Feeling a little queasy (coming off an illness) so I'll have to keep this brief. I find your post intriguing, introspective, and probably a little bit reflective of most of us. What you may be describing here is a process that most of us go through until the day we pack it in; it's called MATURING. As we mature, our perspectives change, our interests change, and although our basic mindset and value system may stay largely intact, the little actionable bits that actually determine what we do, also change. Our humanness makes us hope that those changes are for the better, that as we get 'older and wiser', we become better people.

I can certainly relate to the 'synth' experience you describe. We get so caught up in the technology and the 'potential' of the TOOL that we forget why we're there, to craft a product. You need go no further than the main ARRANGER board to See example after example of this. In my own journey, I've gone through many iterations of synths and workstations and arrangers and modules and controllers and ........... In the end, I've returned to my musical roots and now get the most enjoyment playing my cloned Hammond B3 (Nord C1/PK7a). Not a lot of bells and whistles, no mp3 player, no sequencer, no looper, no harmonizer, no patterns, no styles; not even a pitch bend lever. But what it does have is the potential for me to express myself musically with sounds and dynamics that touch my soul. This keeps me focused on the music and not the 'tool'. For others, it may be the wail of a rock/blues guitar (think Santana) or ivories 'tickled' in a special way; but in all cases, it is always the heart and soul of the music, and never about the technology.

As far as bruising a few egos along the way, 'been there, done that'. Only a handful of very exceptional people (Capt. Russ, DonM, Rikki, and a few others) have managed to avoid that pitfall . Not wanting to do that anymore is good enough for me and is pretty much where I am right now.

Gotta head out to my Doc, now, but a very interesting post which I hope I haven't taken too far off-base. I'm hoping Russ and others will respond.

chas