Yamaha Unveils SoftSynthesizer Poly-VL Polyphonic Sound from Virtual Acoustic Synthesis
Takes Advantage of the Latest Capabilities of the Pentium III Processor
February 17, 1999
Yamaha Corporation, the world' s largest manufacturer of musical instruments,
today announced the development of the SoftSynthesizer Poly-VL which further enhances
Yamaha’s SoftSynthesizer software for creating polyphonic sound with a Virtual
Acoustic (VA) synthesizer. The Poly-VL, a plug-in module for the SoftSynthesizer
S-YXG100, is designed to take advantage of the performance of Intel’ s Pentium®
III processor. As a result, it can reproduce music approaching the realism of
a live music performance.
"We are delighted with this development," said Yamaha Corporation
President Kazukiyo Ishimura. "Thanks to the power of Intel’ s new Pentium
III processor, everybody can now enjoy music in their own homes as if it is performed
by real musical instruments. We will start introducing this software to all major
computer manufacturers to bundle it on their new computers."
Yamaha SoftSynthesizer embodies software technology that enables the playback
of MIDI data even without dedicated hardware such as an external tone generator
or a sound card. At present, Yamaha has shipped over eight million units of its
acclaimed SoftSynthesizer S-YXG50 for preinstallation on computers made by manufacturers
worldwide.
WaveTable synthesis is widely used in musical instruments and software synthesizers,
and this technology is based on playback of pre-sampled waveforms. On the other
hand, Virtual Acoustic synthesis utilizes a model that builds a virtual instrument
and then creates sound by simulating the behavior of sound generation in a real
musical instrument. Because VA recreates the sound generating mechanism of a musical
instrument itself, users can create sounds that replicate both the timbre and
expression of real instruments much more closely than is possible with an ordinary
synthesizer. New and unusual combinations can even be created, such as a timbre
that simulates a flute with brass mouthpiece being played with a cello bow.
The new Poly-VL utilizes the power of the Pentium III processor to generate
eight-voice polyphony with VA synthesis, allowing users to recreate— for
example— the sound of a brass ensemble of up to eight voices, including saxes,
trombones, and trumpets. The percussion and keyboard sounds that are generated
using Wave Table synthesis and orchestral timbre generated with VA synthesis results
in a powerfully expressive music performance.
"Intel is pleased to see that Yamaha’s SoftSynthesizer Poly-VL software
takes advantage of the performance of the Pentium III processor platform to deliver
a more realistic musical experience for PC users,” said Stan Mo, Director
of Tools and Technologies, Intel’s Content Group. “The availability
of high-quality music synthesis on the Pentium III processor platform benefits
our developers and translates into more exciting and compelling user experiences."
Yamaha’s VA synthesis technology is currently used in Yamaha’s SoftSynthesizer,
musical instruments, tone generators and sound cards.
The extensive floating point calculations required for SoftSynthesizer to generate
sound in real time mean that an extremely powerful CPU would be needed to process
the voluminous data. Consequently, until now VA synthesis by a PC had been limited
to the production of only a single voice at a time.
Utilizing the performance afforded by the Pentium III processor, Yamaha was
able to optimize the performance of the newest generation SoftSynthesizer, the
S-YXG100. The increased speed rendered floating point calculations enabled Yamaha
to improve the Poly-VL to the point where it now can reproduce up to eight polyphonic
voices in VA synthesis.
- Note:
- * Musical Instruments Digital Interface (MIDI) data
- MIDI, Musical Instrument Digital Interface, has been widely used by electronic
musical instruments and personal computers since 1983. Standard MIDI File, often
referred as SMF or MIDI File, is an industry standard that describes the music
performance information in digital data.
SoftSynthesizer is a trademark of Yamaha Corporation. All other company and
product names appearing in this document are the trademarks or registered trademarks
of their respective owners.
For more information, visit Yamaha's web site at www.yamaha.co.uk.
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