Palm Products

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PPG Wave from Wolfgang Palm, the most successful product

The Palm Products GmbH (also P alm P roducts G ermany, commonly known as PPG for short) was a manufacturer of synthesizers . PPG was founded by Wolfgang Palm and was based in Hamburg. From 1975 to 1987, the company manufactured a renowned and versatile line of electronic musical instruments, all of which were designed by Wolfgang Palm himself.

In March 2020 it was announced that PPG had been acquired by the software company Plugin Alliance .

Beginnings

Wolfgang Palm worked as a keyboard player in bands in the Hamburg area before he became aware of the synthesizer market that was emerging at that time. In 1975, Palm founded the PPG company.

His first commercially available synthesizer was a modular synthesizer without a piano keyboard called the PPG 300 series. Despite its high complexity and variety of functions, it could not be sold in large quantities. Motivated by this failure and inspired by the design of the popular Minimoog , Palm later introduced the PPG 1002 and PPG 1020 synthesizers . Both were built analog , monophonic , relatively compact and therefore easy to transport. The PPG 1002 used voltage controlled oscillators ; The PPG 1020, on the other hand, had digitally controlled oscillators , which were much more stable in terms of voice and had a distinctive sound, which later became the trademark of PPG.

The PPG Wave

PPG developed and released other digital synthesizers, most of which had little success. In 1979, PPG introduced the 340/380 system, a complex digital synthesizer that consisted of the 340 processor unit, the 340 generator unit, and the 380 event generator (a 16-track sequencer ). It was delivered with a computer terminal, which contained a monitor, an 8-inch floppy disk drive and a 5-octave keyboard that was used for importing into the sequencer and for polyphonic playback of the sounds from the 340 wave generator. Despite some drawbacks, which included its complex functionality and high price, the device became very popular and was used for music recording by Tangerine Dream and Thomas Dolby in the early 1980s .

In 1980, Wolfgang Palm introduced a new concept called wavetable synthesis . This made it possible to save short samples of a longer audio signal, split them up into individual segments and process them as a wavetable sound source. The first PPG synthesizer to use wavetable synthesis was the PPG Wavecomputer 360 , which was released in 1980 in two versions - the 360A with 4 oscillators and the 360B with their 8. However, the synthesizer sounded relatively thin, as there was only one oscillator was available per voice and had a limited polyphony, as with most synthesizers of its time.

In 1981 PPG had great success with the release of the PPG Wave 2 . It was sold for around 16,500 Deutschmarks (€ 8,400). It contained analog envelopes , LFOs , filters and digital wavetable oscillators for sound generation. While conventional analog synthesizers could only handle 5 or 6 waveforms per oscillator, the PPG Wave 2 offered 64 selectable waveforms from 30 individual waveforms for each oscillator. A total of 1920 waveforms were available per oscillator. Tangerine Dream helped develop the synthesizer. An analog VCF and VCA were added to give the sound more warmth and prevent it from sounding too thin (like the Wavecomputer 360).

A total of around 1000 PPG – Wave synthesizers were manufactured between 1981 and 1987 with two different updates of the model: the PPG Wave 2.2 , which had waveforms and samples, and the 2.3, which was multitimbral and had an additional MIDI interface for communication with other devices . It was also the most internationally successful products manufactured by PPG. The sound characteristics of the PPG-Wave 2 were unique, that's why the synthesizer was used by artists like Propaganda , David Bowie , The Fixx , Thomas Dolby , Depeche Mode , Art of Noise , The Cars , Jean Michel Jarre , Pet Shop Boys , Rush , Gary Numan , Robert Palmer , The Psychedelic Furs , Talk Talk , Tangerine Dream , Tears For Fears , Ultravox , Steve Winwood , Stevie Wonder were often used for their music recordings in the 80s. Important customers were Chris Evans Ironside and Edgar Froese .

Computer controlled synthesizers

In 1982, Wolfgang Palm increased the use of computers in music with the introduction of the PPG Waveterm , a 19-inch rack computer system with an integrated monitor, two 8-inch floppy drives (later upgraded to 5.25 inches) and a proprietary Flex9-based operating system on a Eurocom II motherboard from the German company Eltec. In the PPG Waveterm B , this was replaced by a proprietary Motorola 68000-based motherboard running a completely proprietary operating system. It is designed for use with many of PPG's synthesizers. A sound could be broken down into points, selected in a diagram displayed on the screen, sampled and used as a sound source. This also made it possible to process self-made noises with the PPG Waveterm or to use sounds provided by PPG on data carriers. The PPG Waveterm was manufactured until 1985.

In order to increase sales, PPG had lowered the prices of many of their synthesizers at the time, including the PPG Wave , which was now to be sold for around 10,000 D – Marks (€ 5112.92)

In 1986, Wolfgang Palm began working on a prototype for the Realizer , an all-in-one studio machine , similar to modern music workstations , which, in addition to sophisticated sampling, also combined production, recording, sequencing and mixing consoles in one machine. The Realizer also had the ability to simulate emulations of other popular synthesizers such as the Minimoog . However, the system was too complicated for its time and the high production costs caused a forecast retail price of almost 99,000 D-Marks (50,617 €). As such, the Realizer was never sold and never got beyond the prototype phase. It has been reported that there are two prototype versions, each with slightly different controls on the front.

When interest in Palm's other products waned, PPG was in debt as a result of the Realizer's development costs . For this reason, PPG officially closed down PPG in 1987.

Important PPG instruments

  • Series 100 (1975) - analog modular synthesizer
  • 300 series (1975) - analog modular synthesizer
  • Series 1002/1020 (1977) - analog / digital hybrid modular synthesizer
  • 340/380 System (1979) - Digital Synthesizer
  • Wavecomputer 360 A / B (1980) - digital synthesizer
  • PPG Wave 2 , 2.2, 2.3 (1981, 1987) - digital synthesizer
  • PRK (1985) - controller keyboard and sequencer
  • Waveterm A / B (1985) - rack-mounted computer system
  • HDU (1986) - hard disk drive recording system
  • Realizer (1986) - music workstation, prototype

Waldorf Music

After PPG's commercial decline, Wolfgang Palm continued to work in the field of synthesizer technology. For Waldorf , he designed an integrated circuit (ASIC) for the first Waldorf synthesizers, 1989 Microwave which is essentially the complete sound engine of the PPG Wave 2.2 contained. The Waldorf Wave was primarily used by professional artists ( Ace of Base , and Depeche Mode ) - even after production was finished. Later Waldorf synthesizers like the MicroWave II , XT , Q , microQ, and Blofeld had all or more of the original wavetables and waveforms of the PPG Waves. In 2002 the Steinberg company published the PLEX , a software synthesizer, together with Wolfgang Palm . which was later available as freeware.

Palm has had a huge impact on sound synthesis and electronic music as a whole. The unique sound of the PPG wave and its widespread use on numerous electronic and new wave productions can be seen as the cause of the increasing popularity of digital synthesis in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Wavetable synthesis is still widely used and used in various hardware and software synthesizers. The unique integration of analog and digital circuitry through the wave influenced synthesizers such as the Monowave and the E-Mu emulator .

Others

From 2012 the company dealt with the production of software instruments in VST technology. Known products:

  • Infinite Pro
  • phoneme
  • Wavemapper 2
  • Wavegenerator

Furthermore, were IOS developed applications:

  • Infinite Pro
  • phoneme
  • Wavemapper
  • Wavegenerator
  • Mini mapper

Takeover of PPG by Plugin Alliance

In March 2020 it was announced that PPG had been taken over by the software company Brainworx Audio GmbH / Plugin Alliance. The products are to be further developed there.

Web links on the left

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wolfgang Palm - PPG Apps. Retrieved August 17, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b PPG Wave 2 | Vintage Synth Explorer. In: vintagesynth.com. March 2012, accessed August 2020 .
  3. ^ Wolfgang Palm - PPG Apps. Retrieved August 18, 2020 .
  4. ^ Wolfgang Palm - PPG Apps. Retrieved August 23, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Realizer. Wolfgang Palm - PPG Apps, accessed August 17, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Test: Steinberg Plex software synthesizer. In: AMAZONA.de. September 29, 2002, accessed August 17, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Palm's Plex 2. Accessed August 17, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Palm - PPG Infinite PRO. Retrieved August 23, 2020 .
  9. ^ Wolfgang Palm - PPG Apps. Retrieved August 23, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Palm - PPG Apps - WaveMapper IOS. Retrieved August 23, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Palm - New software and the alliance? Farewell! March 18, 2020, accessed on August 23, 2020 (German).