Acid...
Moderator: enderzero
That is...
... exactly what a controller and software would do.
A hardware synth is what you were describing. A synth with it's own voice architecture, whether it's analog circuitry, digital circuitry emulating analog circuitry, digital circuitry acting digital (playing back samples from ROM) etc. My Alesis ION is a virtual analog synth. It's a keyboard that uses DSPs to make similar tones to old analog synths. Analog and virtual analog are my favorites. You take a raw waveform like a sine, sawtooth, triangle, or pulse wave, run it through a filter or two, and envelopes which shape the sound. It's the most basic, and most flexible. I use a combination of things. I have a MIDI controller keyboard that has no voice architecture, I have the ION, which is a virtual analog, then I use software synths and Cubase (sequencer,) for everything else. It's a pretty flexible setup. I plan to start building back my hardware supply, so eventually I'll have keyboard and rack-synths all over the place again. Oh happy days those will be.
A hardware synth is what you were describing. A synth with it's own voice architecture, whether it's analog circuitry, digital circuitry emulating analog circuitry, digital circuitry acting digital (playing back samples from ROM) etc. My Alesis ION is a virtual analog synth. It's a keyboard that uses DSPs to make similar tones to old analog synths. Analog and virtual analog are my favorites. You take a raw waveform like a sine, sawtooth, triangle, or pulse wave, run it through a filter or two, and envelopes which shape the sound. It's the most basic, and most flexible. I use a combination of things. I have a MIDI controller keyboard that has no voice architecture, I have the ION, which is a virtual analog, then I use software synths and Cubase (sequencer,) for everything else. It's a pretty flexible setup. I plan to start building back my hardware supply, so eventually I'll have keyboard and rack-synths all over the place again. Oh happy days those will be.
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I've heard good things about Crystal. It seems like a lot of people use it. There are a lot of free soft-synths. I can't remember the name of the site, but it rates virtual instruments and has a separate free section.