This is about music technology, specifically, computer based generation and control of sound for composition, recording, and/or performance of music. Electronic music is an all-20th-century phenomenon, but electronic music specifically generated and/or controlled digitally--by computers--began with Max Matthews at Bell Labs in 1957 (historians writing about the Australian CSIRAC computer would dispute this). Digital generation and control of music became commercially viable only over the last two decades of the 20th century.

There is a shift happening in digital music right now. Time was (ca. 1985-present), having a digital music studio meant having racks full of individual digital synthesizers and samplers, like in the picture at left. The more individual instruments one has, the greater the variety of sounds available.

Nearly all commercially available digital synthesizers and samplers are built to be controlled by a computer, via a standard interface called MIDI (musical instrument digital interface). A typical studio has as many instruments racked up as their cost will allow, amplification and mixing equipment to handle audio output, recording equipment, and a desktop computer programmed to control and play any one or all of the instruments. Only one musical keyboard is needed; the MIDI data it produces can be routed to and from the computer via any of the other instruments, thereby causing them to play.

Each digital instrument has its own microprocessor and operating system. Many of them run on DOS and include a floppy drive for external storage and retrieval of patches (specific setups that result in a given sound) and automatic digital playback instructions (MIDI data). The computer's microprocessor just handles the software that plays and controls the instruments. The generation of their sounds is handled by their own onboard processors.

But if the chip inside a synthesizer or sampler can run sound synthesis or sampling software, why can't the chip inside a computer do the same thing? Therein lies the shift that is underway. Most computers manufactured over the past several years include their own rather cheesy sounding internal synthesizers capable of responding to instructions from MIDI data files. Processor speeds have become high enough that one processor can handle all the tasks formerly distributed among the brains of a whole rack full of individual digital instruments. Not only that, but there are mixing programs that virtually emulate elaborate automatic mixing boards, and computers have been able to make real-time digital audio recordings for some time.

All this adds up to the specter of an entirely virtual digital music studio, with every task except human keyboard performance handled by the computer, and even musical deficiencies made up for by the computer.

The screen image at right shows just such an application. There is a scrolling virtual rack with practically unlimited numbers of possible additions: synthesizers, samplers, mixers, effects units, drum machines, etc. Shown here (from the top) are the bottom edge of a 14-channel mixer, a subtractive synthesizer and a granular/wave table synthesizer, both of which emulate analog synthesis processes, plus record and playback controls for the MIDI data they send and receive. All the knobs and sliders can be twiddled with the click and drag of a mouse, and all controls can be fully automated. Sound files produced by such an application can be burned onto audio CDs right on the computer's CD/DVD drive.

The shift to a virtual studio is being driven partially by economic factors. With the requirement of a personal computer as a given, procuring a three hundred dollar virtual studio software program is rather easier than assembling ten or twenty thousand dollars worth of rack-monted hardware and peripherals.

One can only hope access to the means of production will be met with a surge in artistic inspiration. As always, separating wheat from chaff is a challenge.