“In this instance, I hope this will help to demystify what a synthesizer is, and get more people into synths it is really rewarding to know that the customer can enjoy the simplicity of some of our products. “But, as the Futurama quote goes, ‘when you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all!’” “It takes a lot of work to design a product to be easy to use,” says Jerome. “I used the Novation Bass Station II, because it’s a lovely, beasty synth which I love using in my own music production.” But being an all-analogue monosynth, Bass Station II has a straightforward user interface and a very simple layout. Jerome could have chosen from the full gamut of Novation gear for his Thing Explainer project, but he chose the Bass Station II synthesizer (or in Thing Explainer talk: ‘fun noises and tones making box’) for its simplicity and straightforward design. During the exercise I soon realised that 1000 words is not that many!” “It took some time and effort to describe the various sections of the synth without the tech-specific vocabulary I usually use. “Making things easy is surprisingly difficult,” continues Jerome. Jerome’s end result, as you can see for yourself, is an amazingly straightforward explanation of the Bass Station II, stripped of complicated jargon and understandable (to a basic level, at least) to anyone with a decent comprehension of the English language.Ī section of Jerome’s Bass Station II Thing Explainer. Monroe explains complicated things using blueprint-style drawings and a vocabulary limited to the most common one thousand (ten hundred) words in the English language.” It was Dave Hodder who actually introduced me to the book, after he bought five copies to give to friends, colleagues and family members, including me. “Making things easy is surprisingly difficult” - Jerome Meunier, Novation They both know about my love of synths, and also that there’s nothing that makes me happier than helping people understand the amazing world of synthesis! So we came up with the idea to explain a synthesizer using simple words, based on the research of Randall Monroe, the author of the brilliant book Thing Explainer. “In advance of Making Things Easy Day,” recalls Jerome, “I sought the help of Novation’s Head of Innovation Dave Hodder and our Product Design team lead Dan Clarke, to brainstorm a cool project for me to work on. One participant of October 2016’s M.T.E.D was Jerome Meunier, who decided to jump headfirst into the easy pool with one of our synths, and create what he’s called the Bass Station II Thing Explainer. Twice a year, we spend a day thinking outside the box, throwing convention out the window, and most importantly, recording our results so we can share our successes and failures at a later recap session. You might have heard about Novation’s Making Things Easy Day, where staff from all departments at the company HQ - from accounts to R&D - come together to make or improve things, with the focus on making them ‘easy’.
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