Prompted by some of the NAMM announcments, and a couple of other things (A: the fact that the expansion boards for the Nord modulars are probably just extra DSP chips, so the motherboard is itself modular, and B: the stupidly low price I was quoted for a Shuttle-format AMD3400 3D rendernode with 2Gb of RAM ) I was just thinking about how powerful you could make a single synthesiser for the cost of one of these workstation behemoths being announced at the moment.
And I though, what if you could dedicate an entire topflight PC to just one ot two voices, and you could just daisy-chain multiple PC's for however much polyphony you wanted. You could build an 4/8-voice keyboardless system out of 4 PC's for about the same as a G2X. And if you wanted more voices you pay linearly.
So what the hell do you think one such 'voice' should entail if you got to ask for it? Assuming you can dedicate the entire PC to it (minus, say, a basic realtime-Linux kernel)
Yeah its speculative; but think about it this way.... in five years, that could be the sort of spec of a high-end multi-processor multi-core machine....
* £555 plus VAT, including onboard graphics and a 120Gb hard drive!
The most powerful synth ever? What would it do?
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- Beware the Quoth
- Topic Starter
- 33173 posts since 4 Sep, 2001 from R'lyeh Oceanic Amusement Park and Funfair
my other modular synth is a bugbrand
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- addled muppet weed
- 105855 posts since 26 Jan, 2003 from through the looking glass
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- Beware the Quoth
- Topic Starter
- 33173 posts since 4 Sep, 2001 from R'lyeh Oceanic Amusement Park and Funfair
Why do I bother? <sigh>
my other modular synth is a bugbrand
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- KVRist
- 77 posts since 17 Nov, 2004
Hoover? 
Chugga says "Turn it up!!!"
For extra epointz - quote "ChuggaChugga"
For extra epointz - quote "ChuggaChugga"
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- KVRAF
- 2458 posts since 3 Oct, 2002 from SF CA USA NA Earth
Most powerful synth ever would have one timbral control, a large edit box. If you type in "Steinway Grand Piano in Davies Symphony Hall", and start playing, you get exactly that sound. If you type in "Fucktacular bowel-loosening bass from the eighth dimension", you get exactly that sound. If you type in "Faloombwehbweh", you get exactly that sound.
Don't do it my way.
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- addled muppet weed
- 105855 posts since 26 Jan, 2003 from through the looking glass
sorry 
but you got to remember for me at least what i already have astonishes me daily
ten years ago this was all a dream to me to ask me now what i hope for,well in some areas ive already gone further than my wildest thoughts.
gimme some time to catch up with what ive got already.
but you got to remember for me at least what i already have astonishes me daily
ten years ago this was all a dream to me to ask me now what i hope for,well in some areas ive already gone further than my wildest thoughts.
gimme some time to catch up with what ive got already.
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- KVRAF
- 7809 posts since 24 Feb, 2003 from Earth, USA
I can sum it up in one word - Kyma. The flexibility to do ANYTHING your imagination can come up with, and do it better than anyone else. No excuses for 'not enough cpu power' to degrade the sound quality, just do it.
On a side note, my dream machine would actually make people stop bitching about synths and get them to write instead.
Devon
On a side note, my dream machine would actually make people stop bitching about synths and get them to write instead.
Devon
Simple music philosophy - Those who can, make music. Those who can't, make excuses.
Read my VST reviews at Traxmusic!
Read my VST reviews at Traxmusic!
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- KVRAF
- 7809 posts since 24 Feb, 2003 from Earth, USA
Amen brotha vurt-ster!vurt wrote:sorry
but you got to remember for me at least what i already have astonishes me daily
ten years ago this was all a dream to me to ask me now what i hope for,well in some areas ive already gone further than my wildest thoughts.
gimme some time to catch up with what ive got already.
Devon
Simple music philosophy - Those who can, make music. Those who can't, make excuses.
Read my VST reviews at Traxmusic!
Read my VST reviews at Traxmusic!
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- KVRAF
- 2121 posts since 14 Jun, 2002 from Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
erm...make a perfect cup of tea?(sorry...I couldn't help mice elf):P
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- KVRist
- 328 posts since 30 Jan, 2004
I was going to say Kyma too. But where did you get that quote from? I need a new music box...whyterabbyt wrote:the stupidly low price I was quoted for a Shuttle-format AMD3400 3D rendernode...
with 2Gb of RAM * £555 plus VAT, including onboard graphics and a 120Gb hard drive!
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- KVRian
- 1274 posts since 24 May, 2004
Do you know the word Sampler?Borogove wrote:Most powerful synth ever would have one timbral control, a large edit box. If you type in "Steinway Grand Piano in Davies Symphony Hall", and start playing, you get exactly that sound. If you type in "Fucktacular bowel-loosening bass from the eighth dimension", you get exactly that sound. If you type in "Faloombwehbweh", you get exactly that sound.
I think a sampler should replicate real acoustic instruments, not a synth.
The perfect synth IMO would sound perfectly synthetic, as synths deliver a great sonic potential without being made for replication of acoustic instruments.
The perfect synth would deliver great synthetic sounds you can't get anywhere else.
Sounds that immediately take you to another mental level when you listen to them.
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- KVRAF
- 2458 posts since 3 Oct, 2002 from SF CA USA NA Earth
You're totally missing my point. A sampler doesn't do me any good if I want "Neutron Flute of Zeevongulon VII".superstition wrote:Do you know the word Sampler?Borogove wrote:Most powerful synth ever would have one timbral control, a large edit box. If you type in "Steinway Grand Piano in Davies Symphony Hall", and start playing, you get exactly that sound. If you type in "Fucktacular bowel-loosening bass from the eighth dimension", you get exactly that sound. If you type in "Faloombwehbweh", you get exactly that sound.
Don't do it my way.
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- KVRAF
- 35294 posts since 14 Sep, 2002 from In teh net
I suppose when I think "most powerful" at the moment I'd be thinking of something like Kyma - which basically enables you to create almost any sound you can imagine and for extra voices you just add more DSP cards.
A more "normal" type of synth though but that also has a very wide range of possibilities is Zarg's Solaris 3:
this one on the Scope platform so again if you want extra voices you add more DSP. Solaris basically sums up the history of synthesis (and of John Bowen's role in synth design going back to Sequential Circuits) in one interface. It has 10 oscillator slots but in each of these slots you can put almost any sound source - it could be a wavetable osc, a sample, FM, analogue modelling (very accurate models too), and it can also host any of the modules from the Creamware Modular, Flexor or John Bowen's RD series, and you can do the same with the filters - it really gives you a huge pallete to draw from. It also has a built in sequencer and can host any effect from the Creamware range too - all with extensive modulation possibilities.
A more "normal" type of synth though but that also has a very wide range of possibilities is Zarg's Solaris 3:
this one on the Scope platform so again if you want extra voices you add more DSP. Solaris basically sums up the history of synthesis (and of John Bowen's role in synth design going back to Sequential Circuits) in one interface. It has 10 oscillator slots but in each of these slots you can put almost any sound source - it could be a wavetable osc, a sample, FM, analogue modelling (very accurate models too), and it can also host any of the modules from the Creamware Modular, Flexor or John Bowen's RD series, and you can do the same with the filters - it really gives you a huge pallete to draw from. It also has a built in sequencer and can host any effect from the Creamware range too - all with extensive modulation possibilities.
