Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2011! Synth posts will follow shortly. I am still alive!!! :)
New Years is slowly becoming my favorite holiday. It is a time to start clean and move forward. It represents freedom and hope in who we are and who we want to be. We get to shake off the past and just look forward. Don't ever let yourself down, you are all that you have.

That said, New Years Eve, and for this site, New Years day, has become the one day I look back and reflect on the year. I look back on the numbers and the posts and I share that with you, the readers and contributors of the site. I think it's fun to look back and see how large this particular audience is. I like to think of us as the hardcore synth enthusiasts in the world. We all love some aspect of the art of synthesis, whether that be analog, digital, hardware, software, tonal music, atonal, noise, circuit bending, DIY, or in short, "EVERYTHING SYNTH!"

First of all, I want to thank you, the readers and contributors of the site. THANK YOU! To the readers, thank you for taking time out of your day to visit the site, and to those that spread the word on the site. To the contributors/makers of synth content, thank you for taking the time to share your hobby, and in many cases, your passion with others. Thank you to all the DIYers and manufacturers for providing these fascinating and esoteric works for us to explore. To the dealers and shops, thank you for providing an outlet for us to pick, and in many cases, try gear out. We have a very boutique interest, and because of this a relatively small market, so thank you for doing what you do.

Before I go over the stats on the site, I thought I'd share a little on what was popular over the last year and what in my opinion, posting every day, really stood out. The two break out areas in the world of synths and posts this year was no doubt the iPad and boutique modulars. This year we saw the start of the slate as a new platform not only for synthesis and sound manipulation, but also, alternative control interfaces for existing gear. On the modular front, there is no denying the surge in the number of manufacturers and modules now available, as well as the format becoming more popular amongst users, and even getting some exposure in the mainstream (see Kesha). There was a time when modular systems seemed distant and unobtainable. A modular used to be equated with a complete modular system. Now people are discovering that you don't need a full system to get started (see this post). Will it ever become fully mainstream? That's hard to tell. The biggest challenge as before is still the cost of entry - a case and power supply. If it wasn't for that, modulars would be just as popular as effects pedals, as essentially, that is what modules are.

As for the most popular individual posts, here's what Blogger had for "all time". They just started providing this feature, so I have no idea how far it actually goes back, but all posts are dated 2010, so here it is. Note I post like crazy of course, an average of 46.35 a day this year, and most people see posts on the front page. That said, this is still interesting to look at. Worth noting is both Twitter and Facebook have become much more popular, so a bit of what you are seeing here are direct click-throughs to the posts from them. What's up with the Technics SX-WSA 1R?

New Moog Voyager XL
Sep 8, 2010, 24 comments
3,349 Pageviews

Bob Dylan Goes Electronica
Jul 12, 2010, 6 comments
1,344 Pageviews

RIP Keith Barr - Founder of Alesis and MXR
Aug 25, 2010, 16 comments
1,269 Pageviews

Santa came early...
Dec 22, 2010, 6 comments
1,216 Pageviews

eml 400 ebay
Jul 20, 2010
1,125 Pageviews

TECHNICS SX-WSA 1R ACOUSTIC MODELING SYNTHESIZER
Nov 7, 2010
851 Pageviews

Moog iOS App on the Way
Oct 11, 2010, 3 comments
818 Pageviews

Something Wicked is Coming From M-Audio
Dec 20, 2010, 13 comments
780 Pageviews

Daft Punk's Modcan Modular
Nov 3, 2010, 5 comments
753 Pageviews

RIP David Hillel Wilson - Curator of the New Engla...
Aug 29, 2010, 17 comments
730 Pageviews

Total number of posts for the year? 16,917, up from 13,002 in 2009. That's an average of 46.35 posts a day. Not a single day missed.

Number of posts by year:
2010 16,917
2009 13,002
2008 10,066
2007 6,673
2006 3,871
2005 1205


3,048,111 visits came from 209 countries/territories

I think I'm still banned in some...

According to Google Analytics, the blog had 3,048,111 Visits for a whopping total of 6,988,389 Pageviews. That's up from 2,565,300 Visits (18.82%) and 5,804,265 Pageviews (20.40%). When you look at the numbers, realize this site reads like a roster of posts, it's not a multi-page forum or site that requires you to constantly click through pages to get to the info you are looking for. Everything is there on the front page or two depending on how often you visit.

Total Visits:
2010: 3,048,111
2009: 2,565,300
2008: 2,010,102
2007: 1,383,340
2006: 513,060
2005: 207,750 (via AdSense)
Total: 9,727,663

Total Page Views:
2010: 6,988,389
2009: 5,804,265
2008: 3,865,863
2007: 2,519,689
2006: 912,490
2005: 207,750 (via AdSense)
Total: 19,385,956

The numbers by country for the year:
1 United States 1180153
2 United Kingdom 266338
3 Germany 209723
4 Canada 168485
5 France 168127
6 Italy 109265
7 Sweden 90540
8 Netherlands 82509
9 Japan 72101
10 Australia 62750

Again, THANK YOU for a great year!!!