As I do each year, I thought I'd reflect a little on the past year. These posts are always difficult to write, and I always wing them, so bear with me. It's impossible to justify a whole year's worth of synth coverage in a single post. The following is just a small bit of what comes to mind when looking back. You'll find a top ten list of posts with the most page views followed by my picks for the year further below. Apologies if I miss anything, and of course, if you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment below. I'm curious what you, the readers of the site, felt stood out in the world of synths this past year.
First, I want to begin this post with a HUGE THANK YOU!!! If you are reading this it obviously means you have come to this site and some of you have been coming here for years! Thank you for sticking with me. This site is a journey I hope to continue for years to come. Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to showcase their synths, and thank you to those that share what they find! Thank you to those that link to the site and help spread the word on MATRIXSYNTH via Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and your own websites! And of course, THANK YOU to all the sponsors on the right who believe in the site enough to support it!
A nod to previous New Years posts, pictured to the left is the MATRIXSYNTH world domination map. :) I always think it's worth taking a look at who's watching the site. Synths are global and you are looking at a map of the readers of MATRIXSYNTH. Everything you see in green represents a visit from that country. The darker the green, the higher the number of visits. This is just for the year, but for the life of the site, we still haven't gotten a single hit from North Korea! I don't know what they have against synths! ;) You'll find the top 10 visits by country further below.This is the eighth New Year the site has gone through! The focus for the site this year has been the same as previous years, and I plan to keep it that way. This site is about showcasing specific synths, not just synths in general, and not just news and press releases. The focus is on the individual synths that have existed throughout history, the technology behind them, and the lives they lead with their odd owners, myself included. :) Yes it is about the gear, their makers, and their players. It has always been my opinion that synths in general have a tendency to be undervalued. Compared to say collectible guitars, they are often discarded and devalued in favor of next year's model, next year's technology. It has always been my opinion that every synth has something of value to offer, something specific and something unique that gives it its character. I built this site to showcase that. This site is about the history of synths as their history unfolds - videos and images of synths being played and used, by both those that make them and those that play them. Vintage synths being offered in the second hand market, being exchanged from one sonic explorer to the next. It really is a wondrous thing. Think of the magic synthesizers bring into your world. That is what this site is ultimately about. Some posts may not seem to make sense now, but they will in time, because they will be a look back in time. A day in the life of a particular synthesizer. I love analog and I love digital. I love all synths and this site celebrates that.
And now for a little reflection on the year. This year we had a total of 16678 posts including this one. That comes out to roughly 45.69 posts a day. Not a single day of the year went without a post. So what dominated the synth year? Mobile, modulars and a few dedicated hardware synths.
