I suspect for most people one zynthian is enough for the moment, and there are a lot of clever people concentrating on the aspects of what that one machine can do.
If I have a skill, it is that I look at how far successful things can develop before they hit the next problem. Failure is easy to manage. Success simply throws up a succession of problems that all reveal themselves as the best parts of a system hit their limits, and then you have to work out how to surpass those limits.
I have been considering two or more zynth’s as a natural state for a while now, with the ability for it to provide a control layer that allows performances on multiple devices to be aggregated centrally for midi recording.
In the process of investigating that simple requirement I have looked a lot at how easy that sort of thing is to set up for people who just do music and generally fear or loath technology, regarding their own mechanical instruments as far more reliable than those pesky computer things.
Well congratulations
I have watched such people use the zynthian and most of the results are pretty positive They get it. They can use it. They don’t care; it just works.
They play two or three hour rehearsals without issue, caring not at all that the zynth that their MIDI keyboard is plugged into is not the same one that is connected to the speakers they are hearing their notes from.
Once you have that degree of disconnect established then you have something very valuable.
Now setting all this up especially in the world of aj2mid was a right nightmare. It works in my room but I can’t take it out on the road yet.
Surprisingly flute players who play keyboards don’t have any great affection for qmidictl and PuTTY is not something they will use under any circumstances. So somebody used to set up all of this before hand and just hope that it didn’t fail I have tested it from the perspective of ruggedness. And good musical ears have not heard anything in the performances that lead them to doubt it.
It works.
But it needs reliable visual confirmation and repeatable and reliable set up. So that the display is a confirmation for disinterested players not a road map for investigation.
Now other use cases will occur to other people and the ability to extend control outside of the one box will be, hopefully, used and abused by other people, who are probably a lot more technical that both my technophobic musical friends and myself ( my git inadequacies are up there for all to see ). And that’s great but you don’t win musical allies with technical complexity.
They want simple and that is what I am trying to describe.
I don’t know what plans are held for these devices. Perhaps multiple zynthians is an anathema to the vision, and my attempts are just undermining something. I hope not because I think there is real value here.
Many more units would exist if this value was developed.
Apologies if this all just sounds like injured misplaced pride.
Whilst being given a bit of fairly heavy usage by son who happens to be passing and plays a lot better than I do.
