Neuron (synthesizer)
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An electronic musical instrument designed and built by industry designer Axel Hartmann of the German company Hartmann Music in the years 2001-2005. The Neuron synthesizer used an Artificial Neural Network to create a digital computer model from sampled sounds, implementing a new synthesis technology which was developed by Stephan Bernsee at Prosoniq. This computer model could then be used to resynthesize a new sound, giving the player control over "musical" aspects such as instrument body size, material and other acoustic properties. This parametric approach was very different from the more mathematical approaches of other synthesizers at that time.
Even though the instrument was awarded numerous prizes for innovation it was difficult to operate due to its limited display capabilities, which made adjusting the tonal qualities of a sound a tedious trial and error process. Given the very high price of the instrument (around 5000 USD) many people felt that manipulating a wireframe model of a sound only by ear did not allow for the amount of control necessary for such a complex operation.
In addition, Hartmann Music had to fight a couple of technical problems which were never remedied when the company finally filed for insolvency after a dispute with their distributor in 2005. Although Hartmann Music went out of business the Neuron synthesizer is still a very special, hard-to-find instrument with unique sound. It is still being used today, mainly in the production of film music, for example by artists like Hans Zimmer.
[edit] Technology
The basis for the Neuron synthesizer was a standard PC mainboard running a flavor of the Linux operating system with a custom application doing the sound synthesis and a custom front panel and sound card. The front panel and the encasement of the synthesizer were designed by Axel Hartmann. It featured 3 orange stick controllers which allowed simultaneous manipulation of 2 assignable parameters (X/Y direction). There were 2 oscillators per voice (called "Resynators") which were split in two parameter groupings: "Scape" would refer to the generation properties of a sound (such as the excitation source in a real instrument), "Sphere" would contain all parameters referring to the properties of the resonating "instrument" body. The two Resynators could be combined through a "Blender", which allowed different modes to be applied in the combination. The Neuron synthesizer also had an effects unit with EQ, delay, modulation and reverb effects, a digital filter with cutoff, resonance and selectable characteristics, and assignable control wheels.
