This presented me with a list of 34 patches, some of which I would be happy to use unmolested. I selected 'Minimoog V' as the instrument and 'Lead' as the type. You can sort the contents by name, instrument, sound type, and even the CPU load(!), but the patch selection mechanism also allows you to specify what you're looking for in terms of two filters: the synth engine on which it was created (Minimoog V, ARP 2600V, and so on) and the nature of the sound that you want (bass, lead, piano, and so on). I began by working my way through the patch library. In addition to these knobs, octave up/down buttons provide ☓ octaves of pitch‑shift, there are four buttons for saving and recalling snapshots, and the usual pitch‑bend and modulation wheels complete the package. All the knobs have collars that show the approximate parameter values, as well as tooltips that contain the precise ones. When using the on‑screen GUI, four knobs provide control over filter cutoff frequency and resonance, as well as the wet/dry mix of the basic chorus and delay effects (the latter of which is MIDI sync'ed when appropriate), while four more control an ADSR contour generator for the audio amplifier. The Player is the smallest and cheapest of the three new products, with a 25‑note velocity‑sensitive keyboard, 1000 of the patches from the fully fledged library of 3500, and a sparse set of editing parameters. Both initialised without hesitation, synchronised with their own keyboards, and I was ready to go. I then plugged their two, dedicated USB keyboards into my Mac, discovered that this was adequate to power them (although conventional 12VDC power inputs are provided for times when you might want to use either keyboard separate from a computer) and double‑clicked to load the stand‑alone versions of each package. Installing the software for both The Player and The Factory proved to be straightforward and, although I have a Steinberg eLicenser dongle, I used the 'soft' on‑line authorisation process, which proved to be painless. Marketed under the umbrella of the Analog Experience, these are The Player, The Factory, and The Laboratory, the last of which is due for release in 2011. These share their underlying technology, but offer a range of facilities and price points designed to suit a wider range of needs and pockets than before. A few generations later (see box), the Analog Factory has evolved into three products that combine a huge library of initial sounds, limited editing, and a dedicated, physical keyboard optimised for each. Fortunately, this was not the limit of the storage available, and modified patches could be stored as new presets in their own right. the choice of the initial patch plus the positions of all the edit controls) for quick recall of tweaked sounds. Designed to make sound selection from a patch library of presets as painless as possible, its GUI combined a 32‑note 'virtual' keyboard, a limited amount of editing, and eight snapshot buttons that allowed users to store eight configurations (ie. The Analog Factory (Sound On Sound, January 2007) was Arturia's first divergent use of TAE. But how could they create a second range of TAE‑based products without stepping on their own toes? It was then inevitable that they would look for new ways to capitalise upon it. Their engineers developed a very palatable sound generator called TAE ('true analogue emulation') and used it in the creation of all of their V‑series soft synths. The situation is no different in the synthesizer world. The real differences between them are not so much ones of underlying technology: they are ones of implementation. But despite their huge perceived differences, all of these machines move forward and backward, go round corners, and provide seats that allow you to travel around without developing piles. Once these had been invented there wasn't just one way to integrate them, and Ford manufactured the Ka (costing around £7000), the Iacocca Silver 45th Anniversary Edition (around £200,000), and hundreds of variations between. Take the internal combustion engine, the steering wheel and upholstery. To remain healthy, companies have to capitalise as fully as possible on their developments. Arturia's Analog Experience range pairs tweakable preset soft synths with dedicated controller keyboards.
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