Interesting connection to Syd which I posted about earlier. Antonio Tuzzi, author of a software synthesizer named Phoenix developed in 1997 for the Mac, dropped by to post a comment on the Syd.
"I think I've seen for the first time Syd in 1996. Was my inspiration: I wrote a couple of emails to Jim and after that I decided to write a virtual analog real time synth and by the 1997 I had Phoenix up and running on MacOS9.
Phonenix is (was) a very powerful tool! It was used in couple of schools.
If you have a powermac still running MACOS9... let me know
the url contains a snapshot of Phoenix running"
I find the very first software synthesizers fascinating. I remember when I saw Dave Smith's Seer Systems Reality for the first time. I thought this is it. The time has finally come for synthesizers in software, the realization of the PPG Realizer. I remember thinking the next step would be less powerful but more accessible shrink wrapped synths in software. Now we have thousands of software synthesizers available to us, many even free.
Update: you can get the software here: link. Install and use at your own risk. Antonio Tuzzi sent this my way with the following comments:
"Hi M,
attached phoenix...
remember, was a development stage application (used in digidesign in
1997~1998...)
is written for MACOS9 (but still run with some chocking on MACOSX calssic mode)
is a RAR file that contais a DMG image, file should be copied in
alocal directory on the final computer
there is pratically no documentation. but the synth is still able to
create real time AIF files that can be reused in samplers or in
composign software (ProTools ?).
implemented oscillators tables filters string filters delays reverb
analyzer and room simulators
ciao
antonio"
