My Dream MIDI Keyboard

[Green Xenon]

Hi:

My dream MIDI keyboard is a musical keyboard that has 88 keys and relies purely on digital AFM [Advanced Frequency Modulation] synthesis [not sample playback or analog synthesis] to generate tones. It has a headphone jack. It can store and produce .mid files. In addition, it is able to somehow record and store songs digitally [as .wav files] so I can directly burn them into a CD. It has an internal HDD. It also has a CD burner/player which can record/playback any and all formats of CD-sized discs. It also has an external HDD which I can use to import/export to/from the keyboard and my PC.

In addition, the keyboard’s synth is purely-hardware [not a softsynth] and freshly generates its tones [i.e. it does not use any sampling or sampled sounds to any extent].

The AFM synth in my dream MIDI keyboard has as many operators, voices, channels [OPL3 has 18 channels, OPL2 has 9], voices-per-channel, and operators-per-voice as physically-possible with the size of my keyboard being the same as that of the current highest-quality keyboard available.

This keyboard also has a display screen as well as controls, settings, and effects which are as sophisticated as that of the most advanced keyboard.

The audio from my dream keyboard is stereo but it sounds exactly the same in both the L and R channels. When audio is played back, the audio signals in the left and right channel are exactly the same in terms of amplitude, frequency, and phase. There are no settings to change this.

Last but not least, my dream MIDI keyboard makes the most efficient use of Realtime Convolution and Modulation.

I would like to make karaoke tracks using this hypothetical keyboard and then burn the karaoke songs into CDs.

Sadly my dream MIDI keyboard is way too good to ever be true.

Regards,

Green Xenon

[lylehaze]

and relies purely on digital AFM [Advanced Frequency Modulation] synthesis

synth is purely-hardware [not a softsynth]

No problem. We need to invent a synthesizer that has no Software.

I believe this is called "Piano". It uses strings and hammers.

Since you specified digital synthesis, you WILL have software inside it.

The audio from my dream keyboard is stereo but it sounds exactly the same in both the L and R channels. When audio is played back, the audio signals in the left and right channel are exactly the same in terms of amplitude, frequency, and phase.

This technique was mastered years ago. To learn more about it, Google the word "Monophonic".

There are no settings to change this.

That's OK too. They can change it at mixdown. :-)

Good luck with your dreams.

LyleHaze

[Green Xenon]

Since you specified digital synthesis, you WILL have software inside it.

Not necessarily.

The SB16 ISA cards use OPL3 which is a digital hardware synth.

The SB16 PCI cards use opl emulation, which is done by software synth.

[lylehaze]

So you are claiming that you can play a SB16 ISA card without any software being used?

No software stored on the card, no drivers in use on the computer, no instructions stored on any digital medium? Is there a processor on that board? Does it execute instructions?

I suppose you can bang the card against a rock, but that's probably not going to get you much tonal diversity.

It is possible to make an ANALOG electronic synth without any software. Oscillators, filters, and the like have been the playground of many.

I'm just trying to point out that your specifications are in conflict with your specifications. If it's a digital synth, it will have software.

Good luck designing your dream synth. :-)

[Green Xenon]

Software is used for the SB16 ISA's OPL3 chip, however the synth itself is purely-hardware. In OPL emulation, the synth is software.

[DrBunsen]

Isn't AFM a proprietary method of Yamaha?  Suggestion: start with a rack version of one of the AFM synths, and build around it.

[l-fire]

That sounds like a yamaha Motif XS8. I believe you can record audio tracks alongside midi, so there's your karaoke. Not sure about the CD burner, but then again, the Korg Triton Studio can record audio alongside midi and burn a CD of it, but it uses mostly sampled sounds.

Also, you are obviously not looking for a workstation type keyboard with all of the bread and butter sounds included in addition to synth type sounds. As good as AFM sythesis can be, a nice grand piano or an acoustic drum kit would sound like crap compared to a good sampled sound.