Yichi Wang’s innovative software has created a deep impact on the industry
Yichi Wang is a software developer from Beijing, China. He is the founder and chief executive officer for Sound Magic Co., Ltd. which produces electronic musical instruments and technologies. He is a leading member of the digital audio industry and has made many innovations during his career in both China, the United States, and Canada. He studied music throughout his life and became fascinated with sound technology and has used his education in both music, technology, and business to transform the sound industry.
In November 2004, Wang applied for a patent for his “multidimension vector synthesizing technology in synthesizer”. This patent was granted in 2005. This was the first patent in China for synthesis technology. This technology was not the only first that Wang would accomplish. Sound Magic Co. released the first software analog synthesizer and FM synthesizer built by Chinese in 2005. During this same time, in July 2005, he released a software sampler titled the Millennium Falcon, which is also made the history the first software sampler developed by Chinese.
Synthesizing instruments are a valuable way of bringing traditional instruments to the world and preserving those sounds for future generations. In January 2006, two virtual instruments were published, Sun’s Erhu and Lian’s Pipa, which were available as sample libraries. This allowed musicians using electronic instruments to make use of the sounds of these traditional instruments and take these ancient sounds into the modern world.
Wang’s work in hybrid modeling technology has made vast improvements and has created a lasting impact on the industry, and made the innovation with the Erhu and Pipa possible. His software is efficient in both cost and quality. His method advances the traditional sampling and modeling technologies. The hybrid modeling technology is about 1/10 the size of previous technology, the CPU cost is 1/4 of previous technologies, and the sound far more realistic. This method of reducing a sample size and providing more controls to the sound can let more people use it at a lower cost while producing the authentic sound of a real instrument. Other experts in the field have expressed that this technology is “one of the most significant developments presented in professional audio software field in the past ten years”.
At digital music conferences, Wang has made a point to share these innovations with others in the field so that it can advance the field and put more power to the digital musicians and the sound industry. He has generously donated copies of his software to Stanford University in order to support future leaders in the field. In addition, he works to make his technology cost-effective so it allows more sound scientists to engage in the industry. His contributions have been described as “outstanding achievements,” and that his continued work in the field will bring “extraordinary contributions” to both commercial industries and government needs.
