Analog For The People: Synth Master Tatsuya Takahashi On Engineering Fun

Tatsuya Takehashi "lays out a three-point philosophy for how a well-made music tool accosts its user: "You first recognize what it is, then learn what it can do, and then you have fun with it. Then probably loop back — many times, for a good instrument."

"I never designed any of my products from what people might need. When you start thinking like that, you're going to be like, "OK, people use this kind of compression," or, "People want this kind of bass" — and you start to think in terms of music that exists already. I don't think that's inspiring if you want to create your own music. So, one of the solutions is to keep things simple, to break things down into very simple elements so that people can deal with it — and then use them in wrong ways if they want to. I mean, I love it when people hack the products I worked, on, because it means they made it their own."
https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2017/12/22/569092364/analog-for-the-people-synth-master-tatsuya-takahashi-on-engineering-fun