Simulation Vs Real Things

[Martin Fay]

Paul wrote:
>   It seems funny that people will spend 1000's on emulating
>   something
> they can make/buy for a lot less,

This is curious, then again the Nord Modular doesn't have much 
company in terms of poly-modulars and those that exist have their 
limitations (not least price). I absolutely agree on the price point, 
a simulation would generally be a way to model a process much more 
cheaply! I would make the case that if a simulation can provide a 
user with functionality which they cannot afford as the "real thing" 
then it is worthwhile. 

Kyle wrote:
> Eventually, or even now(?), real time emulation of analog circuitry 
> down to the level of the Eber's Moll transistor equations, with all 
> of the thermal drift, limits (distortion), and 1/f noise factored in, 
> will be possible. 

My guess is that this would be quite possible, but processing power 
isn't quite cheap enough to make this viable yet.

> I haven't done any research on the subject (and I'm not looking, 
> just wondering), if I were looking to assemble a typical home 
> studio, can a typical $2,500 computer system and, say $1,000 in 
> extra hardware these days actually, simultaneously, run 4 channels 
> of high quality analog synth simulation complete with some real time 
> MIDI controller response?

This is no problem. I've tested a Pentium Pro 200 to run at least 6 
voices with my software, although this is a rather quick and dirty 
simulation!

> Without glitches and "slow downs"?

This probably requires running on a real-time kernal (i.e. not win95 
or NT!). Given I'll have a spare machine from next week I might just 
get around to this.

> What if 
> I want to run one synth through a fuzzbox, the other through a 
> phaser pedal, etc.?

No problem with a multiple output soundcard or several cards.

> Is 4-8 voice polyphonic possible? It would be 
> nice to also, simultaneously run a MIDI sequencer, an 8 Track or so 
> HD Recorder.

Yes, but of course the sequencer/HD recorder will cut into the 
available cpu time. With VAZ+ running at 22kHz I reckon this would 
be quite possible on a current high-end machine.

> It seems to me that it's way cheaper in the long run to 
> use the real things unless one $4,000 to $5,000 PC/HW combination 
> can do it all (synths/seq/Record).

Probably...you won't see me ditching hardware in a hurry ;) However 
for those people that have beefy machines for other reasons (games 
playing???), cheap software could make a lot of sense.

> And an analog synth simulation can't _possibly_ be as fun as 
> tweaking a knob...Gee I've been rambling on.

Agreed. A MIDI control surface would be a really good idea!

Karl wrote:
> The problem with more advanced digital synthesis is that it takes 
> many man-years to write the software, so it is not very well suited 
> to one-man diy. (Although I want to have a go at it sometime).

But you can get to something that sounds reasonable, and in a mix 
possibly indistinguisable from the real thing in a much smaller 
length of time. Check out my web pages for an example of what is 
possible in about 3 man months (tops!).


Martin

+-----------------------------------------------+
| Martin Fay - Multimedia/RAD/MIDI a speciality |
| Email: martin.fay at umist.ac.uk                 |
| Web: http://www.cp.umist.ac.uk/users/martin/  |
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| See web site for:                             |
| VAZ: Vurtual Analogue Synth Emulator          |
| SpeedPatch for Turtle Beach soundcards        |
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