The PPG Wave is a series of synthesizers built by the German company Palm Products GmbH from 1981 to 1987.
The PPG Wave is a series of synthesizers built by the German company Palm Products GmbH from 1981 to 1987.
Until the early 1980s, the tonal palette of commercial synthesizers was limited to that which could be obtained by combining a few simple waveforms such as sine, sawtooth, pulse. The result was shaped with VCFs and VCAs. Wolfgang Palm transcended this limitation by pioneering the concept of wavetable synthesis, where single cycle waveforms of differing harmonic spectra were stored in adjacent memory slots. Dynamic spectral shifts were achieved by scanning through the waveforms, with interpolation used to avoid noticeable 'jumps' between the adjacent waveforms. Palm's efforts resulted in PPG's first wavetable synthesizer, the Wavecomputer 360 (1978), which provides the user with 30 different wavetables consisting of 64 waves each. While the expansive range of sound is evident, the absence of filters results in the Wavecomputer 360 sounding buzzy and thin, which hampered its original commercial viability. [1] [2] Palm's efforts to resolve the apparent shortcomings of the Wavecomputer 360 would result in the creation of PPG's Wave series of synthesizers.
PPG's Wave series represents an evolution of its predecessor by combining its digital sound engine with analog VCAs and 24db per octave VCFs, featuring 8-voice polyphony; and by replacing its nontraditional series of push buttons and sliders with a control panel consisting of an LCD and a more familiar arrangement of knobs. Also added to the Wave series was an onboard sequencer that is capable of recording filtering and wavetable changes in real time. At the core of the Wave's processing unit is a Motorola 6809 CPU, and a variety of 6500 and 6800-series support ICs. MIDI support was added in 1984, via a 6840/6850 daughtercard. [3]
The PPG Wave was produced in three successive variants, the control panels of which were all liveried in distinctive ultramarine RAL 5002 blue: [4] [5]
The PPG Wave can be connected to multiple peripheral PPG components simultaneously, via a custom bus, such as a "smart" keyboard controller (PRK), 8-voice expansion units (EVU), and a wave computer called Waveterm A (later B version arrived) for sampling, audio manipulation, editing, sequencing and creating user defined wavetables. Collectively, this setup is referred to as the "PPG Wave System", which with its sampling ad sequencing was intended to compete with the more expensive Fairlight CMI.
The PPG Wave quickly earned distinction from traditional analog synthesizers. [6] Notable artists which used the Wave included: a-ha, Alphaville, David Bowie, Diane Arkenstone, The Fixx, Go West, Hall & Oates, Trevor Horn, Steven Halpern, Propaganda, Laza Ristovski, Marillion, Journey, Level 42, Art of Noise, Michael Omartian, Saga, Rush, Depeche Mode, [7] Gary Numan, Robert Palmer, Gary Stadler, Kitaro, Jean-Benoit Dunckel, Psychedelic Furs, Tangerine Dream, The Stranglers, Talk Talk, Tears for Fears, Michelle Tumes, The Twins, Silent Circle, Steve Winwood, Stevie Nicks, Styx, Thomas Dolby, Ultravox, Wang Chung, Eurogliders, Stevie Wonder and Ilan Chester. [2]
PPG's innovation in the realm of digital synthesizer technology impacted the industry. The PPG Wave synthesizer's price in its initial few years was US$7,000-10,000. [8] [9] Within a few years, digital synthesizers, such as the Yamaha DX7 (1983), Korg DW-8000 (1985), Ensoniq ESQ-1 (1986), and Sequential Prophet VS (1986), would be launched at lower prices. Furthermore, the rapidly evolving development of digital sampling technology and reductions in memory prices facilitated the emergence of a new generation of standalone, easy-to-use samplers, such as the Emu Emulator II (1984), Ensoniq Mirage (1984), and Sequential Prophet 2000 (1985). PPG's dwindling market share and the high development cost of new products created financial difficulties, that resulted in the cessation of company operations in 1987.[ citation needed ]
The end of PPG saw the beginning of Waldorf GmbH (later Waldorf Music), which used PPG's technology to create the Microwave (1989), a streamlined, rack-mounted approximation of the PPG Wave 2.3 with original wavetables and analog filters. Further evolutions of the original theme would appear in later years, including the extensive WAVE synthesizer (1993), the DSP-driven Microwave II (1997), and the knob-laden Microwave II variants, the XT and XTk (1998–1999). [10]
After PPG, other manufacturers also produced Wavetable 'look-up' synthesizers, such as Sequential's Prophet VS (1986) and Ensoniq's VFX series(1989) and later models such as SD and Fizmo which used Transwaves. Later came the arrival of synthesizers such as the Access Virus Ti (2005), Waldorf Blofeld (2007), which included 64 wavetables. None of these designs are exactly like the 'wave-scanning' and interpolation that occurs from adjacent waves, in a table, as with the PPG. The Waldorf Quantum (2018) comes closer to the PPG in wavetable capabilities.
More recent advancements in personal computing technology made possible the release of VST plugin models of the original PPG Wave series, including Waldorf's Wave 2.V (2000), and Wave 3.V (2011). The latter was co-developed with Palm, and more accurately replicates the familiar aliasing and filtering characteristics of both the Wave 2.2 and 2.3. [11] [12] [13]
Wavetable synthesis is a sound synthesis technique used to create quasi-periodic waveforms often used in the production of musical tones or notes.
The Ensoniq Mirage is one of the earliest affordable sampler-synths, introduced in 1984 as Ensoniq's first product. Introduced at a list price of $1,695 with features previously only found on more expensive samplers like the Fairlight CMI, the Mirage sold nearly 8,000 units in its first year - more than the combined unit sales of all other samplers at that time.
A rompler is an electronic musical instrument that plays pre-fabricated sounds based on audio samples. The term rompler is a blend of the terms ROM and sampler. In contrast to samplers, romplers do not record audio. Both may have additional sound editing features, such as layering several waveforms and modulation with ADSR envelopes, filters and LFOs.
Ensoniq ESQ-1 is a 61-key, velocity sensitive, eight-note polyphonic and multitimbral synthesizer released by Ensoniq in 1985. It was marketed as a "digital wave synthesizer" but was an early Music Workstation. Although its voice generation is typically subtractive in much the same fashion as most analog synthesizers that preceded it, its oscillators are neither voltage nor "digitally controlled", but true digital oscillators, provided by a custom Ensoniq wavetable chip. The signal path includes analog resonant low-pass filters and an analog amplifier.
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Waldorf Music is a German synthesizer company. They are best known for the Microwave wavetable synthesizer and Blofeld virtual analogue synthesizer.
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Palm Products GmbH was a manufacturer of audio synthesizers. Founded and owned by Wolfgang Palm, PPG was located in Hamburg, Germany and, for 12 years from around 1975 to 1987, manufactured an acclaimed and eclectic range of electronic musical instruments, all designed by Palm.
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The Korg DSS-1 is a 12-bit polyphonic sampling synthesizer released in September 1986. It came out at a time when many of the popular synthesizer companies were beginning to get into sampling, an area of sound design that had previously been left to a handful of fledgling companies such as Fairlight, E-mu, and Ensoniq. Like Yamaha and Casio, however, Korg did not stay long in the sampling arena. The DSS-1 was the company's only sampler until 1998 when Korg introduced sampling options on their Triton and Trinity series of workstations, and on their Electribe series of drum-and-phrase samplers.
Wolfgang Palm is a German musician and inventor who was the founder and owner of Palm Products GmbH (PPG) and the inventor and creator of various pioneering technical designs for analog and digital synthesizers. He is widely acknowledged as the father of digital synthesis and as a trendsetter in the use of computer technology in the making of electronic music.
A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI.
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