> Additive synthesis has existed for quite a while now- especially in
> the academic sector - 'modulars' or software based ones for that
> matter have been around for quite awhile. I've played one down at
> Univ of IL back in the later seventies when I was going to go there
> after HS to major in the veterinary school (love animals) and was
> going to minor (diminish?) in Emusic. Its a LOT of wanking around
> with minimal effect - my general proof: no major synth manuf. are
> pursuing it anymore.
I have a K5000 and it's a pretty cool synth, but for me the best part
of it is the formant filter, not the classical additive stuff. Also,
it's extremely time-consuming to program.
That, I think, is the main problem with additive synthesis; there are
too many 'knobs', none of which make much noticable difference to the
sound. To effect a broad timbral change requires altering dozens of
knobs at once.
I've been intrigued lately by the Neuron for just this reason. It
seems to be an attempt at a resynthesis scheme in which there are only
a few knobs, but where those few really change the sound dramatically,
and in quite novel ways. Also, it's always nice to see something
genuinely original in synthesis...
(I recently wrote a little Linux app which uses genetic programming
techniques to 'breed' sounds in the fourier domain and which writes
the results out as samples - cool, semi-random stuff for when I have
∗no idea∗ what sound I want in a piece. The intention was to have it
write out Halion multisamples, but Steinberg won't release the Halion
file format. If anyone's interested, I can port it to Windows pretty
easily...).
Harry