Quick note on Quantum

So I bought another Quantum... which by default means I already owned one. I had no intention of buying another one, until I did. And then the fact that the MK2 versions make MK1 prices much lower than new pretty much sealed the deal. 

But anyway, I'm not here espouse the virtues of the Quantum, which is arguably the best hybrid synth ever made. I'm here to talk (briefly) about simple vs. complex synths, and why the Quantum is probably the best "simple" complex synth ever made. 

Sometimes simple synths are great; sometimes that's all you need. In my particular genre du choix, simple/short/staccato is standard. More complex sounds are almost always samples. I've been moving more and more toward this approach in the last few years--very limited studio time (thanks kids!) means I'm more interested in getting the next track done (or writing a blog, apparently) than diving down the programming rabbit hole. The downside is that you're either stuck with the "same old" synth sounds or forced to really keep your sample collection fresh. 

But complex synths aren't always the answer either. I have always fancied myself a "programmer's programmer" but many times in the past have I spend 15 minutes making a beautiful ethereal pad sound worthy of Legend that has ABSOLUTELY NO PLACE IN THE MUSIC I MAKE. I had a Matrix-12 filled beautiful patches I mostly programmed myself and a total of 3? ever ended up in a tune (99 patches but a track ain't one). The problem is that complex synths lure you to program them to their natural strength: complex, evolving sounds. Short staccato stabs, the things I actually need, OTOH are nearly impossible for me on to make on deeper hardware synths because... because. why would you when you could just sample them (lol). 

So getting back to the Quantum. It's a complex synth. 6+ synthesis types, simple but effective sampling, and modulation for days. But to me, what separates it from its pals is its ability to make a new, interesting sound and something that is actually recordable within a minute or two. The sources of complexity are all right there, always one knob turn away. You're not hunting around for the next parameter to tweak to really show off your synthesis mettle. It barely takes more than an LFO sweep on the Wavetable Spectrum or the Resonator Spread and some simple filtering to have a "really good sound". Sample your current YT feed, shove it in the granular synth and it's solid. And to really make it gold, you just resample that sound internally to capture that sweet pitch spot. All done in a few minutes. 

So anyway, the Quantum is back. It's already about 50 times more interesting than before (I didn't even really use the Resonator the first time around). But this time I'm working on keeping those interesting sounds short and sweet. 

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