Toolfeel

Sometimes it matters which tool we pick up.

It's 1981. The Roland TB-303 is a new bass synthesiser. It was designed to act as a substitute for a bass guitar player, much like a drum machine for a drummer. In 1984, after poor sales, it was taken out of production. The way you programmed sequences of notes was counterintuitive and arranging a proper multi-section song on this thing was a frustrating experience. More vitally, the sound was more angry toad than bass guitar, and many of knob settings could produce sounds so extreme that they wouldn't fit in any genre.

Some years after its discontinuation, people found a use for it doing this. The cybernetic meow sound was embraced. Short, hypnotic dance loops bypassed the need for long sequences of notes and even then the fiddly programming served a purpose, nudging towards simple single note sequences with a few accents or octave leaps or untamed basslines keyed in at random and taken for their imperfections. Those wild sweeping knob settings could now be tweaked gradually or impulsively, giving long form movement to those looped sequences.

I bought one of the more affordable clones of this machine last year, and when I sit down to use it I create very differently than I do with other tools.

Yes, you can plug in an external keyboard or sequencer to bypass the annoying programming. You can sculpt a wider range of sounds than you might think, especially using external effects. Hey, you can even bypass the inconvenient machinery entirely and use one of the dozens of software clones, bending the virtual device entirely to your will. Even with just the basic device, you can learn the ways of its sequencing to make complex tracks, and hone its settings to find hidden sweet spots of subtle melodic sounds.

But I generally don't. When I plug it in, I smash in a few random bars of notes, blindly apply accents, glides, and octaves, and let it loop while I twist the knobs going BAAOW WAPPA BAPPA BOWA BOOOOWAPA BA BA BA WA.

It's not a sound I would have chosen on a more flexible device, or in the creative infinity of a digital workstation, but when I have that machine in front of me I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

I'm the same with RPGs. Sit me down with Traveller or 2400 and I'll run you a sci fi game, but the feel of each of those sets of tools pushes me in a slightly different direction. Of course I bring my own way of preparing and running a game, whatever the system, but the toolfeel is still there.  

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