[denton-scratch]

The article makes it sound as if just switching the machine on with the right patch configured, gives you a polyphonic composition.

Even if you patch-in a sequencer, the patch doesn't include the sequence. You couldn't use patch cords to determine the melody.

Also, I think that back in the analogue synth days, you couldn't get a sequencer that stored multiple parts; one sequencer, one part. Also storage was limited; you couldn't sequence more than a few lines of music.

Maybe I remember wrong; I didn't get to mess with sequencers.

[FearNotDaniel]

As pointed out in sibling posts, it is a (very charming, IMHO) work of fiction, and as such the librarian could be considered an unreliable narrator rather than a fact-checking journalist. A little artistic licence goes a long way and although it may not be exactly how modular synths commonly work I think it was a nice literary device to build wonder around what the machine can do.