On January 9, 2012 at 3:02:04 PM Veronica Merryfield veronica.merryfield@shaw.cawrote:
> The Synergy was also an FM machine and could do everything the DX-7 could do > just it wasn't packaged or priced that way. I would say, in fact, that the Synergy was _primarily_ an "FM" machine. One of the enduring myths about it is that it depended on additive synthesis to achieve its sounds. While it _could_ sum the output of up to 16 of its 32 oscillators to form a note, few (if any) of the sounds provided for it actually did. Study of the available Synergy documentation reveals that most sounds used frequency modulation in large part (or, rather, the same phase modulation that Yamaha's DX synths used). Digital Keyboards called it "Phase Modulation and Cancellation", the better to confuse it (intentionally) with the Synergy's method of amplitude control and thereby distance it from Yamaha's so-called "FM". Despite having a better implementation of "FM" than the DX7 you needed a computer to program your own voices (a Kaypro II or equivalent CP/M machine). For this and other reasons the Synergy never was a real threat to Yamaha, so all of DK's worry was for not. FYI, this site is a treasure trove of information on the Synergy: http://users.ece.gatech.edu/lanterma/synergy/ -- dupswapdrop -- the music-dsp mailing list and website: subscription info, FAQ, source code archive, list archive, book reviews, dsp links http://music.columbia.edu/cmc/music-dsp http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/music-dsp
