[sdiy] Additive Synthesis - Wendy would say it works...

[Aaron Lanterman]

On Mon, 21 Mar 2005, Glen wrote:

> Harry recently said something on Synth-DIY about fourier-based additive
> synthesis not being a viable synthesis method, or something along those
> lines. (I'm sure he'll correct me, if needed.)

Anyone questioning about whether additive synthesis is viable or not
should go ask Wendy Carlos. ;)

Check out "Beauty and the Beast" and "Digital Moonscapes."

Of course, getting anything useful out of additive can be really really
hard, even if you're Wendy Carlos. She spent years developing her Synergy
libraries. The fact that she tuned all those partial frequency and
amplitude envelope by ear - no FFTs involved, etc. - is simply amazing.

Speaking of which, I have a Synergy II+ myself (currently trying to get it
and the Kaypro 10 to talk to each other successfully). It's a fascinating
beast. I've put up a lot of info on it at

users.ece.gatech.edu/~lanterma/synergy

I have a lot more info I need to get around to posting...

> http://mclilith.audioshot.net/music2005/Carnival_of_Fates_d.mp3

Very cool!

> I love additive synthesis, and it would be great to possibly build a
> hardware additive synth someday. That's why I've been poking into Walsh
> synthesis recently, hoping it might be an easy route into a DIY hardware
> additive synth.

The Kurzweil K150 is worth checking out too, and more common to find than
the Synergy. I have one of those; Hal Chamberlin designed much of it.
Alas, you need an Apple II with a MIDI interface to edit the sounds...

- Aaron

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