Date: 10/11/2010

KORG selects ADI's SHARC in its music synth systems

Analog Devices, Inc.has announced that KORG Inc., has selected ADI's SHARC processor as the digital signal processing (DSP) engine within its WAVEDRUM Mini, a new portable percussion synthesizer available. Designed for musicians "on-the-go," the WAVEDRUM Mini combines a unique, patent-pending sound source system, which allows the musician to express the full gamut of musical articulation, from subtle nuances to dynamic and aggressive playing styles.

This second generation WAVEDRUM uses ADI's SHARC floating-point audio processing power to reproduce the realistic percussion sounds and a dynamic range of acoustic musical instruments. By leveraging SHARC's floating-point architecture, the KORG audio system is able to implement specialized algorithms that take advantage of SHARC's speed and memory architecture to ensure optimal audio fidelity, as per ADI.

"We've used ADI's DSP products in our products for several years," says Hiromi Iwashita, an engineer in KORG's DR Group, Development Department 3. "ADI's DSP processors offer high performance and compatibility with a wide range of peripherals and development environment and tools. At the same time they can help us to reduce cost and development times. That's why they're so attractive. In the WAVEDRUM Mini, the single ADSP-21375 SHARC processor handles virtually all required processes and operations, including the basic system, sound sources, effectors, and rhythm and loop functions. We plan to continue using ADI's products in future products to make the best use of the ADI product system assets we've accumulated."

"Up to now, SHARC has been used mostly in high-end audio products," said Hiroyuki Fujikawa, Senior Manager, DSP Technology Group, Analog Devices. "In recent years, ADI's SHARC is used within a wide range of innovative, consumer products, including the WAVEDRUM Mini. We are very gratified to have KORG, an industry innovator, adopt our SHARC architecture to realize state-of-the-art acoustical processing in their leading edge products. The Analog Devices SHARC DSP processor family and development tools are the 'gold standard' for premium audio processing."