Concept

Sample-based synthesis

Sample-based synthesis is a form of audio synthesis that can be contrasted to either subtractive synthesis or additive synthesis. The principal difference with sample-based synthesis is that the seed waveforms are sampled sounds or instruments instead of fundamental waveforms such as sine and saw waves used in other types of synthesis. Before digital recording became practical, instruments such as the Welte (1930s), phonogene (1950s) and the Mellotron (1960s) used analog optical disks or analog tape decks to play back sampled sounds. When sample-based synthesis was first developed, most affordable consumer synthesizers could not record arbitrary samples, but instead formed timbres by combining pre-recorded samples from ROM before routing the result through analog or digital filters. These synthesizers and their more complex descendants are often referred to as ROMplers. Sample-based instruments have been used since the Computer Music Melodian, the Fairlight CMI and the NED Synclavier. These instruments were way ahead of their time and were correspondingly expensive. The first recording using a sampling synthesizer was "Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants"" (1979) which used the Computer Music Melodian to create complex melodies and rhythms from sampled sounds from nature. The first tune Wonder recorded was "The First Garden" where he used a sampled bird chirp as the lead sound in the song. More affordable sample-based synthesizers available for the masses with the introduction of the Ensoniq Mirage (1984), Roland D-50 (1987) and the Korg M1 (1988), which surfaced in the late eighties. The M1 also introduced the music workstation concept. The concept has made it into sound cards for the multimedia PC, under the names such as wavetable card or wavetable daughterboard. (See Wavetable synthesis#Background) The principal advantage of sample-based synthesis over other methods of digital synthesis such as physical modelling synthesis or additive synthesis is that processing power requirements are much lower.

Official source

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample-based_synthesis

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Related concepts (3)

A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre.

Sampler (musical instrument)

A sampler is an electronic musical instrument that records and plays back samples (portions of sound recordings). Samples may comprise elements such as rhythm, melody, speech, sound effects or longer portions of music. The mid-20th century saw the introduction of keyboard instruments that played sounds recorded on tape, such as the Mellotron. As technology improved, cheaper standalone samplers with more memory emerged, such as the E-mu Emulator, Akai S950 and Akai MPC. Samples may be loaded or recorded by the user or by a manufacturer.

Additive synthesis

Additive synthesis is a sound synthesis technique that creates timbre by adding sine waves together. The timbre of musical instruments can be considered in the light of Fourier theory to consist of multiple harmonic or inharmonic partials or overtones. Each partial is a sine wave of different frequency and amplitude that swells and decays over time due to modulation from an ADSR envelope or low frequency oscillator. Additive synthesis most directly generates sound by adding the output of multiple sine wave generators.