[LAD] Synth/Sampler why the distinction?

[Folderol]

On Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:22:07 +0200
Philipp Überbacher <hollunder at lavabit.com> wrote:

> Excerpts from James Morris's message of 2011-06-10 00:37:15 +0200:
> > On 9 June 2011 23:30, Folderol <folderol at ukfsn.org> wrote:
> > > On Thu, 9 Jun 2011 23:22:58 +0100
> > > James Morris <jwm.art.net at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hi,
> > >>
> > >> Since working on Petri-Foo I keep returning to the idea that perhaps
> > >> it would be better to add a sampler-waveform to Yoshimi or another
> > >> soft-synth. Too bad I'm not that great a coder.
> > >>
> > >> Anyway, the idea seems so obvious now. Are there any good reasons for why not?
> > >>
> > >> Just an idea I wanted to put out.
> > >>
> > >> James.
> > >
> > > Personally, I'd hate that. I'm very firmly in the school of 'Do just one thing,
> > > but do it well.'
> > 
> > But are the two really so different? They both do exactly the same
> > thing except one does it with synthesised waveforms and the other does
> > it with sampled waveforms. From thinking about the fact that most soft
> > synths use wave-tables, it can't be that difficult to put a sample in
> > there? Aside from synthesised waveform and sampled waveform, I think
> > (but don't quote me on this :-) that it is perhaps only certain
> > conventions which distinguish the two.
> > 
> > 
> > James.
> 
> I too think that there's not that much difference between a wavetable
> synth and a sampler. I guess you could distinguish them if you like, use
> things like typical sample length, user control over samples and so on,
> but this rather artificial.
> 
> I think samplers and synths have a lot in common, typically midi in,
> audio out, note logic, filters and more. There's no good reason not to
> marry those two things.
> 
> Philipp

Yoshimi is not a wavetable synth (although PadSynth leans in that direction).
It mathematically calculates instantaneous values on -the-fly.

-- 
Will J Godfrey
http://www.musically.me.uk
Say you have a poem and I have a tune.
Exchange them and we can both have a poem, a tune, and a song.