This amazingly simple but inspiring instrument uses granular synthesis to create awesome textures. The controls are unbelievably simple: two sliders to adjust the start and end points. By keeping the controls so simple and obvious that three year old could get it, it frees up our minds to think about the music, and what we could do with just two controls.

I am so tired of synth manufacturers forgetting this paradox: the more choices that you have, the less likely you'll be able to truly get something amazing out of synth.

When we have too many choices, human beings go into overload. We start tuning out features that could be amazing, only because their are too many amazing features. I played a gig last week with a guy that had dropped $3700 on a new workstation keyboard. The keyboard has tens of thousands of sounds, and the processing power of a desktop computer. What did he play 99% of the time? A single piano patch. 

Instrument designers, we need limitations. Make your limitations huge. Give us 8-24 amazing feeling, thoughtfully designed knobs that control only 8-24 parameters. Make them have personality. Spend 10x the amount of money the other guys do on amazing console-quality knobs. Finesse the fonts. Make it 100% clear exactly what your instrument is good at, and don't even bother with the rest of the "features" that your instrument wouldn't do well. 

Yes, you'll get ripped in online forums for not offering 10 zillion features. Who cares? The people that really care by opening their wallet and devoting their time will notice.