Re: shopping for synths

> Message: 17
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2000 10:50:20 -0700
> From: Troubledoor <troubledoor@earthlink.net>
> Subject: shopping for synths
>
> I am looking around for a software or hardware synth or sampler. I've
checked
> out Csound and the Gigastudio so far. I'm looking for the best possible
sampler
> in terms of quality first of all. The Gigastudio looks like the best
sampler
> over all. I just don't know if it has microtonal features. The Csound
sounds
> like a dream machine. I wonder how the samples are.
>
> Which brings me to my question; what are the best microtonal samplers and
> synths (hardware or software) around?
>
> Also, I'm planning to automate whichever software synth I buy with a macro
> program. I'm using Macro Express 2000 for now. Are there any better
ones?
>

For a hardware sampler your only real choices are something from the Ensoniq
EPS/EPS-16+/ASR-10 family or the Kurzweil 2000/2500/2600 family. The
Ensoniq samplers have 8 full range pitch tables per instrument, with a limit
of 8 instruments total. The Kurzweil synth/samplers can have 255 12 note
per octave based tuning tables, applied globally to all instruments (up to
1000), or you can accomplish any N-tone equal temperament using the
techniques given at my web site:
http://home.att.net/~microtonal/k2x00eq.html .

Gigasampler cannot do microtonal scales.

CSound is an excellent tool for microtonality, but somewhat difficult from a
programming interface. I list several soft synths at my web site that are
good candidates. I personally use Reaktor which is quite powerful, but
you'll still have to do a lot of tweaking of instruments to apply
microtonality to them. It is probably easier to use something like VAZ
Modular or WAVmaker.

"Best microtonal synth or sampler" is dependent on your needs. If you need
the maximum flexibility and highest accuracy for microtonality, then KYMA
and CSound seem to be the favorites, though I think WAVmaker should be in
that category as well with virtually unlimited pitch accuracy and tuning
tables.

John Loffink
microtonal@worldnet.att.net
The Microtonal Synthesis Web Site
http://home.att.net/~microtonal

Re CSound ... yes, for a composer who is not a programmer, CSound can be
difficult to use. However, I've been a programmer for almost 40 years ... I
find it easy enough. The hard part is not the programming, it's becoming a
composer :-). I suspect it's easier for a composer to become enough of a
programmer to use CSound than it is for a programmer to become enough of a
composer.

If you do decide to investigate CSound, go out and spend the 50 bucks and
pick up "The CSound Book" by Richard Boulanger. It comes with *two* CDs, is
loaded with tutorials, pre-defined instruments and orchestras, quite a few
student compositions and, of course, a working copy of CSound. There are
quite a few composer-friendly wrappers around CSound; one in particular,
Michael Gogins' Silence, can be found at

http://www.pipeline.com/~gogins/Silence/Silence.htm

Re Sfront ... yes, I have that too. It and its cousin saolc are another way
to go. The best place to start on Sfront is

http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~lazzaro/sa/book/index.html

A word of warning: the reference implementation of Sfront is for Linux. It
can be made to work with Windows, but it's a tad kludgy ... no drag-and-drop
and other niceties. I don't know if there's a Mac implementation at all. I
did manage to get it running on my Win98 machine with GNU tools downloaded,
but I haven't done much with it.

> A word of warning: the reference implementation of Sfront is for Linux. It
> can be made to work with Windows, but it's a tad kludgy ... no
drag-and-drop
> and other niceties. I don't know if there's a Mac implementation at all. I
> did manage to get it running on my Win98 machine with GNU tools
downloaded,
> but I haven't done much with it.

Sfront functions flawlessly with Visual C++ under any Windows version.

> I also recall from an older post that was reposted
> here that Rolands and Kawais have zero microtonal
> support,

Kawai - zero support
Roland - 12 note per octave based scales supported on
some instruments

> Yamaha and Korg are on the fence (some of their
> products are microtunable, others are not)

True

> Kurzweil only allows equal temperament tunings

Kurzweil K2000/K2500/K2600 supports any equal
temperament or 12 note per octave scale

> Emu and Waldorf have a good track record in producing
> microtunable synths.

Emu synths have a good track record, Emu samplers
including ESynth do not
Waldorf support is mixed

John Loffink
microtonal@worldnet.att.net
The Microtonal Synthesis Web Site
http://home.att.net/~microtonal