STEAM™ Engine

 

The STEAM™ Engine is a core technology that was created by the Spectrasonics in-house development team, and will be used as the basis of all future Spectrasonics performance instruments. Like our core S.A.G.E. technology, used for groove-based instruments like Stylus RMX, STEAM™ is important to our future because it completes the technology transition from earlier performance virtual instruments that were based on the licensed UVI Engine.

Virtual instruments built with the multitimbral STEAM™ Engine offer many development possibilities into a variety of hybrid synthesis and control capabilities. These include high-resolution Streaming Sample Playback, Integrated FX, Variable Waveshaping synthesis, Granular synthesis, FM synthesis, polyphonic Ring Modulation, Timbre Shifting, and a comprehensive Flex-Mod™ modulation routing system, to name a few.

The STEAM™ Engine also enables a more efficient response to technology changes like 64-bit computing or a major new operating system. The new in-house technology allows us to create instruments that can be fully supported across industry changes and allows new innovations and faster transitions in the future.

Just as Stylus RMX, based on S.A.G.E. technology, made early compatibility with Apple’s Intel-Macs possible, new instruments based on STEAM™ technology will make future transitions like these much easier on our customers.

Using STEAM™, new products are being created from the ground up that support Spectrasonics’ long-term vision of the highest-quality sounds and the most musically intuitive user experience.

Virtual instruments powered by STEAM™ also have unlimited expansion possibilities. The new core software is flexible and open - allowing patches to be shared across hosts and computer platforms. New patches and sounds can be added to the core library, giving the user an ever-expanding sonic palette. In addition, all Spectrasonics virtual instruments based on S.A.G.E. and STEAM™ technologies can interact in musically useful and innovative ways for a smoother creative flow.