Welcome to proximaSyntauri, the complete web site for the care and feeding of the alphaSyntauri synthesizer. In these pages you will find everything you need to acquire, set up, and use an alphaSyntauri of your very own!

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• December 14, 2002:
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The alphaSyntauri holds a unique place in music history. It was the first electronic instrument based on a home computer. Designed in 1979¹, the Syntauri Corporation began producing the alphaSyntauri in 1980. Instead of using its own internal circuitry to control the various parts of the instrument, the alphaSyntauri used an Apple II home computer as its brains. Back when other digital synthesizers cost upwards of $40,000, the alphaSyntauri was able to come in at under $1,500 (not including the Apple II).

Arguably, the alphaSyntauri could also be considered the first commercially available "soft synth" (an electronic musical instrument implemented strictly in computer software). Aside from the alphaSyntauri keyboard, accompanying interface card, and commercially available sound generation card (such as the Mountain Computer Music System cards), most of the magic of the alphaSyntauri is embodied in the software driving the system. Written in a combination of Motorola 6502 (the CPU in the Apple II) assembly language and Apple BASIC, the software controls most of the synthesizer functions, including sound programming, keyboard action interpretation, and automated playback.¹

Its abilities were formidable at the time. The alphaSyntauri could play 16 notes simultaneously, and some models of the keyboard could measure key velocity. Its included software allowed for real-time control of selected portions of the sound, a trait borrowed from analog synthesizers of the time. It's software was not in a fixed form either, but could be customized and added onto as time went on. Find out more about the alphaSyntauri's abilities in the Documents and Tech Gallery sections of this web site.

For a variety of reasons, Syntauri Corp. failed in 1984, after having sold "thousands" of units.² For a time, Mimetics Corporation supported the alphaSyntauri until they too went under in 1988. But many alphaSyntauris have made the big time, being played by such keyboard luminaries as Keith Emerson (Yes) and Herbie Hancock. A handful of musicians still use this unusual instrument today, and you can visit some of them in the People Gallery.

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References

1. Jigour, Robin; Kellner, Charlie; Lapham, Ellen. "The alphaSyntauri Instrument: A Modular and Software Programmable Digital Synthesizer System". Philadelphia: IEEE Computer Society, 1981.
2. Vail, Mark. Vintage Synthesizers, p. 91-92. San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books, 2000

proximaSyntauri is seeking information and documents for alphaSyntauri-related software and hardware. If you have information on any of the items listed below, or if you have software or hardware that does not appear in the appropriate lists elsewhere in the site, please e-mail us at purplenote@pobox.com.

• MetaWave and LehrWare Sound Library software packages
• Review of alphaSyntauri from Keyboard magazine, June 1983.
• Any original brochures, advertisements, or promotional material in color.
• Any information on the Mimetics Proxima system.
• Any information on the Passport SoundChaser synthesizer system.
• Any information on the SYN-1 synthesizer system.
• Any information on the VersaTracs Computer Music System.

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