The introduction of MIDI in the 1980s was the biggest milestone in separating sound generation hardware from control surface hardware. Manufacturers could create rack-mount gear which focussed on generating sounds triggered by any available MIDI input (Emu Proteus/Classic Keys as concrete examples). Others could concentrate their efforts on making a great weighted keyboard action or even an alternative custom controller (like the Buchla Thunder for example).
So even 20+ years ago, in many cases, there was a split between the performance interface and the sound generation interface. I don't see it as any different these days, except that manufacturers are now implementing the sound-generation side of things in software rather than in electronic circuitry. There are benefits to us and them as a result of this:
1. Manufacturers don't have the overheads of physical production and distribution that they had in the past. You only have to read Mark Vail's 'Vintage Synthesizers' book to see how much of an uphill struggle it was for companies such as Moog and ARP to get their machines out into the field. It's arguable whether either of them made any real money over their lifetimes.
2. A softsynth's power is dictated by the power of the processor in your computer, not on the physical amount of circuitry in its case. If you want to increase the polyphony from 4 to 16, you simply click on the polyphony control, rather than taking out a mortgage to buy another three expander modules.
3. You can afford to create quirky, off-the-wall modules that might only be useful to one person in a thousand. Producing a circuit-board and front panel in hardware for such a module is a huge business decision, but might only take an afternoon's work in software. Include it as a bonus in the next release of your product.
4. You can fix bugs in software and patch them over the internet. A defective hardware product could be devastating to a company (the ARP Electronic Piano, for example).
5. Software piracy is a concern when a fully-operational cracked copy of a software suite is just a BitTorrent away, but I always come back to the words of wisdom from Ernst Nathorst-Boos of Propellerhead:
How big a problem is piracy for them? Niels: "It's hard to quantify. It's big, of course. But we're very pleased that so many people choose to do the right thing. We try also, rather than introducing copy protection that frustrates users and yet is instantly crackable, to make service and support easy for the people who have done the right thing and bought the program. We don't want to frustrate them with installation processes that are more convoluted than downloading a pirate version, if you know what I mean. It's almost a punishment with some software products to actually buy them. We really want our users to have an easy life. We try instead to add value to the process of registration. We have a very good registration database, and for our registered users we hope we will make our service much better."
Softsynths represent a huge democratisation of electronic music-making and I for one am a big fan. It represents no threat whatsoever to those who want to go down the route of discrete hardware components but makes truly creative tools available to those with a restricted budget and limited space. Bring it on !
So even 20+ years ago, in many cases, there was a split between the performance interface and the sound generation interface. I don't see it as any different these days, except that manufacturers are now implementing the sound-generation side of things in software rather than in electronic circuitry. There are benefits to us and them as a result of this:
1. Manufacturers don't have the overheads of physical production and distribution that they had in the past. You only have to read Mark Vail's 'Vintage Synthesizers' book to see how much of an uphill struggle it was for companies such as Moog and ARP to get their machines out into the field. It's arguable whether either of them made any real money over their lifetimes.
2. A softsynth's power is dictated by the power of the processor in your computer, not on the physical amount of circuitry in its case. If you want to increase the polyphony from 4 to 16, you simply click on the polyphony control, rather than taking out a mortgage to buy another three expander modules.
3. You can afford to create quirky, off-the-wall modules that might only be useful to one person in a thousand. Producing a circuit-board and front panel in hardware for such a module is a huge business decision, but might only take an afternoon's work in software. Include it as a bonus in the next release of your product.
4. You can fix bugs in software and patch them over the internet. A defective hardware product could be devastating to a company (the ARP Electronic Piano, for example).
5. Software piracy is a concern when a fully-operational cracked copy of a software suite is just a BitTorrent away, but I always come back to the words of wisdom from Ernst Nathorst-Boos of Propellerhead:
How big a problem is piracy for them? Niels: "It's hard to quantify. It's big, of course. But we're very pleased that so many people choose to do the right thing. We try also, rather than introducing copy protection that frustrates users and yet is instantly crackable, to make service and support easy for the people who have done the right thing and bought the program. We don't want to frustrate them with installation processes that are more convoluted than downloading a pirate version, if you know what I mean. It's almost a punishment with some software products to actually buy them. We really want our users to have an easy life. We try instead to add value to the process of registration. We have a very good registration database, and for our registered users we hope we will make our service much better."
Softsynths represent a huge democratisation of electronic music-making and I for one am a big fan. It represents no threat whatsoever to those who want to go down the route of discrete hardware components but makes truly creative tools available to those with a restricted budget and limited space. Bring it on !