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From: rlr@pyuxjj.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Summary of musical instrument technology developments
Message-ID: <501@pyuxjj.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-Jun-83 17:41:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxjj.501
Posted: Mon Jun 13 17:41:22 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 15-Jun-83 16:35:15 EDT
Lines: 63


This is meant to be an overview of the current "state-of-the art" in
electronic music equipment.  This includes synthesizers, rhythm machines,
digital synths, effects units, and recording equipment.  I will try to be
brief and thus will not go into great depth on any individual unit.  Feel
free to write me for pointers to additional info and/or my opinions and
PLEASE feel free to comment further about this whole area to the net----it's
been quite a while since we've seen musicians contributing to net.music on
the creation of original music.  I'll be submitting more on this stuff in the
future.  First, synthesizers:

Monophonic (one-note) synthesizers seem to be a dime a dozen these days.
Sequential Circuits Pro-One (makers of the Prophet) and Roland's SH-101 are
small synths with sequencers built in for a low price.  Most of the industry's
money is now in true polyphonic synths like Korg's Poly61 which you can get for
about $1K.  True, it has limited functions, but it has most of what you want
from a true six-voice poly-synth.  Gradually going up in price, we find the
Roland Juno-60, a six voice programmable (like the Poly61) poly-synth, more
limited but with more "live-performance" oriented features; and Seq. Circ.'s
Prophet 600 (~$1500).  As in the Pro-One, SC has sacrificed the solid design of
their Prophet 5/10 for low-price cheapness, but you still get a good unit with
built-in polyphonic sequencer (!!!!).

Digital Synthesizers - A few years ago everything in this field did EVERYTHING
and cost $100K.  A few years later, we got the Synclavier (New England Digital)
and the Fairlight machines that did just about everything for $25K.  Now things
are a bit better, but don't expect to pay for one of these with the earnings
from your summer job.  Basic Synclaviers are now about $13K, but to get all the
nifty peripherals, you're back up to $25K again.

Some background:  your old-fashioned (??) ANALOG synthesizers use 'voltage
control' (from keyboard, oscillators) to control the pitch/timbre of the
sounds produced.  Thus you had electrical signals controlling pieces of
electronic hardware (oscillators, filters) to produce sound.  True digital
synthesis uses the CPU (perhaps controlling peripheral digital processors) to
simulate/and calculate the signal that would produce a requested sound.  With
this method, there are no electronic components as such to be kept "in tune".
With the stability of this method, the composer/performer has almost limitless
capability, although simulating what a synthesizer used to do in terms of
filtering, etc. is more difficult than using newer methods of sound synthesis
on a digital machine.  One interesting application of digital technology is to
'sample' a recording of an 'actual' live sound, have the machine analyze this
sound, and provide the ability to reproduce the sound at any pitch on the
keyboard.  More elaborate systems use multiple samples at different pitch
ranges to get a more accurate reproduction of a given instrument.  This
external sampling capability exists on Synclavier/Fairlight machines in
addition to their SYNTHESIS capabilities (generating sound from scratch by
calculation).  One instrument is designed ONLY to reproduce sounds derived from
external ample input.  It is called the Emulator, and is made by E-Mu, who
were one of the most respected synth companies of the '70s.  The Emulator is
featured heavily on recent works by the Residents, and provided the eerie
chording on (forgive me for even mentioning) M. Jackson's "Billie Jean".

Since this was supposed to be short, I'll quit now.  More later on
sequential electronic percussion simulators (i.e., programmable rhythm units)
and home multi-track recording equipment.  I am trying to keep these bits
interesting to both old-timers (trying to keep up with new technology) and
novices (wanting to break into all of this but lacking the background), so I'm
not sure about how deep I should delve into all of this.  If I'm going too
fast/slow or saying too much/too little about something, let me know.
(Also next time: the very small amount that I know about home computer music
synthesis tools and the new portable keyboard units.)
					Rich Rosen ....!pyuxjj!rlr