Synthesizers

External Modules

  Modules are another way of providing a good set of, say, sampled instruments for MIDI playback and production. When MIDI came along, some of the manufacturers went without a keyboard, altogether, and built just these boxes with samples and effects, to be run by a separate keyboard, or now computer, or whatever. Now one can look to these modules for a wealth of just top quality built in instruments and effects. These things can get to be rather expensive, though.

  Yamaha, for example, has a few modules which they call, tone generators. Their MU100R tone generator gives 64 voice polyphony (64 instruments playing together, at some point), using 1250 XG compatible instruments, stored in 20 Meg of ROM. These modules also use 'insertion effects', separate reverbs and chorus, even vocoder effects and others. This MU100R has four such effects available.

  Roland has their SC-88 Pro, with 1117 instruments in 40 Meg of ROM, 42 different drum sets, 64 voice polyphony, and 64 'insertion effects'; ranging from gated reverb, various distortion effects, rotary and flanger effects, and so on. And it's compatible with the older SC-55 line.

  Whether or not soft synths eventually come to challenge such 'instrument platforms' and super effects boxes, it might well be that such external modules could be around for some time. And even if a 64Meg, 200Mhz/MMX Pentium of today is up to a full SC-88 Pro soft synth, should one be produced, at least the module has the advantage that it's self-contained, and will function just fine should the computer ever . . crash. And while a soft version, ought to sell for a least a little less, it would be up the retailer or manufacturer, and the difference for such a specific soft synth might not be enough to recommend it over the hardware (but who can predict the future?).

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