Re: [LAD] Software sound

Programming a sound using what kind of synthesis ever needs knowledge and many parameters. But there's another way to easily make new sounds based on existing sounds. E.g the Yamaha TG33's joystick, the vector control records a mixing sequence, where the volume and/or the tuning of 4 sound can be mixed. Since you mentioned touch screens, Alchemy for the iPad allows to morph sounds by touching the screen similar to the joystick used by the TG33, but it also can be used to control filters, effects and arpeggiator. There already are several old school synth and AFAIK new workstations, especially new proprietary virtual synth that provide what you describes. Btw. 2 of the 4 TG33 sounds are FM sounds, not that advanced as provided by the DX7, the other two are AWM (sound samples). Regarding the complexity of DX7 sound programming, the biggest issue is that it has got no knobs. There are books about DX7 programming, such as Yasuhiko Fukuda's, but IMO it's easier to learn by trail and error. JFTR e.g. the Roland Juno-106 provides just a few controllers, but you easily can get a lot of sounds, without much knowledge http://www.vintagesynth.com/roland/juno106.php , in theory this could be emulated by virtual synth, in practise the hardware allows to use specialized microchips that produce analog sound, that can't be emulated that easily, not to mention that at the end of the computers sound chain there always is a sound card, so if you emulate several synth with the same computer, it's not the same as having several real instruments, a B3, Minimoog etc..