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

[Batz Goodfortune]

Y-ellow All.

At 07:39 PM 3/21/05 -0800, harrybissell wrote:
> > On Mon, 21 Mar 2005, Glen wrote:
>
>Ahh YES. That is exactly my point. There is no set of easily operable controls
>to get to a desired end result.  You may get fantastic results... at a
>fantastically
>high price (in labor)
>
>Also, the engines for generating fourier or other synthesis USED to be very
>expensive.
>That may not be true anymore... but without the concept of some global "phat"
>controls
>the synth will be all but inaccessible.

This was what made FM synthesis so attractive. Though not full fourier 
re-synthesis, it produced those kinds of noises with relative ease and 
relatively few resources. But because it kind of hit the harmonics 
sideways, it took most people to a state of utter frustration just the 
same. All but us uber-synthesists of course. :) This I believe is why some 
people ended up blaming the little LCD window instead of their lack of 
comprehension. (You know who you are.)

As for additive synthesis, one should not forget that the mother of all 
synthesizers, the RCA-music-synthesizer MK 1 & 2, was entirely additive. 
What's even more amusing I find, is that apart from the fact it was mainly 
mechanical, it was in effect, programmed digitally.

Wendy (then Walter) knew one thing that most self aggrandizing synthesists 
don't. That synthesis is first and foremost about harmonics. It's not about 
any given synthesis method or technology. In the same way that I took to 
FM, I'm sure that Wendy took to additive because she got results. The 
results she was after. And in a way she liked going after them. Only 
gamblers and archeologists keep digging when they've spent far too long 
without turning up anything worthwhile. So this has more to do with the 
philosophy of music making in general than any particular method of making it.

Having said that, the complexities of an additive re-synthesis system can 
only economically and ergonomically be realized in digital. We all know why 
so I won't go there in this little diatribe. But it always annoyed me that 
with the K5000, Kawai almost got there but then shied away at the last 
minute. It's so close and yet so far. If memory serves, the Kyma systems 
can do this kind of thing but even they are pretty clunky technology these 
days.

Fourier additive re-synthesis, would be possibly the ultimate synthesis 
method IMHO. Or at the very least, offer new ways of attacking harmonics. 
But despite having the DSP power these days, no-one has really gone there 
to any great effect. They spend their time digitally modeling that which 
has gone before instead of looking into the possibilities that DSP could 
render. And personally, I feel it is THAT which makes digital synthesis a 
second fiddle and not to do with anything that it may sound like.

>I'd rather work with a bbd....   NOT :^P

In SMD on a plug-in breadboard.

Be absolutely Icebox.

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