Originally Posted by
AshMcFadden
I designed the front panel of the P-4 after playing the only popular analog synth you didn't mention, Doc: Alan R. Pearlman's Odyssey. I still have one in the studio.
Here's a bit about flow. I put image generation at the lower left, using rotary pots for frequency and slide pots for amplitude (and carrying this philosophy throughout the panel). The P-4 has two VCQOs, the Z-5 has three. To the immediate right of image generation is the VCA, which can be adjusted in amplitude for X and Y, separately or ganged, with a three position switch at the top to select direct voltage control from a pot or either of two LFOs, which are to the right of the VCA knobs. NB: Above each image generation slidepot is a switch/pot to modulate the VCQO frequency using either of the two LFOs. You can make an image zoom in and out in time to the music and also synch a morph from one lissajous pattern to another with the bounce.
I'll stop there. I just typed all that from memory without looking and for anyone who's played an ARP Odyssey, the many different ways of generating, rotating and modulating an image will be immediately apparent. It doesn't take long for someone to learn to run a P-4 by Braille.
I think the problem many people have, until they get their hands on the device, is that the flow isn't readily apparent because there are so many more ways to make it flow than there would have been if I'd copied a MiniMoog.