Digital Synthesis: Trends and Developments

Combining Approaches

In the 1990s and early 2000s, most known synthesis algorithms existed and provided more and more convincing results, due to the increasing computational power. In order to overcome the drawbacks of individual synthesis approaches, paradigms are combined and novel, hybrid approaches are created.

Deep Learning & Neural Nets

Deep learning and neural nets have been used as helper tools in sound synthesis for many years. However, the direct use for the generation of sound is rather new and currently the hot topic in sound synthesis and processing.

Control and Mapping

Although the control of sound synthesis is not a new topic, it remains one of the most active ones. Synthesis algorithms are able to produce a large variety of sounds in real-time since the 1990s, but their integration into musical instruments is a much wider topic, with many possibilities to explore and stil lags behind.