Have you ever asked yourself, why are the new Korg Radias synths so damn powerful?

Texas Instruments knows the secret.

Texas Instruments has revealed that the secret to Korg Synth Power is the high performance, low power TMS320VC5502 digital signal processor (DSP).

For those not in the know, TI’s TMS320VC5502 16 bit, fixed-point digital signal processor is based on the TMS320C55x DSP core, the latest generation of TI?€™s TMS320C5000 DSP platform.

The DSP features increased parallelism, a variable byte width instruction set for improved code density, and a set of multiple peripherals. KORG’s RADIAS products incorporate TI’s VC5502 DSP which enables RADIAS to offer features such as a 16-band vocoder, an oscillator and multi-mode filtering (low pass, high pass and band bass.)

“While developing RADIAS, we put great emphasis on the concurrent execution of multiple sound sources during play, including analog modeling and various sound effects. TI’s VC5502 DSP, whose core is optimized for sound processing, was the best choice because it is able to easily implement these complex functions,” said Kenichi Nakamura, head of KORG’s product development department.

Now I know why I like analog so much.

via Axehole: The Secret of Korg Synth Power