Sampling Synthesizers - Their History And Growth
The invention of synthesizers has been a real breakthrough for musicians of all stripes. The synthesizers ability to reproduce existing sounds and create new sounds has given musicians the ability to create new, interesting music. Since being introduced to the mass market, synthesizers have grown more powerful and flexible as electronic technology has progressed. There are now many different types of synthesizers on the market. One of these types is the sampling synthesizer.
In many ways, the sampling synthesizer is quite similar to a more standard synthesizer, but with certain unique traits. Rather than producing original sounds, the sampling synthesizer reproduces sounds which have been recorded or sampled into its on-board storage. These sounds may be sampled from instruments, nature or other producers of sound. The sampling synthesizer's configuration will determine the manner in which sounds are played back. Several storage mechanisms are available, with RAM being the most common and user friendly. This should give you some insight into how these instruments work.
The sampling, or sample based, synthesizer's functionality is based largely on the configuration of the sampler or recording device. Rather than producing ordinary wave patterns, the sampling synthesizer is capable of creating and working with specific instrumental or natural sounds. Therefore, this device can be made to recognize, record and reproduce additive or long waveforms as well as subtractive or short waveforms.
The effectiveness of a sampling synthesizer is dependent upon the volume of the sample sounds it has since it uses these sound samples to reproduce sounds of natural instruments. The high price of computer memory greatly limited the number of sounds that a sampling synthesizer held when it was first developed, but over the years, as memory chips have become less and less expensive, the amount of sounds samples increased so that now there is much greater flexibility and quality to the instrument.
One of the advantages of a sampled synthesizer is that it requires less processing power than a conventional synthesizer. This is due to the fact that the sampler only needs to reproduce its stored samples while a conventional synthesizer must calculate its notes in real time.
The sampling synthesizer has clear benefits over analog synths as well. Whereas an analog model must have a larger chip set in order to produce multiple waveforms at once, the sampling synthesizer does not. Thus, the polyphonic quality tends to be significantly greater in the sampling synthesizer.
Like most electronic devices, a sampling synthesizer was quite expensive when it was first developed. The development of the Roland D50 and the Korg M1 in the late eighties made sampling synthesizers much more affordable. It is remarkable to note that Korg M1 also introduced the workstation concept.
An example of early sample based synthesis is found on Stevie Wonders album "Secret Life of Plants" recorded in 1976. He used the synthesizer to make melodies from recorded natural sounds. In the tune "the first garden", Wonder used sampled bird chirps as the lead instrument in the song. - 18424
In many ways, the sampling synthesizer is quite similar to a more standard synthesizer, but with certain unique traits. Rather than producing original sounds, the sampling synthesizer reproduces sounds which have been recorded or sampled into its on-board storage. These sounds may be sampled from instruments, nature or other producers of sound. The sampling synthesizer's configuration will determine the manner in which sounds are played back. Several storage mechanisms are available, with RAM being the most common and user friendly. This should give you some insight into how these instruments work.
The sampling, or sample based, synthesizer's functionality is based largely on the configuration of the sampler or recording device. Rather than producing ordinary wave patterns, the sampling synthesizer is capable of creating and working with specific instrumental or natural sounds. Therefore, this device can be made to recognize, record and reproduce additive or long waveforms as well as subtractive or short waveforms.
The effectiveness of a sampling synthesizer is dependent upon the volume of the sample sounds it has since it uses these sound samples to reproduce sounds of natural instruments. The high price of computer memory greatly limited the number of sounds that a sampling synthesizer held when it was first developed, but over the years, as memory chips have become less and less expensive, the amount of sounds samples increased so that now there is much greater flexibility and quality to the instrument.
One of the advantages of a sampled synthesizer is that it requires less processing power than a conventional synthesizer. This is due to the fact that the sampler only needs to reproduce its stored samples while a conventional synthesizer must calculate its notes in real time.
The sampling synthesizer has clear benefits over analog synths as well. Whereas an analog model must have a larger chip set in order to produce multiple waveforms at once, the sampling synthesizer does not. Thus, the polyphonic quality tends to be significantly greater in the sampling synthesizer.
Like most electronic devices, a sampling synthesizer was quite expensive when it was first developed. The development of the Roland D50 and the Korg M1 in the late eighties made sampling synthesizers much more affordable. It is remarkable to note that Korg M1 also introduced the workstation concept.
An example of early sample based synthesis is found on Stevie Wonders album "Secret Life of Plants" recorded in 1976. He used the synthesizer to make melodies from recorded natural sounds. In the tune "the first garden", Wonder used sampled bird chirps as the lead instrument in the song. - 18424
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