[ Thanks to LinuxLinks for this link.
]
“A software synthesizer, also known as a softsynth, is
computer software which creates digital audio. Computer software
that generates music is not a recent arrival. However, with
processors that offer multiple cores and faster clock speeds,
software synthesizers can complete tasks that previously needed
dedicated hardware. The advantage, of course, of software
synthesizers is that they are less expensive than dedicated
hardware, and simpler to integrate with other types of music
software.“Synthesizers are often controlled with a piano-style keyboard.
Several other forms of controller have been developed to mimic
guitars, organs, stringed and wind instruments. A real analog
synthesizer has a lot of knobs and switches which give immediate
access to all important parameters of the generated sound.“Linux has a good range of open source software to be a serious
contender in music production without having to venture into the
commercial software world. Some of the software featured in this
article provide operation similar to analog synths from the 1970s,
such as the Moog Minimoog and Roland Juno-60.”