Since time in memorial we've been looking to the day when sound synthesis engines migrated from the confines of dedicated boxes to the relatively unconfining architecture of a personal computer's operating system.

It kind of happened with the advent of ReBirth, which very effectively captured the sights and sounds of Roland Corporation's much sought after TR and TB series drum and bass machines, those little silver boxes that single handedly helped kick start the whole dance scene at the back end of the eighties.

But no samples in sight. No way to get your sounds in there and make music from them.

Then Koblo, a company based in Denmark, entered the scene in the late 90's with a set of software tools that featured sample based software synthesis. By simply dragging and dropping samples into a folder on the hard drive the electronic music maker was finally able to have total control of their own sounds.

Koblo's Studio 9000 suite includes a professional monophonic synth, a sample based drum machine and a fully functional professional software based polyphonic sampler, as well as a couple of utilities for analyzing and manipulating the source files, and each product is available separately so anyone who is quite happy using a traditional dedicated instrument can easily introduce these virtual components into their studio setup until they're ready to run everything virtually from within their PC.

Oh, and when I say PC I mean a Power Macintosh, and ideally a G3 or better. We initially installed Studio 9000 on a pre-G3 Power Macintosh 7300 which was able to run all three applications at the same time with ease, but since installing it on a PowerBook G3 and more recently a G4 we've noticed a significant increase in performance and stability. So if you don't own a G series Mac, or don't have a Mac at all, I suggest you visit the Apple store.

Assuming that you have all the necessary hardware, which doesn't even have to include an external floppy drive thanks to Koblo's recently introduced challenge and response system, you'll be able to start making music within seconds after inserting the CD-ROM thanks to a remarkably quick and easy installation process.

Each module runs within the main architectural element called Tokyo. Think of this as the main application with each of the three component parts of Studio 9000 running as plug-ins of sorts. Each able to run independently of each other but also capable of running in unison, with the internal clock of each more than happy to trigger the internal clock of another.

Even after checking out some of the coolest virtual synths around these past few years I was surprised to find that the G3 was putting out sounds that were as fat as those produced by professional level "real world" equipment.

Not surprising really seeing as there's a processor running this stuff that's infinitely more powerful than those inside the many and varied dedicated synths that currently sit in flight cases in our storage space. But unlike the components in a Prophet 5, for example, which do nothing but make a noise like a Prophet 5, this chip is capable of becoming so many transistors, resistors and capacitors for as long as required until being told to do something else, like maybe run a word processor or play a movie.

So when we say that Studio 9000 comprises of a professional monophonic synth, a sample based drum machine and a fully functional professional software based polyphonic sampler, you'll be doing yourself a favor by just taking our word for it. We merely wanted to introduce the concept of what virtual synthesis is, and how it is made possible. The rest is really up to you.

For more information about this product visit our Manufacturers department for contact information.

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