A History of Synthesis

A discussion of Visionsound's cutting-edge work in the realm of sound synthesis...

Music Composition for the 21st Century

In the old days, we used pencil and paper; conductor and orchestra; ensemble and recording studio. Actually, we still do.

But these days we also use digital computation to acheive what was once beyond conception.

Same inspiration - different tools.

The boundary between music composition and sound synthesis, in its modern dimension, has blurred. Synthesis has become so complex and developed, that it is difficult to determine where one ends and the other begins.

The key is musicality - what we do with it all.

Synthesis Voicing

When computer technology entered the realm of sound and tone generation in the early 1980's, it was a quirk of engineering.

What was needed was an artistic and musical sensibility to inform the design and concept stages of development, followed by the practical creation of sound that delivered on that promise.

That skill set is called synthesis voicing.

Visionsound has participated as a key player in the realm of synthesis voicing - participating in what are widely recognized as the most influential, sound-synthesis developments in history.

An International Effort

Unlike any other synthesizer manufacturer, the Japanese company, Korg, entrusted a select, international group of synthesizer programmers to lead the creative efforts behind the design and sound voicing of their products.

And unlike any other synth manufacturer, Korg did not depend upon market research and focus groups to determine what they should build. They built according to the specifications set by the best engineers in consultation with this group of creative programmers.

Visionsound's founder, Ben Dowling, was -and is - a member of that team.

Voicing Projects:

The Korg M1

The first product guided by this revolutionary approach, was the Korg M1 Music Workstation. To date, the M1 still holds the position as the number one, best-selling synthesizer in history.

The concept of combining PCM samples with a full featured synthesis engine, was developed on the Korg DSS-1 project. The M1 was the obvious expression of this technology in a commercial form.

Virtually every synthesizer since, uses the same integration of sampling-based, synthesis technology introduced by the Korg M1 and developed by this influential team.

The Korg Wavestation

Once the entire synthesizer industry was chasing the incredible success of the M1 and its offshoots, Dowling suggested to Korg's President, Tsutomu Katoh, a strategy for an alternative application of sample-based synthesis.

Penning the term, "emulative synthesis," Dowling suggested that a synthesizer be developed that would not try to emulate acoustical instruments - as the M1 and its progeny did.

Rather, he suggested a voicing concept which utilized the PCM sample ROM to store hundreds of smaller sound components that could provide endless possibilities for sonic design - outside the realm of acoustical emulation.

Given the go ahead, and with Korg's purchase of Sequential Circuits, Dowling with John Bowen (of Prophet 5 and Prophet VS fame), Jack Hotop and John Lehmkuhl voiced one of the most important synthesizers of the era.

Released in 1992, the Korg Wavestation was dubbed by Keyboard Magazine as one of the "20 Synths that Changed the World."

The Korg OASYS

While sample-based synthesis was the bread and butter of sound synthesis subsequent to the introduction of the M1, Korg began a decade long project examining new forms of synthesis which were based in academic research.

Rather than using recorded samples as the basis for sound, why not utilize complex, nonlinear equations to represent the physics of an actual musical instrument?

As faster microchips allowed for computations to take the place of stored PCM samples, the OASYS project began.

The premise was an open architecture system allowing for multiple "synthesis algorithms" to be run simultaneously, thereby supporting all forms of known sound synthesis, as well as ones not yet invented.

Visionsound participated on several levels with the OASYS project - as a "synthesis algorithm designer," as a prime product voicing contractor, in the product design area and producing the official Oasys Demo.

In many ways, the Korg Oasys is the most important collection of technologies for synthesists. It certainly has been the largest synthesizer development effort in history.

Korg has just announced the pending release of the Oasys - Open Architecture Synthesis Studio keyboard. It's combinations of technologies promise to be the next most important development in synthesis.

Yamaha S-80 and Clavinova Pianos

As Electronic Musician's review "Switch on and start playing the luscious Yamaha S700 Grand Piano sample in StereoGrnd, preset 1, and you'll know you're in the presence of greatness," refers to the piano sampling co-creation of Visionsound and Soundwaves - developed originally for the Clavinova series of Yamaha pianos.

Yamaha DJX, RM-1X and RS7000

With Visionsound's involvement in hiphop, funk and gospel music, Yamaha requested the development of musical performancse loops and components for several of their best selling, phrase-based composition workstations.

Korg SG-ProX

Due to Visionsound's expertise in the realm of acoustic piano, Korg contracted Visionsound to manage the product voicing of the Korg SG-ProX piano project.

Aureal Vortex 1&2

Aureal Semiconductor hired Visionsound as their prime sound voicing contractor for the wavetable synthesis engine powering their hugely successful, Vortex series of soundcards and chip sets.