of Microprocessors

LOW-COST SYNTHESIS TECHNIQUES 789
all low-end computers, while the 32-bitters being introduced in 1985 will be
the norm for business-oriented personal computers. Somebody will finally
figure out how to integrate a microprocessor and a dynamic RAM array on
the same chip and thus offer one-chip microcomputers with enough RAM
(like 8K) to be useful.
For consumer music products, look for portable synthesizers using
digital playback of recorded sounds as their "synthesis" technique to become
available for under $1,000 and with standard voice complements including
all common acoustic instruments. Velocity- and pressure-sensitive keyboards
will also be the norm on such instruments. Even cheap toy instruments
(under $100) will have outstanding sonic capability (using real synthesis) but
with cheap keyboards and cases. The typical home personal computer will
have at least an eight-voice synthesizer as standard equipment, again using
prerecorded sounds. A few sounds will be built in, while an infinite variety of
others can be read from the standard optical disk drive on demand.
In ptofessional live-performance synthesizers, design emphasis will
shift from providing accurate emulation of acoustic instruments and an
endless variety of contrived ones to improving the degree of interactive
control the musician has over the sound. Keyboards will still be the
dominant control device but will become divorced from the synthesizer and
sold separately for the most part. Since even consumer keyboards will have
independent pressure sensing, professional units must have additional control
"dimensions," such as the key displacement mentioned in Chapter 9. These
separate keyboards and other controllers will initially communicate with the
synthesizers via MIDI. However, by 1990, look for a new music protocol to
be developed as the weaknesses of MIDI become apparent. The new protocol
will still be serial but will probably be based on some local area network
protocol and matching interface chips developed earlier for business computer
systems.
All-digital recording studios will also become common during this
period. Studio synthesizers will more and more become just another "box"
that is wired into the studio digital sound system. They will also be so good
that a single individual, suitably armed with a digitized library of orchestral
instrument sounds, will be able to "synthesize" a symphony orchestra with
no qualifications and no audible compromises. One would hope that such a
capability would not be used to produce yet another rehash of the classics. In
any case, it will literally be possible to produce a piece of music that never
exists in analog form until it reaches the speaker wires in the listener's home!