Absynth 6 has a new graphic preset browser which looks like this:
But what if someone took this core idea and went completely nuts with it, making it the way of programming the synth itself? A 3D universe you would fly around into sonic wonderment (see, I've got the blurb before anything else...)
So imagine a cloud of colours. Oranges are warm, Blues are icy, Red is aggressive, green is calming / organic, neon electronic etc. Then you'd have textures - smooth clouds could be pads, angular short, particles arps and sequences. Solid would be dry, wispy echoey, reverby.
You'd then, in your sonic spaceship, head off in some direction or other, and more would come into view, generated on the basis of where you are, offering up all manner of under the hood complexity. Reverse thrusters to go back to where you were. Record your motion for movement.
In theory, if it was brilliantly programmed, you'd be able to sense where to go on the basis of what it looked like in front of you. There wouldn't be a legend, it would all be done on feel, baby.
Have I been at the magic mushrooms, or could something like this be viable do you think?