ASI was formed in 1980 by four guys who were interested in doing something
different from their full-time jobs as engineers with a large chemical
company. Since about 1974, I had developed an interest in electronic music,
combining my training in electronics with a love of music. On my own, I
obtained a patent in 1976 for a new way to develop timbre using additive
synthesis, and had demonstrated a monophonic model at local IEEE meetings.
The three other guys saw my device as a mechanism for getting into business.
I was interested in pursuing my ideas further, and agreed to join them to
form ASI.
Only one year after formally forming the company and working part time, the
four of us had built a laboratory and produced two working prototypes. We
obtained a booth at the NAMM show in Atlanta in June 1982 and showed them to
the public.
Both performed flawlessly throughout the week. (Bob Moog was an interested
visitor to the booth.) We also presented Synthia to a crowd of over 700 at
the University of Pennsylvania Conference on Electronic Music and the Arts.
Later, we showed Synthia at the AES Convention and Exhibit in Anaheim, CA.
While on the west coast, we visited the Stanford University Center for Computer
Music and several studios. Unfortunately, we ran out of money and resources and
had to close down our Company in1983 before we could make a sale. At present,
both prototype units lie dormant in my basement lab. Age has affected the contacts
in the system backplane, so neither is in working order. It was a wonderful
experience while it lasted.
Synthia was truly a unique instrument for its time, which may have had
something to due with its failure to be accepted by what we found to be a
very conservative music industry. Its touch-sensitive plasma display was
state-of-the-art. Synthia featured about 250 different menus which could be
navigated merely by moving the finger on the display. Each note was
individually and completely programmable for pitch, timbre, effects, and
their development over time. That is, the development of a note could be
programmed in one to 99 steps from .01 to 10sec in length. There were two
digital tape decks installed with the display which would record and
playback instruments which were developed on Synthia, and all of the
attributes of a player's performance.
The 61-note keyboard was velocity sensitive and could be programmed to play
different selections on both key down and key up. Voices could be assigned
to either or both stereo channels. Today, all of these features can be obtained
with a MIDI keyboard, a computer, software, and a good sound card at a
comparatively low cost. But over the years it has been interesting to see how
many of the then unique features of Synthia have been incorporated in its successors.
Mark E. Faulhaber
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