soft synth

[TelePaul]

I hear this thrown around alot; its a Midi protcol of sme sort yes? Or whats the story?

 

[bennychico11]

you know what hardware synthesizers are, right???

soft syth is short for software synthesizer

 

[TelePaul]

not exactly...unless you mean big 70s type mellotrons.

 

[noisewreck]

This site will give you a good idea of what a synthesizer is. Now, imagine those in software.

 

[bennychico11]

well, synthesize means to form or create something.
so in audio, a synthesizer would be something that creates sound.

essentially, they're the sounds that you trigger with a keyboard.
this is a synthesizer
and this
and this
and this

...and this is a software synth. Instead of using a physical keyboard or sound module to hold the sounds...it's all in the computer software.

the mellotron was considered more of a sampler than a synth. it played back pre-recorded sounds.

 

[AlChuck]

The Mellotron's sound source was little loops of analog tape that had recorded sounds on them...

 

[TelePaul]

thanks guys!