 | |
| Type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | Los Angeles (1996) |
| Founder | Dave Kerzner |
| Headquarters | Miami |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Dave Kerzner (President & CEO) Erik Norlander (Managing Director) |
| Website | SonicReality.com |
Sonic Reality Incorporated is an American sound development and music software company founded in 1996 by keyboardist and music producer Dave Kerzner. [1] The company is headquartered in Miami, Florida. [1]
In the early 1990s, Dave Kerzner began collecting rare musical instruments and vintage keyboards from the 1960s and 1970s. When 16-bit stereo digital sampling became available, Kerzner began to create samples of those instruments in order to license to musical instrument companies. Companies such as Alesis, Yamaha and Roland used the sampling in their sound libraries, expansion boards, electronic keyboards and drum modules. The result was the first vintage instrument sample library, created by Kerzner in 1991 and known as "Vintage Keyboards and Classic Synths". [1]
In 1996, Kerzner founded Sonic Reality. Through his company, Kerzner made available many of his preferred sounds to the music industry in the form of CD ROMs in order for musicians to access the sampled sounds from his collection of instruments. In 1999, Sonic Reality worked with Ilio Entertainment to distribute these sample collections to a number of keyboard manufacturers including Akai, Roland, Kurzweil, Digidesign, E-mu. [2]
While developing music technology and creative tools for musicians, Kerzner collaborated with professional artists to sample and digitally reproduce the sounds of many types of musical instruments. The sounds are played from music software such as samplers and other music recording tools. The company later developed the Infinite Player for Native Instruments' Kontakt Player engine, a series of keyboard libraries and plugin systems to play Kerzner's custom sounds created with musicians such as Neil Peart and producers such as Hugh Padgham and Alan Parsons. [3]
In 2001 Kerzner and Sonic Reality collaborated with IK Multimedia to offer the sounds he created for keyboard workstations via computer software. [1] Producing a majority of the sound range for the first comprehensive software rompler virtual instrument called "SampleTank", Kerzner developed a plug-in for popular recording software that offers every type of sampled music instrument with built-in effects to be played via MIDI. [1] [4] With IK Multimedia, Sonic Reality co-created virtual instruments such as Sonik Synth, Miroslav Philharmonik, SampleTron and SampleMoog. [5]
In 2011, Kerzner founded Sonic Elements, a progressive rock project and electronic tribute band utilizing the technology he developed with his company. Sonic Elements uses Sonic Reality samples to create a virtual supergroup by combining well-known musicians with Sonic Reality-sampled drummers and other instrumentation. [6]
In November 2014, Sonic Elements announced the development of a tribute album remake of Genesis' 1974 record, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway , to commemorate the 40th anniversary of its release. [7] The tribute album has been titled IT, and is scheduled for release in early 2015. [7] The album is slated to feature several of Kerzner's musical collaborators including Francis Dunnery, Nick D'Virgilio, Steve Rothery and Billy Sherwood. [7] The album also aims to combine vintage classic rock elements with an orchestra to produce a cinematic rock sound. [7]
An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a power amplifier which drives a loudspeaker, creating the sound heard by the performer and listener.
MIDI is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing and recording music. The specification originates in a paper titled Universal Synthesizer Interface, published by Dave Smith and Chet Wood, then of Sequential Circuits, at the October 1981 Audio Engineering Society conference in New York City.
The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1990s. The instrument has been used by prominent musicians.
A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instruments with keyboards have come into common usage, such as synthesizers and digital piano, requiring a more general term for a person who plays them. In the 2010s, professional keyboardists in popular music often play a variety of different keyboard instruments, including piano, tonewheel organ, synthesizer, and clavinet. Some keyboardists may also play related instruments such as piano accordion, melodica, pedal keyboard, or keyboard-layout bass pedals.
Digital music technology encompasses digital instruments, computers, electronic effects units, software, or digital audio equipment by a performer, composer, sound engineer, DJ, or record producer to produce, perform or record music. The term refers to electronic devices, instruments, computer hardware, and software used in performance, playback, recording, composition, mixing, analysis, and editing of music.
GarageBand is a line of digital audio workstations for macOS, iPadOS, and iOS devices that allows users to create music or podcasts. GarageBand is developed by Apple for macOS, and was once part of the iLife software suite, along with iMovie and iDVD. Its music and podcast creation system enables users to create multiple tracks with pre-made MIDI keyboards, pre-made loops, an array of various instrumental effects, and voice recordings.
ARP Instruments, Inc. was an American manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, founded by Alan Robert Pearlman in 1969. It created a popular and commercially successful range of synthesizers throughout the 1970s before declaring bankruptcy in 1981. The company earned a reputation for producing excellent sounding, innovative instruments and was granted several patents for the technology it developed.
A rompler is an electronic music instrument that plays pre-fabricated sounds based on audio samples. In contrast to samplers, romplers do not record audio and have limited or no capability for generating original sounds. The term rompler is a portmanteau of the terms ROM and sampler. Both may have additional sound editing features, such as layering several waveforms and modulation with ADSR envelopes, filters and LFOs.
David M. Smith is an American engineer and musician and founder of the synthesizer company Sequential. Smith was responsible for the first commercial polyphonic and microprocessor-controlled synthesizer, the Prophet-5, and later the multitimbral synthesizer. He is also referred to as the "Father of MIDI" for his role in the development of MIDI, now a standard interface protocol for electronic instruments and recording/pro audio equipment.
Ikutaro Kakehashi, also known by the nickname Taro, was a Japanese engineer, inventor and entrepreneur. He founded the musical instrument manufacturers Ace Tone, Roland Corporation, and Boss Corporation, and the audiovisual electronics company ATV Corporation.
A clonewheel organ is an electronic musical instrument that emulates the sound of the electromechanical tonewheel-based organs formerly manufactured by Hammond from the 1930s to the 1970s. Clonewheel organs generate sounds using solid-state circuitry or computer chips, rather than with heavy mechanical tonewheels, making clonewheel organs much lighter-weight and smaller than vintage Hammonds, and easier to transport to live performances and recording sessions.
Simon Philip Nando Collins is a British-Canadian drummer and former lead vocalist of the progressive rock band Sound of Contact. Collins is the son of English drummer and singer Phil Collins and Collins's first wife, Andrea Bertorelli. He is the brother of actress Joely Collins and paternal half-brother of actress Lily Collins. Reviewers have compared his vocals to those of his father.
A synthesizer is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers generate audio through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis, and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be shaped and modulated by components such as filters, envelopes, and low-frequency oscillators. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software, or other instruments, often via MIDI.
Eric Persing is a sound designer, professional synthesist and producer in Los Angeles, California. He is best known as the Founder and Creative Director of the leading music software and virtual instrument company Spectrasonics. He has been a major contributor to all of Spectrasonics' products, including Omnisphere, Keyscape, Stylus RMX, Trilian, Atmosphere and Trilogy.
David Nathaniel Kerzner is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and sound designer as well as founder of the sound sampling development company Sonic Reality Inc. Along with Simon Collins, Kerzner is the co-founder of the band Sound of Contact. He is also the co-founder of the band Mantra Vega. His debut solo album, New World, was released in December 2014.
Sonic Elements is a unique American Progressive rock project formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2011. Led by musician and sound producer Dave Kerzner, Sonic Elements is a new type of "fantasy rock tribute band" where some of the elements are authentic parts of the original music, whether it is one of the original musicians from the band or vintage instrument sounds recorded by the original recording engineer/producers. Sonic Elements takes samples produced by the sound design company Sonic Reality Inc and puts them into musical context, creating a virtual "super group" per song that combines different musicians with Sonic Reality sampled drummers and more.
Sound of Contact is a British-based progressive rock band currently consisting of Tom Atkinson, Matt Dorsey and Dave Kerzner, with Simon Collins and Kelly Nordstrom previously being members. Formed in 2009, the band released their debut album in May 2013.
Dimensionaut is the debut album by British-based band Sound of Contact, and was released worldwide May 2013. Production of the album was a collaborative effort between Simon Collins and Dave Kerzner, two of the band's founding members. As of March 2014, two singles off the album have been released.
Vienna Symphonic Library GmbH (VSL) is one of the leading developers of sample libraries and music production software for classical orchestral music. The company is located in a landmark protected building, called Synchron Stage Vienna based in the Austrian capital's 23rd district.
New World is the debut solo album by American musician, songwriter, producer and sound designer Dave Kerzner. This is Kerzner's first album since his departure from the band Sound of Contact, and was developed in 2014. The album features numerous collaborations with established artists such as Fernando Perdomo, Steve Hackett, Nick D'Virgilio, Durga McBroom and Keith Emerson. Two versions of the album were developed: a standard edition and a two-disc double album deluxe edition. The former was released in December 2014, and the latter was released in January 2015.
