Also, It is always a good idea to look up info on different types of synthesis to avoid confusion.

Basically there are few categories synths break up into.
Main are : Analog and Digital.

Analog synths work on voltages and gates and date back to late 1960's. Great for Star Trek noises and other cool synthetic stuff. There's also VIrtual Analog. Or Analog Modeling. Same sounds as analog but it is simulated digitally. So whenever you see the word "Subtractive analog" or "VA" or "Analog" don't expect to hear clean pianos and strings. It is only good for great phat synthetic stuff that today's music is plagued with.

Now. Digital.
There are many different types. main one is digital sample based subtractive synthesis. Based on samples. Samples are basically all kinds of digitally recorded sounds. So whenever you hear clean pianos, strings, guitars, drums and other acoustic stuf coming out of a keyboard you are hearing samples. Of course anything can be sampled...
So if you hear a phat analog bass out of a digital keyboard it might also be a sample.

That's why it is good to know what you are buying and how it makes sounds. I've just mentioned the basics. You may not ever need to know how sounds are made but now you at least know better than to expect nice grand piano out of a VIrtual analog or analog synth. You now know that that kind of stuff can only be done with samples and these things called ssamplers (that have now been virtually replaced with virtual software samplers and sample libraries).

Cheers.

-ED-




[This message has been edited by 3351 (edited 04-17-2006).]