[net.music.synth] Polyphonic Analog Synths

li63sgy@sdcc7.UUCP (glenn little) (05/13/85)

	[Sorry about the length of this.  I got a little carried
	away]

	I am considering buying a polyphonic analog synthesizer, and
	am looking at a couple.  The specific things I am looking
	for are:

		Programmability:
		Access to more than just "ramp", "pulse-thin", and
		"pulse-square" waveforms (hopefully variable-width
		pulse, and triangle as well).  Seperate envelope
		generators for the filters and the VCA's.   Glide
		option.  

		Response:
		This is important.  I hope to have velocity control
		of things such as filter cutoff, loudness, and maybe
		envelope parameters as well.  I would also like
		pressure (after-touch) control of the filter and
		amplifier parameters, and also maybe vibrato, and
		pitch bend.  (Are there any instruments out there
		with "polyphonic" pressure sensing...?  Where you
		can affect individual notes by pressing harder on
		just those you want?)  I would want the amount of
		all these to be variable over more than just 1 or
		2 settings.

		Voice:
		Hopefully, I will be able to find something with at
		least 8 voices, and two oscillators per voice.  I
		would hope that the filters would have 24db/octave
		cutoff slope.  Also, I have noticed that a lot of
		lower-priced polyphonic synths these days seem to
		have a weak, "gutless" sound.  Does anyone know of
		this, and what it is?  Is it my imagination?  Is it
		a different type of filter?  Or oscillator?

	The ones I am looking at that seem to meet most of my
	(unreasonable?) demands are the Matrix-12 by Oberheim, and
	the Voytra-8 by Octave Plateau.  I have heard neither of
	these.  Any comments on their sound relative to each other,
	or to the entire synth field?  They both seem to actually do
	more than I need (I don't really need 369 different filter
	responses, or 963 program chains), and they are at the top 
	of (if not above) my price range.  Is this what I have to get 
	to satisfy my desires?  Any suggestions?

	I was looking at samplers, but I just get the impression
	that now is not quite the time.  Any comments?

			Glenn Little

john@sol1.UUCP (john) (07/03/85)

The "weak gutless" sound Glenn refers to in his article attributed to
the newer lower priced synths is mostly that many of them have only one
oscillator per voice. This dissallows the slight detuning of the oscillators
or setting them an octave apart to give a fatter warmer sound.
I have two Sequential Circuits Six-Traks that I had to midi them together
(rackmounting one) to get one decent sounding synth. together they are 
pretty nice sounding. Although the short keyboard is still a significant
drawback.


[ Take what I say in a different way ]
[        and it's easy to say        ]
[     that this is all confusion     ]

	John Korsmeyer  @  THE SOLUTION

	EMAIL:  {akgua,ihnp4}!sol1!john