Overview In some sense the term software synthesis is somewhat misleading since, for years, most stand-alone hardware synthesizers have produced sound digitally. The distinction to be made here is that this current crop of synthesis products uses an off the shelf desktop computer as an integral part of the synthesis system. In evaluating these products, a couple of main issues arise: Does the synthesizer use the host system's processor or dedicated processing for DSP? and How does the synthesizer connect to other software/hardware components? Native vs Dedicated DSP Processing Many of the issues surrounding native vs dedicated hardware DSP in software synthesizers are similar to those in audio recording and effects plug-ins. With native DSP, an application uses the host machine's CPU for DSP real-time DSP functions. Dedicated DSP is often found on PCI cards attached to a host machine. In some synthesis systems such as KYMA and the Nord Modular, the DSP chips are housed in a stand-alone unit. Although native DSP is the defacto standard for hobbyist and semi-pro recording and effects processing, the jury is still out on how reliable these types of systems are for professional applications. Indeed papers presented at the Fall 1999 AES convention present opposing views on this issue. (Session C: Computing and Computing Hardware in Audio) Although latency is an issue for traditional hardware synthesizers, it can be more pronounced in native software synthesis systems. In addition, a reasonable question might be: How far can we tax the current crop of CPUs? On the NAMM floor manufacturers were showing some amazing native capabilities, integrating audio playback, synthesis, mixing and effects processing but none of the demos I saw really included all the elements involved in a complete, real world commercial production. Connectivity The first commercial software synthesizers such as Reality and ReBirth were standalone applications. The current crop of products for the most part uses ASIO to address soundcards as well as established plug-in architectures to route the audio output of a software synthesizer to other applications. A standalone application such as ReBirth resides in its own RAM space and requires some sort of inter-application digital bussing scheme. Many manufacturers are now taking advantage of existing internal digital bussing schemes and are developing software synthesizers as plug-ins, which exist as part of a host application, sharing it's RAM space and taking advantage of an existing output architecture. These plug-ins have the advantage of offering lower latency overall and being somewhat easier for a manufacturer to develop. An Overview of Connectivity Schemes ASIO - A type of audio driver developed by Steinberg which allows applications to address the myriad of sound cards available for the Mac and PC. In the case of a standalone software synthesizer running on the Mac under Sound Manager, ASIO allows output to be routed to a third-party audio card not to another application. VST 2 - A native plug-in architecture developed by Steinberg. A software synth resides in a host application as a plug-in, sharing its RAM space. Rewire - Developed by Propellerhead. Allows a standalone synth application like Rebirth to connect to a sequencer or digital audio application. Since this is license free technology and doesn't require banners on supporting products, it will probably become a defacto standard. Currently supported by: Propellerhead, Steinberg, Opcode, Bitheadz, Emagic, Koblo. Direct Connect - Developed by Digidesign to allow stand-alone applications to connect to the Digidesign TDM bus. TDM Plug-in - Digidesign is currently working with Access of Germany to develop a TDM version of their popular Virus synth. In this scheme, the synth application would use DSP from the Digi Farm cards. Audio Tap - A MOTU system for routing the output of stand-alone applications that use Sound Manager to the MOTU Audio System (MAS). MAS - The MOTU Audio System, MOTU's native plug-in architecture.

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Software Synthesis Product Round-up

The chart below gives some comparisons of the current crop of software synthesis applications.
For more information follow the links I've provided to manufacturers and their products.

Product	Manufacturer	Platform	DSP Architecture	Connectivity
Studio 9000	Koblo	Mac	Native	Direct Connect, Rewire, MAS
ES1	EMagic	Mac/PC	Native	Logic Only
EXS24	EMagic	Mac/PC	Native	Logic Only
Pro-Five	Native Instruments	Mac/PC	Native	VST 2.0, Direct Connect
Reaktor	Native Instruments	Mac/PC	Native	VST 2.0, Direct Connect
ReBirth	Propellerheads	Mac/PC	Native	VST 2.0, Rewire
Reason	Propellerheads	Mac/PC	Native	VST 2.0, Rewire
Pulsar	Creamware	Mac/PC	PCI Card	ASIO
Power Sampler	Creamware	Mac/PC	PCI Card	ASIO
Scope	Creamware	PC	PCI Card	ASIO
Unity DS-1	BitHeadz	Mac/PC	Native	Rewire, MAS 2, Direct Connect
Retro AS-1	BitHeadz	Mac/PC	Native	Rewire, MAS 2, Direct Connect
MAX-MSP	Cycling 74	Mac	Native	ASIO
Reality	Seer Systems	PC	Native	Proprietary Drivers
Nord Modular	Clavia	Mac/PC	Standalone Unit	Audio Output
OASYS	Korg	Mac/PC	PCI Card	ASIO
Kyma	Symbolic Systems	Mac/PC	Standalone Unit	Audio Output
Model•E	Steinberg	Mac/PC	Native	VST 2.0
LM•4	Steinberg	Mac/PC	Native	VST 2.0
PPG Wave	Steinberg	Mac/PC	Native	VST 2.0
Virus	Access	Mac	Native	Direct Connect
GigaStudio	Nemesys Music	PC	Native	GSFI

		New Products Koblo Studio 9000 - is a host-based synthesizer bundle which includes Vibra 9000/6000 analog modeled synthesizers, Stella 9000, an 8-voice sample playback synth and Gamma 9000, a Stereo drum machine. These products are mainly oriented to techno applications. The analog emulation sounds good and although the architecture is fixed, the expected parameters are available for editing in a clear, simple user interface. Koblo offers the Stella 1000, a stripped down version of the Vibra included in the bundle, as a free download from their website as well as a very good intro to synthesizer concepts called Sound Basics, available as a .pdf file. These products are fun and would offer Intro to Music Tech students an appealing way to explore subtractive synthesis. Logic - The products offered here are native synthesis tools which are part of the Logic Environment (literally and figuratively) They are not available as standalone products. The ES1 is an analog modeled synth. Up to 8 instruments can be used at a time with 16 voices per instrument. The EXS24 is a sampler which offers 16 instruments with up to 32 voices per instrument. For anyone using Logic these tools, available at additional cost, might make a valuable addition to their system. Creamware - Pulsar is stand alone production environment which integrates mixing, effects processing, virtual synthesizers and sample playback. Built around a dedicated DSP card with 4 Analog Devices SHARC chips, the System can be expanded with additional cards offering an additional 4 or 15 DSP chips. Scope is a greatly expanded system based on a 15 SHARC chip card. The Scope application is essentially a development environment which provides the user with an icon-based toolkit for developing synthesis and DSP applications. A graphics environment is included, allowing the user to design the interface of applications as well. In addition to the included toolkit, advanced users can script their own routines using Java. Power Sampler is a sampler based on a SHARC chip card, somewhat like SampleCell except that it uses the host CPU's RAM. One of the advantages to the Creamware system is that it can be configured to support different curricular needs. Pulsar offers a production environment, Scope offers a development environment. Native Instruments - This German company made a very strong showing with the Pro-5, a VST version of the classic Prophet-5, and a line of unique virtual studio products. On the heels of the Electronic Musician Editor's Choice Award, the company was showing version 2.3 of their flagship product Reaktor. Marketed as a "complete sound design studio," Reaktor offers a variety of synthesis techniques, mixing environments and effects in a modular environment, allowing the musician to develop both the architecture and the interface of a tool. In terms of a Synthesis curriculum, this product has a lot to offer and merits a serious look. Steinberg - Rumor had it that this techno-marketing powerhouse had over 70 new product announcements at NAMM. Industry wags were literally crawling over each other, Palm Pilots in hand, just to get the spellings right. On the software synthesis front, Steinberg was touting their Model E analog emulation and LM4 virtual drum machine VST instruments. These products are generally aimed at musicians doing techno music, making it very easy to crank out those crazy beats. The company seems committed to partnering with other developers to bring desktop versions of classic products to market with the Native Instruments Pro-5 being a good first step. Look for a VST version of the PPG Wave, a collaboration with Waldorf, in the near future. Propellerhead - The Swedish company that developed ReCycle and inaugurated commercial desktop synthesis with ReBirth announced Reason, a complete production environment based in software. Reason is a stand-alone product that includes sound generating, mixing and processing modules as well as a step sequencer and a MIDI sequencer. The goal here is to provide the techno musician with an integrated toolset. A great deal of attention has been paid to emulating hardware user interfaces with the myriad of sliders, dials and swinging patch cords. Again, nothing new here as far as synthesis tools but this looks to be the definitive software environment for the jet-set DJ creating dance music on a laptop while waiting in an airport. Korg OASYS - For the last few years Korg has been talking about releasing OASYS, their in-house development environment which has spawned the Prophesy, parts of the Z1 and the current E-Tribe line of products. With the current market interest in software synthesis, perhaps Korg saw the time as ripe for such a release. OASYS is an integrated system including a PCI card which provides the DSP power and a software user interface (currently only for the Mac) that provides a toolkit of 25 synthesis algorithms, a mixing environment and an extensive effects implementation. Since all the DSP and RAM for the system resides on the PCI card, the system is totally independent of the host system's CPU for DSP functions. The only drawback is that RAM in the current system only supports delay effect functions; sampling is currently not supported. On the plus side, with 24 bit outputs the system sounds great and latency is not an issue. The real strength of this system is that it can be totally integrated with other applications, allowing a host system's CPU to handle other production tasks such as hard-disk playback and mixing. Although Korg will make the toolkit for building algorithms available to users, they will offer no tech support as it was never intended for commercial release. The toolkit is icon based, which would make it a good learning environment for synthesis students, but the lack of technical support or even a manual might cause more problems than solutions. Conclusions It's obvious that the interest in technology-based music (Techno, Hip-Hop, Dance, etc.) has fueled the development of a number of desktop products to facilitate production. What I think is really important here is that synthesis of all types is being done by commercial applications on the desktop. Does this signal the end of hardware synthesizers? It seems as though we are moving into a world where a synthesizer manufacturer markets algorithms, software. The user ultimately has a choice of hardware configurations: dedicated boxes which provide DSP and I/O functions, or native systems which use DSP from a host CPU and in professional applications, use I/O from a card residing in the host. That's it. A company's value is determined by the quality of their algorithms as the software used in their stand-alone products migrates to the desktop. Who can afford a Waldorf Wave? Anyone who can afford the plug-in. However, as interest in the original Prophet-5 waned, so will interest in its current revival. It will be interesting to see where things will go from here.

		Other Notes From The NAMM mLAN - Perhaps the most far reaching technology announcement at NAMM was mLAN, a proposal from Yamaha for digital audio networking based on Firewire. The company was careful to stress that this was a proposal for an industry standard, not a proprietary technology (Although Yamaha does have products almost ready to ship.) The mLAN system allows for the routing of digital audio signals between synthesizers, mixing boards and hard disk systems; in short, any type of compliant audio device. Yamaha has support for this from Apple and other manufacturers and firewire will hopefully revolutionize desktop audio as it has desktop video. Rocket Networks - Perhaps the biggest techno-buzz of the show was from Rocket Networks. In the last year Rocket has clarified their technology to the point where they have what looks to be a workable product in place. Their model is based on client applications (Rocket powered) sharing audio takes from a session by accessing compressed audio files uploaded to a Rocket server. The asynchronous aspect of this model seems to make sense given the current bandwidth and speed of the Internet. Although the buzz is about a kind of live collaboration, musicians in New York will probably be uploading takes while their collaborators in London are sleeping. The Saturday night Rocket party which featured Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller, and Wah-Wah Watson participating in a Rocket-powered recording session probably spoke more of the musicians' willingness to lend their credibility to this emerging technology than the actual functional value being demonstrated. BeOS - Be's presence at NAMM was interesting since it seems to be abandoning it's mission of providing a competing operating system for desktop computing. Instead, it's marketing it's Internet and multimedia capabilities to third parties interested in developing desktop appliances.Their vision is that the BeOS will power Internet savvy home entertainment products. Perhaps we'll see a digital media production environment powered by BeOS. Teckno /Rap - Perhaps the most surprising development for a musician at NAMM was the multitude of turntables. The MC has hit the mainstream music industry in a big way, and everywhere you look someone is playing a turntable. Manufacturers are showing turntables with digital outputs and CD players that can be used like turntables. A significant part of Roland and Korg's new product lines target this market, which in some ways seems oblivious to the existence of computers. Of particular note is the line of Electrix performance oriented effects processors designed for club DJs and remix artists. Moog - Big Briar was once again in attendance, showing their wildly successful line of analog audio processing modules. Their latest offering was a control voltage mixer which allows their Moogerfooger pedals to be assembled in a kind of modular system. The big buzz however was from the prototype analog synthesizer being shown that looked a lot like a MiniMoog. As someone from the company said: "customers wouldn't stop asking........" Big Briar sponsored an afternoon concert by The Kurstins a Theremin/Keyboard duo which showcased an astonishing command of the Theremin by Pamelia Kurstin. Microworks - Berklee Alumnus Tom Hasegawa was showing the latest version of his CAMPS computer aided composition system. This product is unique in that it's designed to analyze melodic content and offer variations, reharmonizations and bass/accompaniment ideas, all with a great deal of musical intelligence. The program transcends the home entertainment category by providing a rich palette of tools that offer the composer/arranger ways to generate new musical ideas. Originally developed for the Mac, CAMPS will be available for the PC by April. MiniMusic - Musicians are now part of the Palm revolution with a host of applications for entering and editing musical ideas on the Palm Pilot. Hardware options making the Palm MIDI capable are now available and a General MIDI Tone module that attaches to the Palm will be available this Summer, just in time for the beach. Marimba Lumina - On this surface this looks like a variation on the Kat marimba, but since it was designed by Don Buchla, there are a number of innovative performance features built into this controller. Perhaps the most unique aspect of this system is its ability to recognize up to four mallets as well as their X, Y, Z coordinates. In addition to note and velocity information, the mallets can be used in performance to send dynamic control information extending the expressive capabilities of this percussion controller. You and I Software - Although I didn't mention Eric Singer's Metasynth system in my synthesis roundup, it remains one of the most innovative models for sound synthesis and processing. The company's original focus was graphics software and they've applied some common image editing concepts to sound design. This year they announced Videodelic a "real-time video art synthesizer and sequencer." This product takes static graphic images and animates them applying filters and transition effects in real time. Since many of these parameters can be controller in real time via MIDI, this might be the ultimate tool for musicians looking to add a dynamic visual element to their performances. Apogee - It speaks volumes when high-end pro audio manufacturers like Apogee have such a strong presence at NAMM. This year, what caught my eye as an educator was "The Apogee Guide To Digital Audio" an excellent, easy to read primer on digital audio issues. This is a great example of a manufacturer taking the lead in educating the consumer. A .pdf version is available from their website.

		Comments and Updates Send your comments on this report to mbierylo@berklee.edu and I'll post them to this space. eMBee 2/23/99: There's a good review of Marimba Lumina in this month's Keyboard Magazine. eMBee 2/26/99: Emagic's ES1 native synthesizer is now available as a TDM plug-in. Press Release.