__NOTOC__ Seer Systems developed the world's first commercial

software synthesizer A software synthesizer or softsynth is a computer program that generates digital audio, usually for music. Computer software that can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed now allow softsynths to accomplish the same t ...

in the early 1990s. Working in conjunction with

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

, then

Creative Labs Creative Technology Ltd., or Creative Labs Pte Ltd., is a Singaporean multinational electronics company mainly dealing with audio technologies and products such as speakers, headphones, sound cards and other digital media. Founded by Sim Wong ...

, and finally as an independent software developer and retailer, Seer helped lay the groundwork for a major shift in synthesis technology: using

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

s, rather than dedicated synthesizer keyboards, to create music.

History

Seer's founder,

Stanley Jungleib Stanley Jungleib (born Stanley Young, May 15, 1953) is an American musician, philosopher, author, inventor, and entrepreneur. He is best known for wide-reaching influence in digital music and synthesizer design. Most notably his commitment to softw ...

, joined the staff of

Sequential Circuits Sequential is an American synthesizer company founded in 1974 as Sequential Circuits by Dave Smith. In 1978, Sequential released the Prophet-5, the first programmable polyphonic synthesizer, which was widely used in the music industry. In the ...

(creators of the groundbreaking

Prophet-5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential (company), Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith (engineer), Dave Smith and John S. Bowen (sound designer), John Bowen in 1977. It was the first Polyphony ...

synthesizer) in 1979. Working as Publications Manager, he drafted the technical manuals for all Sequential products. Jungleib was a charter member of the International MIDI Association (which later became the MIDI Manufacturer's Association) and helped to establish the

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

protocol. In 1992, Jungleib was invited to teach a seminar on MIDI at Intel Architecture Labs. This led to the launching of an Intel project to create a software synthesizer for the

80486 The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor introduced in 1989. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the Intel 386. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the 8086 of 19 ...

processor. Jungleib assembled a development team, and at the end of 1992 founded Seer Systems to work on the project. The resulting synthesizer, code-named Satie, was demonstrated by

Andrew Grove Andrew "Andy" Stephen Grove (born Gróf András István; 2 September 1936 – 21 March 2016) was a Hungarian-American businessman and engineer who served as the third CEO of Intel Corporation. He escaped from the Hungarian People's Republic dur ...

in his keynote speech at Comdex in 1994. Intel discontinued the project in 1995, possibly due to friction with

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

over Native Signal Processing. Seer began afresh with a

Pentium Pentium is a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel from 1993 to 2023. The Pentium (original), original Pentium was Intel's fifth generation processor, succeeding the i486; Pentium was Intel's flagship proce ...

-based architecture. That same year, the founder of Sequential Circuits, Dave Smith, joined as President. Seer struck a distribution deal with

in 1996, which contributed to strong financial results for the AWE64. Over 10 million software synthesizers, the "", were shipped as a result. It was the first publicly available synthesizer to use Sondius WaveGuide technology developed at Stanford's

CCRMA Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

. In 1997, Seer released Reality, the world's first professional software synthesizer for the PC. Reality won the 1998 Editors' Choice Award from

Electronic Musician Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

Magazine. Industry veteran

Craig Anderton PAiA Electronics, Inc. is an United States of America, American synthesizer kit company that was started by John Simonton in 1967. It sells various musical electronics kits including analog synthesizers, theremins, audio mixer, mixers and various ...

called it a "''groundbreaking product''." 1999 saw the introduction of SurReal 1.0, an affordable player for Reality and

SoundFont SoundFont is a brand name that collectively refers to a file format and associated technology that uses sample-based synthesis to play MIDI files. It was first used on the Sound Blaster AWE32 sound card for its General MIDI support. SoundFon ...

instrument sounds, the release of Reality 1.5, which added web features, more

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

and better

sound card A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio ...

support, and the issuance of ("System and Method for Generating, Distributing, Storing and Performing Musical Work Files"/Inventor, Jungleib/Assignee, Seer). But by 2000, legal struggles with hostile investors, limited distribution and piracy caused Seer to cease active development, suspend sales through retail outlets, and briefly shift to an online sales model. An unrelated company, Seer Music Systems, founded by Canadian engineer Ian Grant, acquired the distribution rights and continues to offer legacy demos and support. Since 2003, Seer's primary focus has been upon protecting its intellectual property (the '274 patent). Over several years, and following related litigation, the technology was licensed to Beatnik (2004),

(2006) and

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: People * Torakusu Yamaha, a Japanese businessman and founder of the Yamaha Corporation Companies * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese musical instrument and audio equipment manufacturer ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organi ...

(2007).

Products

Reality

Announced in January 1997, Reality ran on Pentium PCs under Windows 95/98. Version 1.0 offered multiple types of synthesis, including PCM wavetable, subtractive,

modal synthesis Additive synthesis is a sound synthesis technique that creates timbre by adding sine waves together. The timbre of musical instruments can be considered in the light of Fourier theory to consist of multiple harmonic or inharmonic '' partials'' ...

and FM, as well as

physical modeling Physical modelling synthesis refers to sound synthesis methods in which the waveform of the sound to be generated is computed using a mathematical model, a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a physical source of sound, usually a musical i ...

via the Sondius WaveGuide technology licensed from Stanford University. Reality was the first synthesizer able to simultaneously play multiple synthesis types on multiple MIDI channels in real-time. Reality 1.5 was released in 1999, adding more polyphony, support for a broader range of sound cards and the ability to load and play SoundFont 2.0 samples. It also incorporated SeerMusic, enabling fast Internet playback of music files using a combination of MIDI and Reality synthesis data. In its 2017, February issue Electronic Musician gave Seer Systems Reality a 2017 Editors' Choice Legacy Award, terming the 1997 introduction "a game-changing product—an unprecedented achievement—that has shaped the way we make music."

SurReal

In February 1999, Seer announced SurReal, a playback-oriented version of the Reality synthesizer engine. It was designed to be more user-friendly, and had fewer controls, but could load and play complex Reality soundbanks as well as SoundFonts. SurReal also supported SeerMusic for internet delivery.

SeerMusic

SeerMusic was introduced in January 1998. By combining MIDI performance data, synthesis parameters and sample data, music playback files could be significantly smaller than standard compressed digital audio data.

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Seer Systems
official site
Seer Systems Archives: 1992–2005
— timeline

— distributor (se

page) Software companies of the United States Manufacturing companies established in 1979 American companies established in 1979