Cat with Roland JP-8000 synthesizer. Submitted by Pedro Vieira‎ via our Facebook page.

The JP-8000 was released in 1997 as virtual analog modeling synths came into vogue.  In addition to modeling the sound, it sported full front panel of sliders and knobs reminiscent of Roland’s classic analog synths.  I was more enamored with the follow-up module, the JP-8080, which I got to try out at AES in 1998, the same year I delivered a paper on an analog modeling technique.  One can draw a line from these instruments to the Roland JP-08 Boutique Synth, which we often play at CatSynth HQ.

Last evening I made 16 drum sounds on the microKORG. This synth is okay and offers quite a few possibilities with up to four separate envelope generators, four noise generators layered multi timbrally, and a multi mode filter (with resonance able to self-oscillate and to be used as a sound source). Also, complex made easy with the modulation routings on the microKORG.

Some external compression and effects where added to these four drum patterns.

I recently got a microKORG and was thinking of the label, virtual analog, VA. So VA is still a commonly used method and term. Now, does anyone think the manufacturing companies should like just stop calling these synths VAs?

I mean, it’s pretty standard to digitally construct synths with analog modeling circuit emulation/behavior (Roland AIRA…). And here’s the thing, the term VA, suggests that analog is the almighty king of all synthesises, and that other are just imitating.

When they first marketed these synths in in the middle of the nineties (Clavia Nord Lead, Access Virus…), it served a purpose of defining a new type of synthesis, but nowadays, well the paradigm has long be shifted.