Bob Williams about digital vs. analogue
2003-06-03 by Arnauld Michelizza
"Hi Arnauld
The debate about whether we are going digital is
unfounded.We wanted to make a voltage controlled delay based on the old
Electro Harmonix Memoryman which used the MN3005 B.B.D chip but Moog got
the last decent batch for their Moogerfooger Delay and Modcan got the
remains. We located 230 chips but this would not be worth getting as it
would limit the amount of modules we could make.So we embarked on rs290
and rs390 which you can change the bit size and sample rate(in fact you
can voltage control those parameters amongst many others)so tape echo and
B.B.D can be emulated as well as the higher rate 16 bit settings.With so
many v.c. points on the larger unit and the ability to sample and v.c. the
start and end points plus a host of other features make these modules
unique. Yes the rs320 spring reverb is a useful module but when we had
them in stock nobody wanted them and as they were an Analogue Solutions
board behind one of our panels we had to rely on Tom Carpenter having them
in stock,not the best of situations.
The rs320 was discontinued almost 12 months ago and had no bearing on the
release of rs290 and rs390. I should imagine that rs370 is the module
which might cause die-hard AS users to think we are changing direction but
it is the only digital module we will be embarking on. To explain it think
of it as a six channel midi/cv converter with 4 fully programmable aux.
outs and the six gate outputs can be assigned to gate/trigger/s
trigger.The six c.v. outs will be 1 v/oct. Next add an arpeggiator a
simple one based on the Roland sh101,so far so good nothing to radical.Now
imagine 2 banks of stored harmonics and with v.c you can travel through
the harmonics which are being calculated at a rate of every half a second
but because of the way it swaps between the two you do not hear any
glitches.These wave banks will have traditional wave forms plus factory
and user ones,As the unit is six voice/note and there are 24 generators to
draw upon then you can see you can assign up to 4 generators per
voice/note with the ability to detune them for a fat,animated sound. So
far so good and here is the killer.You can do additive synthesis and
calculate the first 32 harmonics with feedback from the LCD through
addition of sinewaves.You can get some amazing sounds with just the first
16 and of course the unit will have knobs and c.v. sockets so it will be
in the analogue realm as far as control goes. But the major interest comes
when you v.c the first 24 harmonics in real-time mode(you will need the
expander for this)although essentially a mono voice in this mode the
realism will more than make up for it .In fact the Kawai K3 which is
enjoying a mini revival was based on additive oscillator generation plus
analogue subtractive synthesis. In fact because of the six voice midi/c.v.
feature the user can blend rs95 and user waveforms to pack more punch.
This module will be a wolf in wolfs clothing.It will be the nearest thing
we do to a digital voice and we do not intend going any further.I fact the
Ramesys project will be taking up a lot of our time when we start on it
and any new analogue modules,we think are worthwhile pursuing will take
second place. We do not want to bring out say just a band pass filter or a
vca with linear input and another with log input just to enlarge the
module range,with the new rs300 c.v./midi we think our larger 8500 systems
just about cover everything a musician might need. So no, Analogue Systems
will stay true to the name."