A class of its own: Yamaha's VCM technology
Creating an exact digital image of world-class analog audio processors has always been a sought-after goal — until Yamaha, world's largest and most successful manufacturer of quality musical instruments, introduced a revolutionary technology that enables to create highly accurate digital copies of analog hardware: Virtual Circuitry Modeling (VCM) technology.
VCM was developed by an engineering group led by Toshifumi Kunimoto, a senior engineer who was also responsible for the first physical modeling synthesizers, VL1 and VP1.
VCM enables an ultra-realistic digital reproduction of individual components in analog circuits, such as resistors and capacitors. Besides modeling the functionality of a circuit and the interaction between single components, VCM focuses on an unprecedented musical simulation of analog sound qualities, including typical characteristics like saturation and non-linearity — subtleties that simple digital simulations can not capture.
Each effect is carefully analyzed by some of the best ears in the business and tweaked to provide the best-sounding results in today’s pro sound environment. Breathtakingly accurate, yet highly musical — the VCM technology is the most straightforward approach to analog sound modeling and is now available in the RND Portico plug-ins.
- Toshifumi Kunimoto, senior engineer at Yamaha
