Re: Soft Synths

In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.10.10011141641250.28155-100000@user2.teleport.com>
> The "state of the art" with Intel/Windows multimedia is probably always
> going to be an order of magnitude slower than special-purpose hardware
> like the Kyma.

Could be, a lot depends on the point at which an advanced soundcard
becomes special-purpose hardware. It looks like the full complexity of
Kyma is beyond my PC in real-time. But there are ways of getting good
results with simple algorithms, like analog emulation or sampling, that
can use the PC's slack CPU time instead of hogging Kyma's DSPs. Samplers
are particularly useful because it should be possible to get Kyma to
convert a complex instrument into sound files that can be imported into a
sampler.

Also, Kyma can't compete with Gigasampler at present because it doesn't
have direct access to a hard disk.

Best for the time being is to keep learning how to use Kyma, and then look
at software if I find I'm reaching its limitations.

> Barry Vercoe (CSound's originator) has worked with ANalog
> Devices for a number of years on porting to their DSP chips, but I don't
> know if anything commercial exists or if you have to buy the chips and
> do
> your own hardware integration. THis setup is covered on one of the
> CD-ROMS
> in "The CSound Book".

That's an interesting idea, but it all depends on how good the user
interface is.

> > I wasn't aware the VL series supported tuning tables. But sure
> > enough, they're on John Loffink's list.
>
> I don't remember whether I checked this or not; the WX5 has a manual
> pitch
> bend control on it and my plan was to re-tune on the fly by passing MIDI
> through a computer on its way from the WX5 to the VL70-m. Tuning tables
> would be a big plus. The VL70-m looks quite programmable; they have
> something called an "Expert Editor" that lets you get down and personal
> with the hardware, although the typical musician probably won't be able
> to
> do anything useful with it. What wasn't clear to me from the manual was
> how monophonic the VL70-m is. There are some hooks for polyphony,
> although
> it is clearly sold as a monophonic device.
> I am a flute player, and I am
> pretty much useless on a standard keyboard. As I said before, I have
> wanted a synthesizer that I could play like a flute;

Well, there you go. You only need it to be monophonic, so long as it's
very good. But be wary about sending it pitch bends. My AWE64's acoustic
modelling (which obviously isn't of the same class) alters the timbre
along with pitch bends, to emulate what would happen on a real flute. So
it wouldn't sound like a flute that naturally played the scale you want.
Tuning tables would hopefully behave differently.

Graham