kb
Tammo Hinrichs — the synth behind the size-coding
kb (Tammo Hinrichs) built Farbrausch's V2 synthesizer, the software synth that let the group pack rich, full-length soundtracks into 64K intros like fr-08.
Overview
kb — Tammo Hinrichs, also known as kebby — is the reason Farbrausch’s tiny intros could sound so big. He wrote the V2 synthesizer (ViruzII), a software synth that generates instruments from compact parameter data rather than stored samples, which is exactly what makes an 11-minute soundtrack fit inside a 64-kilobyte intro like fr-08: .the .product.
V2 is the audio counterpart to the procedural graphics that ryg and the group were famous for: instead of storing the result, you store the recipe and synthesise it at runtime. Released as open source with the rest of Farbrausch’s tools, V2 has had a long life well beyond the demos it was built for.
Fast facts
- Handles: kb, kebby.
- Group: Farbrausch.
- Key work: The V2 (ViruzII) software synthesizer.
- Discipline: Synth coding and music.
Synthesis as compression
The V2 makes the size-coding bargain audible: a few kilobytes of synth parameters stand in for megabytes of recorded audio, generated fresh every time the intro runs. It is the same instinct that drives procedural graphics, applied to sound — and one of the clearest examples of how scene constraints produced genuinely useful tools.