Vector Synthesis is a type of

audio synthesis A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating Waveform, waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synth ...

introduced by

Sequential Circuits Sequential is an American synthesizer company founded in 1974 as Sequential Circuits by Dave Smith. In 1978, Sequential released the Prophet-5, the first programmable polyphonic synthesizer; it became a market leader and industry standard, use ...

in the Prophet VS synthesizer during 1986. The concept was subsequently used by

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

in the SY22/ TG33 and similar instruments and by

Korg , founded as Keio Electronic Laboratories, is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners. Under the Vox brand name, they ...

in the Wavestation. Vector synthesis provides movement in a sound by providing dynamic cross-fading between (usually) four sound sources. The four sound sources are conceptually arranged as the extreme points of X and Y axes, and typically labelled A, B, C and D. A given mix of the four sound sources can be represented by a single point in this 'vector plane'. Movement of the point provides sonic interest and is the power of this technique. Mixing is frequently done using a joystick, although the point can be controlled using envelope generators or LFOs.

Vector synthesis implementations

There have been a number of different implementations of vector synthesis. These differ in what they use for the four sound sources, and what processing is done to the sound after the vector synthesis stage. The actual vector synthesis concept is identical.

Prophet VS vector synthesis

The Prophet VS used four digital wavetable oscillators as its four sound sources. The limitations, particularly the digital aliasing, of this design, coupled with its use of Curtis analogue filter ICs to process the mixed sound, gave the Prophet VS its distinctive sound.

Yamaha SY series

The Yamaha SY22 added to the Prophet's implementation of vector synthesis by providing two types of sound source. Each axis of the vector had both an FM sound source and a sample-playback source. Although it lacked any filtering, it added digital effects for processing the results of the vector synthesis.

Korg Wavestation

The

Korg Wavestation The Korg Wavestation is a vector synthesis synthesizer first produced in the early 1990s and later re-released as a software synthesizer in 2004. Its primary innovation was Wave Sequencing, a method of multi-timbral sound generation in which di ...

went further still, allowing each of the four sound sources to produce not just a static tone, but a complex wave sequence, by playing back or cross-fading one wave after another.

Korg OASYS

The

Korg OASYS The Korg OASYS is a workstation synthesizer released in early 2005, 1 year after the successful Korg Triton Extreme. Unlike the Triton series, the OASYS uses a custom Linux operating system that was designed to be arbitrarily expandable via softw ...

workstation is one of the first synthesizers for over a decade to feature vector synthesis. It also features an updated form of wave sequencing, like the Wavestation. The

Korg Kronos The Kronos is a music workstation manufactured by Korg that combines nine different synthesizer sound engines with a sequencer, digital recorder, effects, a color touchscreen display and a keyboard. Korg's latest flagship synthesizer series at t ...

also features this synthesis.

Arturia Origin