Milestones in Synthesizer production - what's the next big thing?

Rather boring NAMM has made me think back in attempt to remember when I saw revolution in synth production for the last time.

Being old enough to remember the time when Yamaha DX7 was a flagship, I came across several milestones, in no particular order: Synths going digital, MIDI, multitimbrality, integrated sequencer (workstation concept), ROM Samples, integrated effect units, sample reading, Virtual/analog and softsynths.

Apart from virtual/analog synths and softsynths, all of the milestones have happen in the 80s.

Is there still some milestone to come? What that would be?

What's the next big thing, if any?

Not to be flip, but if you can figure that our, you're on track to be a jillionaire.

Here's a thought.... maybe synthesizers are almost fully evolved. Look at the history of all other instruments. The last great development for the guitar was what Fender, Gibson did in the 50s'. The grand piano hasn't changed much since Steinway used physics to optimize dimensions, hammer placement, etc. That was over 100 years ago.

This may not be a bad thing.

Remotely related to synths, Field Programmable Analog Arrays were supposed to be the next big thing in the audio world.

I wonder if the recently announced SSL X-Patch is using these, or a more conventional AD/DA conversion ?

http://namm.harmony-central.com/WNAMM10/article/SSL/SSL-Releases-Versatile-Software-Controlled-Analogue-Routing-System-at-Winter-NAMM-2010

http://www.solid-state-logic.com/music/xlogic%20x-patch/index.asp

I'm hoping the next milestone will be direct neural input. Connect your synths directly to your brain, bypassing those bulky, inefficient fingers. If you can think it, you can play it.

I don't think the SSL X-Patch has any AD/DA going on. The only digital part is the ethernet connection for control. Kinda like MIDI. Anyways this thing looks hot but I'm going for the new Focusrite Octopre MkII Dynamic for more I/O into the Fireface. If I bought the X-Patch I'd also have to make a heavy investment in a couple Dsub snakes.

[YOUTUBE]Hq7i51ay6pw[/YOUTUBE]

I'm hoping the next milestone will be direct neural input. Connect your synths directly to your brain, bypassing those bulky, inefficient fingers. If you can think it, you can play it.

Korg's next-generation Kaossilator should come with a headset like this:

[YOUTUBE]EMznvnMw-ys[/YOUTUBE]

I'm hoping the next milestone will be direct neural input. Connect your synths directly to your brain, bypassing those bulky, inefficient fingers. If you can think it, you can play it.

That would certainly improve my playing...

Kuddos for the vid.

Too bad D-Sub snakes are not included indeed.

A pair of cheap ones at least would have been nice, so you could use the unit right out of the box.

Must be the price to pay for total flexibility, I suppose.

I'm hoping the next milestone will be direct neural input. Connect your synths directly to your brain, bypassing those bulky, inefficient fingers. If you can think it, you can play it.

The problem is that most people don't think clearly. What do you think their music would sound like if that's the case?

Refinement of current algorithmic concepts along with maybe a few new ones here and there. This is what happened in the 1990s-2000s, and although some of the innovations were hardware, the bulk happened within VSTs and powerful computers.

You could *sample* in the 1980s, but you could not sample, beat slice, change the pitch without changing the tempo, change the tempo without changing the pitch, split it into grains, and mutate further. Now, on a computer (and certain hardware too), much of this is easy.

What, how have you possibly overlooked this milestone?

I'm talking about the one where a 14-year old can have all the power on something that's almost a household device for a few hundred bucks. If that's not a milestone, I don't know what is.

Sound is air pressure changing over time, hitting your ear drums. You can have an arbitrary amount of channels, and the gimmick of hearing sounds behind you kind of gets old fast and works only in a few very controlled environments.

If you're looking for something new, you shouldn't look at the principles; you should look at the controls. Power is useless without control. We haven't finished tapping the potential of a DX7 yet.

Related to what Yoozer's saying, I think we're already seeing the next "revolution" in synthesizer technology, which consists of a very portable laptop computer married to a very inexpensive but useable hardware control interface. Be it APC40, Maschine, any of what Korg or Midiman or Novation are putting out, it's very easy to get a good controller, cheap, that'll interface virtually latency-free with incredibly sophisticated and integrated DAW/Loopmachine/Synthesizer systems like Live, Sonar, Logic Studio.

If you're not hooked into some combination of the above at this point... you're missing the revolution!

No connection to Cakewalk here, but they _are_ offering a very good, varied series of Sonar 8.5-with-controller combos currently, take a look at those, and Live's similar offerings. That's the bleeding edge at this point.

The closest things in pure hardware to the above are the keyboard offered by OpenLabs ($$$$, but a lot for the money you're paying and again, emphasis here is on very complete integration of capabilities that used to require multiple hardware boxes and wires), and Access' VirusTI (though it's primarily a traditional VA-synth, when you can get it integrated well to a good software environment -- the two German-origin programs above, Logic and Ableton, are the most likely candidates -- it also operates quite well as a sound card/audio I/O interface). I would expect more attempts in this direction by The Big Two (Roland/Korg) in the future, probably available by this time next year. Whether they'll compete for capability/flexibility/price-point with what's already available, though, is a huge MAYBE. The advantages of the above software environments is that they've drawn upon the expertise of multiple software developers over time, so there's a huge amount of varied expertise available in them.

I think we're going to start merging again (When I say again, think: Sequencer+Synthesizer+Effects=Workstations, etc.). I think we're headed down a path of all-in-wonder machines that combine VSTs, FM, VA, Sampling, Vector, Sequencing, Effects, tons of modulation, etc.

Now that I write it out, it nearly says "OASYS" except for the VSTs.

Fore control, interface,and display wireless control and multi-touch will become ubiquitous. Tactile feedback from the display interface will be the next direction of major display development after multi-touch and 3D.

Maybe someday there will be a replacement for or upgrade too MIDI.

For synthesis the next breakthroughs will be in physical modeling. Physical modeling will replace sampling eventually for many types of instruments, in particular orchestration. New ways of performing physical modeling will be derived and implemented. There is the brute force method where the full multi-physics equations governing the generation of sound and propagation of sound waves for a particular instrument in a particular environment are derived and solved, but there are also other ways...

Finally, someone will discover how to install volume, mute, and pause buttons on three-year old children.

I'm hoping the next milestone will be direct neural input. Connect your synths directly to your brain, bypassing those bulky, inefficient fingers. If you can think it, you can play it.

I would not ever install such a device. Not ever.

I'd be already happy if I could bypass my ears - which are going to fail one day - and get sound directly into my brain.

Benefits? Listen to music at any volume without ear damage or complaining neighbours, without the awkwardness and risks of headphones or unwanted ambient noises. Eliminate tinnitus and high frequency loss. Emulate any room possible from cathedral to anechoic. Your ears are a lot easier to fool than the rest of your senses. And most importantly - switch it off temporarily if you want real peace and quiet.

I think we're going to start merging again (When I say again, think: Sequencer+Synthesizer+Effects=Workstations, etc.). I think we're headed down a path of all-in-wonder machines that combine VSTs, FM, VA, Sampling, Vector, Sequencing, Effects, tons of modulation, etc. Now that I write it out, it nearly says "OASYS" except for the VSTs.

Those sound good in theory, but in practice they don't sell well.

The latest was the Alesis Fusion.

I have seen the future and it is Robot session singers:

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

Switchable polyphonic and monophonic aftertouch to become a standard, similarly to mod and pitch bend wheel. It is worth noting that poly pressure cannot fully replace channel pressure as the latter can allow effects not possible with poly aftertouch.

Sliders to replace rotaries as they allow more flexible control. With one musical gesture you can move a couple of sliders - impossible to do with rotary pots.

Too true. I personally like the Fusions flexibility, just not overly fond of it's drawbacks (GUI, layout, etc.)

Now if the Fantom/next-Yamaha-flagship were to include VST support via external USB/Firewire HDD... now we're talkin business to me.

Has anyone here used Isotope RX?

You can blend, drop, and boost specific harmonics / frequencies, anywhere from 100-20,000

To me this is the future of synthesis, simply painting in waves on a specific frequency or ranges, and painting in it's harmonics. Giving you direct precise control over the sound being generated. I mean what else is there in sound design after that?

it will certainly make getting the mix easier, if all your sounds use different freqs, everything will always be perfectly balanced.

The Oasys and Fusion certainly pointed out a direction, but what's needed is more accessibility, both in ease of use and in price. VSTs are bridging other gaps as well. I don't believe we'll see a sudden emergence of some new "milestone", like back in the days when tech was still new enough to have groundbreaking paradigm shifts. Tech is blooming like out of control weeds on a lot of fronts, so we're drowning in "advances", and it's all already happening, spreading and converging and trendifying and blah blah blah...

The revolution will be synchronized.

I think physical modeling will be the next big thing. Also more creative softsynths that will make better use of the computer environment. Emulative software of age old analogs will really begin to cease.

I still have yet to get all the potential out of Absynth 4 and Absynth 5 is already on the market. Things are still moving too fast IMHO but I really miss all those great guides I was always able to get in England for these advanced softsynths. They always got me thinking in new directions. America still has a way to go here.

In the 1980's I worked for a company that made Word Processing machines.

They didn't think software on PCs would eventually take over that function.

pwn3d!!!!! I ended up unemployed for quite awhile.

I think it will happen in this industry too. The technology now is available to run dll file VSTs without a computer OS (smPro Audio Vbox), so I think future keyboards will just sound like whatever it is you download into them.

I think the current analog craze may burn itself out like before.

VSTs need to sound as good as an analog first...