SOUND ON SOUND
Pulse-width modulation is a vital tool in achieving lush-sounding synthesized string pads — so what if your synth doesn't have it? Fear not, for PWM can itself be synthesized. Here's how...
Analogue synths can't synthesize every sound, but the attempts made to replicate the sound of orchestral strings were so successful that so-called string machines became much-loved instruments in their own right. We begin a voyage into the world of synthesized strings...
When trying to copy a real piano with an analogue synth, if one patch doesn't quite do it, two just might...
How did they make that sound on a subtractive synth? We continue to dissect the analogue 'Acoustic Piano' Performance from Roland's 1986-vintage JX10.
Cutting-edge innovation is by no means a guarantee of commercial success, but Korg have had a flair for both - although not always simultaneously. We look at how this continued to be true throughout the '90s to the present, when the company pushed the boundaries of physical modelling while refining their world-beating workstations.
In the 1980s and early '90s, with Yamaha's help, Korg expanded dramatically, producing some of the first affordable digital recorders and physical-modelling instruments. But it was their world-class synths, such as the M1 and Wavestation, that made them the company they are today...
As explained last month, synthesizing the sound of an acoustic piano is difficult, but it can be done reasonably realistically, as the 1986-vintage Roland JX10 shows. We find out how Roland managed it...
Years after releasing their successful OB series of digital drawbar organs under the Oberheim brand, Viscount have updated their take on organ modelling with the new DB series. But the march of progress seems to have executed an abrupt about-turn...
Surely the only convincing synth pianos are sample-based ones? A sound as rich and expressive as that of an acoustic piano is far too complex to be rendered by subtractive synthesis... isn't it? Let's find out...
Hot on the heels of the recent Virus C comes the Virus Indigo 2, now upgraded to include the new Virus C synth engine. And what a difference it makes!