I'm a newbie and still don't know what the difference between a synth and a workstation. All I know is mostly the workstations keyboards cost more than synth.
Would anyone tell me what the difference in details please? Thanks in advance!

Ok, here goes...

a workstation contains lots of onboard sounds which attempt to replicate the sounds from *real* musical instruments. If you select, say, an accordion sound on a workstation, then when you hit a key on the keyboard you'll be triggering an audio sample taken from a real accordion.

Workstations also usually have onboard sequencers and onboard floppy disc drives for recording and playing music which has been saved in midi format. The downside to workstations is that there's not much room for tweaking the sounds and you're pretty much stuck with the factory presets.

A workstation would be a better choice for someone who was trying to compose (for example) some classical music.

Synths on the other hand are more geared towards people who want to create their own unique (freaky!) sounds. You can normally tell the difference between a synth and a workstation at a glance, because synths usually have lots of knobs and/or sliders for tweaking the sounds.

Also, the way in which synths produce sounds is different from with a workstation. Instead of using sounds which have been sampled from real instruments, synthesizers use difference methods for creating sounds such as producing a sawtooth wav and adding filter sweeps and so on. Although both synths and workstations have presets which attempt to replicate the sounds of real instruments... it's generally agreed that workstations sound more realistic because of their totally different method of sound production.

Both (modern) synths and workstations can be programmed to respond to midi data.

The only other thing I can think of that's worth mentioning is that the difference between synths and workstations seems to be becoming more blurred every year. Powerful instruments like the Korg Triton for example are often described as "workstation synthesizers" because they can pretty much do all the things a workstation can do, as well as doing all the things a synthesizer can do.

In short... if you wanna compose traditional sounding music (pianos, guitars, harps, flutes etc), then you want to lean towards the side of a workstation.

If however, you wanna produce Madonnas next album, then you should go for a synth.

-Equalizer

A workstation has, as a minimum, a sequencer and built-in fx.

A synth doesn't nessessarily have anything extra, which can be a very good thing, depending on the studio you already have.

-tek

Thank you all for your replies! That clears the cloud!!!

To me a synthesizer keyboard is a keyboard that can manipulate or combine waves or tones to generate or alter a sound. This can be done starting with a straight tone or starting with a "sampled" tone to mold it into the desire result. There are big differences in the capabilities of different synthesizers but they have at least some capability to change the sound, not just effects. There is a combination of sampled sounds and synthesized sounds on a keyboard. Sampled sounds require vast amounts of memory. To reduce the memory required use a few sampled notes on the scale with spaces in between. The notes in between the sampled notes are synthesized to create those notes. Kurzweil (one of the synths I have) has a "sampled" piano that takes very little memory. They also have a sampled piano that virtually every note was sampled. That piano requires 64 mg of memory. There are also pianos in between those 2 extremes, requiring different amounts of memory. This is determined by how many notes are sampled. Real instruments and all sorts of noises can be sampled.

Work stations are not that clearly defined. I see them as a keyboard that fits with your other equipment, computer, mixer or whatever to achieve the end product that you are wanting. Whether using samples, synthesized sounds or a combination is not the determining factor. "Workstation" is probably an advertising term.


[This message has been edited by bvan (edited 11-21-2002).]

Workstation is not an advertising term. Before the first workstations appeared, people had to buy a sequencer and fx units separately. Then Korg, Ensoniq and others started slapping on the sequencer and give the sounds some basic digital fx. I know because I used to own one of the first generation (digital) workstations, the Ensoniq SQ1+.

The term workstation doesn't have anything to do with realistic instruments or the fact that samples are being used. Same goes for synths. There are synthesisers with built-in fx, that can't be called workstations.

Btw, bvan, memory isn't measured in milligrams.

-tek

Tek,
You are right about the memory, sorry I had a long day working with medical terms.

The reason I said "advertising" is that I see "workstation" being used loosely by those marketing them. I have 3 keyboards, all 3 has a sequencer, midi connections, and all the other things you mentioned. Only 1 of them is a synth having the capability of synthesizing a sound. That keyboard is complete to the point that if you so choose you could do anything with it as a stand alone instrument except that it has no amp or speakers. My daughter has a "workstation" that cannot be classified as a synth. It has a sequencer I certainly would not like to work with. Therefore it appears to me that the term is used in an effort to market the keyboard. I have no doubt that you have/had a keyboard marketed as a workstation.

I wonder if Roland's System 100 was the first workstation.



-tek

Sure looks to me like it could be called a "workstation" Look at what Sweetwater has labeled "workstations".
I was not disputing that there are workstations, just that workstation and synthesizer are not mutually exclusive terms. If it can synthesize it is a synthesizer. And perhaps if you can "work" with it it is a "workstation". Semantics, semantics, semantics. To know what it is you have to look further than just a name.

I thought it was clear that all workstations include a proper synthesizer. Unless you're talking about those awful home keyboards and the groovebox crap (not just Roland's).

-tek