to a close, so did analog synths rise again, giving rise to dance music and all of its bubbling permutations, squelchy acid lines and hands-in-the-air filter sweeps. And as the ’00s got into swing, the era of the software synth came into its own, and the instrument was once again abstracted for the sake of infinite versatility, its internals hidden from easy reach without a fight (or at least a lot of endless, fiddly controller assigning).

Now here we are, closing out the ’00s, and software makers are really starting to dig the idea of creating their own hardware interfaces, sculpted to fit tightly with the software- the likes of Native Instruments’ Maschine and Kore. (I realize Kore is pretty widely applicable, but it integrates best with NI stuff)

Now, I really like the idea of Jasuto’s new modular synth. It comes both in VST format, for your audio host program, and on the iPhone. Not only does it sound like fun to have a super-capable synth to mess with on the train (ERGH, Noise|IO does NOT COUNT), the iPhone app can control the VST counterpart wirelessly, acting like a slick little purpose-built Lemur. That is my kinda thinking! You get the tightly-integrated control goodness of a purpose-built interface without all that “How is it that I’m only buying software and still my house is filling up with little metal boxes?” bother.  Its Reactable-like interface looks like a blast to program, and with multitouch?!  Don’t try and hold me back.  I’m landing this spacecraft right on the dance floor!

Now when you catch me staring intently at my phone, poking at some colored blobs, maybe I’ll be doing something other than playing Eliss.