It seems synth guru Richard Devine couldn’t resist revealing something about upcoming Yamaha technology. In an interview earlier this month, he let slip that the instrument includes “alien” new tech:
Usually when I work with a company – for instance I’m working with Yamaha on a project right now; I can’t say what it is, but it’s pretty crazy. This synthesizer has new technology that’s never been implemented before, so it’s totally alien to anything I’ve ever used. I’ve had to spend a few weeks just understanding the architecture of it.
This tells us two things. One, whatever Richard is working on is now almost certainly digital at least in large part; there’s a whole lot more you can do in the digital realm than the analog realm, at least as far as “new.” (It could be he’s talking about something to do with the form factor, but since he mentioned architecture here and he’s presumably doing sound content for them, that’s unlikely.)
Two, we’re now officially 1000% more interested than we were before, because Richard Devine – for those of you who don’t know him – has used a lot. The man is an obsessive-compulsive sound designer on the Rain Man order of productivity.
The whole interview is worth a read, whether you’re into what Yamaha is teasing or not:
RICHARD DEVINE: RETAINING MASTERY OF MACHINES IN THE FACE OF THE SINGULARITY
And, uh, Yamaha, please don’t hurt Rich over this story. All PR is good PR.
Thanks to Joey Blush, another great modular synth instrumentalist, for the catch. He’s at:
http://soundcloud.com/blush-response
Updated: a source (not Richard) tells CDM that the project he’s describing isn’t Reface. Wait, now that’s very interesting, indeed.