Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM

Having been greatly impressed by Ken Elhardt's imitative synthesis
efforts, I set out to try some myself. Combining a few sawtooths from
VCO's and a pair of Zeroscillators doing their FM thing, a low-pass
filter and a Moog 907 fixed filter bank, a couple of VCA's and a few
EG's, I created some samples, comparing them all along to reference
samples of, in this case, brass instruments - mostly a trumpet ensemble
sound from Kontakt. I used Blue Cat's free spectrum analyzer - highly
recommended for the price!

In any case, I discovered that my samples needed massive EQ work to get
close. In addition to the fixed filter bank, I used two sets of
parametric eq's within Cubase - the native EQ and a UAD plug-in (the
new Helios Type 69 - very nice!). I found the results quite pleasing.

So, why is it that (performance) synthesizers have traditionally only
had one measly filter? Why essentially no eq at all? Why even within
the modular realm has there been only limited eq capability? Honestly,
traditional fixed filter banks were quite limited in scope. I think
there's a real opportunity here for a clever new module that allows
severe (big boost/cut) and detailed (many frequencies) EQ capability.
How about with frequencies under voltage control to shift the whole
shebang up/down the keyboard? Thoughts for a digital implementation in
MOTM 2.0? With memory for storage of different "instrument" settings?