of Microprocessors

Naturally there is a lot of software around that does additive synthesis and
"resynthesis" using fast Fourier transforms but I have not tried any of it. Also a
web search reveals that additive synthesis is still a popular thesis research topic,
which bodes well for the future.
SONIK : What forms of synthesis would you like to see being explored more?
HAL : I think that pure, or nearly so, additive synthesis needs to be revisited
commercially. When the K150, K5, and other early models were designed, 256K
RAM and 8MHz 286 processors were the norm in computers. Now that
processors are 200+ times faster and memory is 500 to 1,000 times cheaper, one
should be able to make an interesting and saleable additive instrument.
Physical modeling too has endless potential but mostly in directions different
from what Yamaha was pursuing. Perhaps just "modeling" would be a better term
because the most interesting models are likely not physical at all. What made FM
synthesis, which after all is a model albeit a simple one, so interesting was the
surprises one would encounter when working with it.
Additive, which is really modeling too, can sometimes be surprising as well,
especially when dealing with it through meta controls rather than one partial at a
time. No doubt there are other models with the surprise and richness of FM
combined with the generality of additive just waiting to be discovered.
Nothing, however, is going to replace sampling for mass market instruments
because, given cheap memory, it is simply the most cost-effective way to provide
a lot of realistic instrument sounds.
SONIK : What is your view of the "hardware versus software" debate?
HAL : Hmmm, that's a tough one because there are so many different ways to
look at it. Of course at their heart, the digital computations, "hardware" and
"software" techniques are identical. Any result achieved by one could, in theory,
be achieved by the other. I'll try to touch on a few of the issues but after just 5
minutes of thinking about them, its clear that one could write a good sized book
on the subject - that would be out of date in a year.
Anyway, consider the kind of PC or Mac software-based system common today.
One has a large number of essentially independent hardware subsystems like the
CPU, main memory controller, cache controller, disk drive(s), A-to-D and D-to-A
converters, perhaps a MIDI interface, and so on, all made by different
manufacturers. Even more numerous are scores of software components,
including those devoted to synthesis and sound processing, that were all written
independently. The key is that each of these components, both hardware and
software, takes a variable amount of time to do its task depending on
circumstance and what other components are doing. There can be external