But is it a synth?
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- KVRAF
- 2750 posts since 2 Feb, 2005 from Raincoast of Grayland
Ah, Meffy, you saw right thru my little koan.
perception: the stuff reality is made of.
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- KVRian
- 1479 posts since 14 Jun, 2003
Lets see if i can cover most methods.
theres subtractive sythesis, which is you basic oscillator thru filter design
theres additive where you add waveforms together
theres fm where you frequency modulate operators and carriers.
theres granular where samples are processed into micro bits for modulation.
theres sampler/rompler of course
and then physical modeling, which creates a model in physics which can be very accurate depending on how detailed the physics are.
and many many possible combinations, theres been for instance lots of vsti's that are in the subtractive design but use samples for oscillators, and many that use physical modeled oscillators, and there have been tons a romplers with filters.
Id use the word hybrid. theres tons of hybrid designs out now since you can pretty free in software.
theres subtractive sythesis, which is you basic oscillator thru filter design
theres additive where you add waveforms together
theres fm where you frequency modulate operators and carriers.
theres granular where samples are processed into micro bits for modulation.
theres sampler/rompler of course
and then physical modeling, which creates a model in physics which can be very accurate depending on how detailed the physics are.
and many many possible combinations, theres been for instance lots of vsti's that are in the subtractive design but use samples for oscillators, and many that use physical modeled oscillators, and there have been tons a romplers with filters.
Id use the word hybrid. theres tons of hybrid designs out now since you can pretty free in software.
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- KVRian
- 507 posts since 14 Mar, 2004
Hey peejunk, got another customer for you over here!mehgd mit mehhhumph - urk - you sound like that guy from roland. and oscillator is the core of a synth. period. i don't care how you freak or squash a recorded sound. it is a recorded sound and therefore - it is dated to the tech at which it was recorded - and ALSO COMPLETELY UN-FRESH. GAWD a sound bite is a sound byte - a synth is a synth. and people start using samples right. remember a vocoder was born way before most of you, except for gramps. wait a minute - gramps ain't breathin! no gramps! wake up!
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- KVRian
- 507 posts since 14 Mar, 2004
This is a bit misleading. Subtractive synthesizers and samplers and romplers generally operate on exactly the same principle - subtractively filter a waveform.Lets see if i can cover most methods.
theres subtractive sythesis, which is you basic oscillator thru filter design
theres sampler/rompler of course
The only difference is how that waveform is produced.
As I said before, the difference is largely an associations thing, rather than anything that will affect your sound. Using a sampler is cheating, whereas a synth is a real instrument, right? And how can a sample possibly sound as good as something fresh from the oscillator! Even if the waveforms are digitally identical, the rompler is still not as good as the synth because everyone knows that samples are fake and oscillators are real, so you'll sound fake and cold and sterile of course!
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- KVRian
- 1479 posts since 14 Jun, 2003
hmm, i wasnt thinking of synthesis methods in terms of morality, frankly.
i thought id answer the question as simply as i could.
i left out phase distortion synthesis which the casio CZ series used, im not sure if any vsti's are doing that, i can see where they might not...
i thought id answer the question as simply as i could.
i left out phase distortion synthesis which the casio CZ series used, im not sure if any vsti's are doing that, i can see where they might not...
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- KVRAF
- 7873 posts since 24 May, 2002 from Tutukaka, New Zealand
I fail to see why anyone would consider a ROMpler not to be a synth. I come from the day when sampling wasn't available, and I see them as synths. They have filters, envelopes, modulation routings and a choice of waveforms you put into them. In what way is a properly specified ROMpler not a synth. Synth is short for synthesiser - and short of looking up a dictionary, I take that to mean you can create (synthesize) a wide variety of differing sounds through the circuits or coding. "Synthesiser" doesn't specify it has to be an analogue created waveform to make the sound.
In fact there are some very good samplers that are far more synthesisers than many bog-standard oscillator based synths - and anyway, a sample is an oscillator. in synth terms.
No doubt someone will look up Wikipaedia and prove me wrong, but as the saying goes - "if it's yellow, sings like a canary, sits in a cage and dies down mines, then it's probably not a parrot".
If a synth, VSTi, module has oscillators, filters, envelopes and modulation routings, then I'd say it's fairly safe to assume it's a synth, no?
In fact there are some very good samplers that are far more synthesisers than many bog-standard oscillator based synths - and anyway, a sample is an oscillator. in synth terms.
No doubt someone will look up Wikipaedia and prove me wrong, but as the saying goes - "if it's yellow, sings like a canary, sits in a cage and dies down mines, then it's probably not a parrot".
If a synth, VSTi, module has oscillators, filters, envelopes and modulation routings, then I'd say it's fairly safe to assume it's a synth, no?
