[Ardour-Users] Analog synths (was: Ardour-Users Digest, Vol 167, Issue 13)

[Paul Davis]

On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 8:00 PM, Gordonjcp <gordonjcp at gjcp.net> wrote:

> On Sat, Dec 23, 2017 at 12:59:58PM +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
> > A friend of mine is a musician of that class, unfortunately I'm not
> > that good. He's playing piano as well as drums. If you should be unable
> > to notice the difference between a good drummer playing virtual drums
> > and a real drum set e.g. from the 70s, you are simply missing musically
> > skills. This applies to the sound provided by analog synth compared to
> > digitally emulated analog synth as well. The more analog an instrument
> > is, the easier it's for the musician to interact with the instrument,
> > to become one with the instrument.
>
> I don't see how you can meaningfully compare an acoustic instrument that
> is so profoundly influenced by playing style like a drum, with a
> synthesizer which is essentially a box with a switch, and when you press
> the switch it goes "beep" in exactly the same way every time.
>
> You cannot tell the difference between an analogue and a digital synth
> even in isolation, never mind in a mix.  There is no way to tell them
> apart.
>

​this is only true if you carefully pick the analog and the digital synth.

for an alternative approach, and at this point a rather old one, consider
the pairing of

   (1) physical modelling synthesis
   (2) high resolution (> 1kHz) multi-touch (semi-analog) control surfaces​


​
http://cdm.link/2008/12/intimate-control-multi-touch-new-models-and-what-2009-is-really-about/

when you get to the end of the video, consider that the sound from brushing
the "djembe head" isn't a sample, but a simple consequence of the model
embodied inside the system.

consider also, sadly, that this comes this time *NINE YEARS AGO* and we
still do not have actual systems that are can do this in any immediately
obvious way. most of the problem these days is the lack of deeply
expressive physical models rather than the control systems (madrona labs
makes them, and in some senses the linnstrument represents a similar level
of responsiveness.)
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