A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates . Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as Audio filter, which cut or boost Audio frequency; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with Musical keyboard or controlled by Music sequencer, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI.
Synthesizer-like instruments emerged in the United States in the mid-20th century with instruments such as the RCA Mark II, which was controlled with and used hundreds of vacuum tubes. The Moog synthesizer, developed by Robert Moog and first sold in 1964, is credited for pioneering concepts such as voltage-controlled oscillators, envelopes, , filters, and sequencers. In 1970, the smaller, cheaper Minimoog standardized synthesizers as self-contained instruments with built-in keyboards, unlike the larger modular synthesizers before it.
In 1978, Sequential Circuits released the Prophet-5, which used to allow users to store sounds for the first time. MIDI, a standardized means of synchronizing electronic instruments, was introduced in 1982 and remains an industry standard. The Yamaha DX7, launched in 1983, was a major success and popularized digital synthesis. Software synthesizers now can be run as plug-ins or embedded on . In the 21st century, Analog revival with the advent of cheaper manufacturing and the increasing popularity of synthwave music starting in the 2010s.
Synthesizers were initially viewed as avant-garde, valued by the 1960s Psychedelia and countercultural scenes but with little perceived commercial potential. Switched-On Bach (1968) , a bestselling album of Bach compositions arranged for synthesizer by Wendy Carlos, took synthesizers to the mainstream. They were adopted by electronic acts and pop and rock groups in the 1960s and 1970s and were widely used in 1980s music. Sampling, introduced with the Fairlight CMI synthesizer in 1979, has influenced genres such as electronic and hip hop music. Today, the synthesizer is used in nearly every genre of music and is considered one of the most important instruments in the music industry. According to Fact in 2016, "The synthesizer is as important, and as ubiquitous, in modern music today as the human voice."
History
Precursors
As
electricity became more widely available, the early 20th century saw the invention of electronic musical instruments including the
Telharmonium,
Trautonium,
ondes Martenot and
theremin.
In the late 1930s, the Hammond Organ Company built the
Novachord, a large instrument powered by 72 voltage-controlled amplifiers and 146
.
In 1948, the Canadian engineer Hugh Le Caine completed the electronic sackbut, a precursor to
control voltage, with keyboard sensitivity allowing for
vibrato,
glissando, and attack control.
In 1957, Harry Olson and Herbert Belar completed the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer at the RCA laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey. The instrument read Punched card that controlled an analog synthesizer containing 750 vacuum tubes. It was acquired by the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and used almost exclusively by Milton Babbitt, a composer at Princeton University.
1960s: Early years
The authors of
Analog Days define "the early years of the synthesizer" as between 1964 and the mid-1970s, beginning with the debut of the
Moog synthesizer. Designed by the American engineer
Robert Moog, the instrument was a modular synthesizer system composed of numerous separate electronic modules, each capable of generating, shaping, or controlling a sound depending on how each module is connected to other modules by
.
Moog developed a means of controlling pitch through
voltage, the voltage-controlled oscillator.
This, along with Moog components such as envelopes,
, filters, and
Music sequencer, became standard components in synthesizers.
Around the same period, the American engineer Don Buchla created the Buchla Modular Electronic Music System.
1970s: Portability, polyphony and patch memory
In 1970, Moog launched a cheaper, smaller synthesizer, the
Minimoog.
It was the first synthesizer sold in music stores,
and was more practical for live performance. It standardized the concept of synthesizers as self-contained instruments with built-in keyboards.
[Franklin Crawford (August 23, 2005). "Robert Moog, Ph.D. '64, inventor of the music synthesizer, dies of brain cancer". Cornell University News Service. Retrieved 4 May 2007.] In the early 1970s, the British composer Ken Freeman introduced the first string synthesizer, designed to emulate
.
, introduced in 1970, was the first synthesizer sold in music stores.]]
After retail stores started selling synthesizers in 1971, other synthesizer companies were established, including ARP Instruments in the US and EMS in the UK.
Early synthesizers were Monophonic synth, meaning they could only play one note at a time. Some of the earliest commercial polyphonic synthesizers were created by the American engineer Tom Oberheim,
1980s: Digital technology
The synthesizer market grew dramatically in the 1980s. 1982 saw the introduction of
MIDI, a
standardized means of synchronizing electronic instruments; it remains an industry standard.
An influential sampling synthesizer, the
Fairlight CMI, was released in 1979,
with the ability to record and play back samples at different pitches.
Though its high price made it inaccessible to amateurs, it was adopted by high-profile pop musicians including
Kate Bush and
Peter Gabriel. The success of the Fairlight drove competition, improving sampling technology and lowering prices.
Early competing samplers included the
E-mu Emulator in 1981
and the Akai S-series in 1985.
In 1983, Yamaha released the first commercially successful digital synthesizer, the Yamaha DX7.
Based on frequency modulation (FM) synthesis developed by the Stanford University engineer
John Chowning,
the DX7 was characterized by its "harsh", "glassy" and "chilly" sounds, compared to the "warm" and "fuzzy" sounds of analog synthesis.
The DX7 was the first synthesizer to sell more than 100,000 unitsand remains one of the bestselling in history.
It was widely used in 1980s pop music.
Digital synthesizers typically contained preset sounds emulating acoustic instruments, with algorithms controlled with menus and buttons.
1990s–present: Software synthesizers and analog revival
1997 saw the release of ReBirth by Propellerhead Software and Reality by
Seer Systems, the first software synthesizers that could be played in real time via MIDI.
In 1999, an update to the music software
Cubase allowed users to run software instruments (including synthesizers) as plug-ins, triggering a wave of new software instruments.
Propellerhead's Reason, released in 2000, introduced an array of recognizable virtual studio equipment.
The market for patchable and modular synthesizers rebounded in the late 1990s. In the 2000s, older analog synthesizers regained popularity, sometimes selling for much more than their original prices.
Impact
Early synthesizers were viewed as
avant-garde, valued by the 1960s
Psychedelia and counter-cultural scenes for their ability to make new sounds, but with little perceived commercial potential.
Switched-On Bach (1968)
, a bestselling album of
Bach compositions arranged for Moog synthesizer by
Wendy Carlos, demonstrated that synthesizers could be more than "random noise machines",
taking them to the mainstream.
However, debates were held about the appropriateness of synthesizers in
baroque music, and according to the
Guardian they were quickly abandoned in "serious classical circles".
Today, the synthesizer is one of the most important instruments in the music industry,
Rock
performing with a Moog synthesizer in 1970]]The Moog was adopted by 1960s rock acts including the
The Doors, the
Grateful Dead, the
Rolling Stones, the
Beatles, and
Keith Emerson.
Emerson was the first major rock musician to perform with the Moog and it became a trademark of his performances, helping take his band Emerson, Lake & Palmer to global stardom. According to
Analog Days, the likes of Emerson, with his Moog performances, "did for the keyboard what
Jimi Hendrix did for the guitar". String synthesizers were used by 1970s
progressive rock bands including Camel, Caravan, Electric Light Orchestra,
Gentle Giant and Renaissance.
The portable Minimoog (1970), much smaller than the modular synthesizers before it, made synthesizers more common in live performance.
African-American music
The Minimoog took a place in mainstream African-American music, most notably in the work of
Stevie Wonder,
and in
jazz, such as the work of
Sun Ra.
In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the Minimoog was widely used in the emerging
disco genre by artists including
Abba and
Giorgio Moroder.
Sampling, introduced with the
Fairlight CMI synthesizer in 1979, has influenced all genres of music
and had a major influence on the development of electronic and
hip hop music.
Electronic music
In the 1970s, electronic music composers such as Jean Michel Jarre
and
Isao Tomita released successful synthesizer-led instrumental albums. This influenced the emergence of
synth-pop from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The work of German
krautrock bands such as
Kraftwerk and
Tangerine Dream, British acts such as
John Foxx,
Gary Numan and
David Bowie, African-American acts such as George Clinton and Zapp, and Japanese electronic acts such as Yellow Magic Orchestra and
Kitaro were influential in the development of the genre.
The sequencer-based Roland TB-303 (1981), in conjunction with the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, became a foundation of electronic dance music genres such as House music and techno when producers acquired cheap second-hand units later in the decade.
Pop
Gary Numan's 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars" made heavy use of synthesizers.
OMD's "Enola Gay" (1980) used distinctive electronic percussion and a synthesized melody.
Soft Cell used a synthesized melody on their 1981 hit "Tainted Love".
, the keyboardist of
Duran Duran, used synthesizers including the Roland Jupiter-4 and Jupiter-8.
Chart hits include
Depeche Mode's "Just Can't Get Enough" (1981),
the Human League's "Don't You Want Me"
and works by
Ultravox.
In the 1980s, digital synthesizers were widely used in pop music.
Film and television
Synthesizers are common in film and television soundtracks. In 1969,
Mort Garson used a Moog to compose a soundtrack for the televised footage of the
First moonwalk, creating a link between electronic music and space in the American popular imagination.
ARP synthesizers were used to create sound effects for the 1977 science fiction films
Close Encounters of the Third Kind and
Star Wars, including the "voice" of the robot R2-D2.
In the 1970s and 1980s, synthesizers were used in the scores for thrillers and horror films including A Clockwork Orange (1971), Apocalypse Now (1979), The Fog (1980) and Manhunter (1986). Brad Fiedel used a Prophet synthesizer to record the soundtrack for The Terminator (1984),
Jobs
The rise of the synthesizer led to major changes in the music industry, including
job displacement, comparable to the 1920s arrival of
Sound film, which put live musicians accompanying
out of work.
[ From Stage to Studio: Musicians and the Sound Revolution, 1890–1950 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996).] With its ability to imitate instruments such as strings and horns, the synthesizer threatened the jobs of
by allowing one keyboardist or music programmer to produce the same range of sounds as an entire orchestra. For a period, the Moog was banned from use in union work, a restriction negotiated by the American Federation of Musicians (AFM).
Robert Moog felt that the AFM had not realized that his instrument had to be studied like any other, and instead imagined that "all the sounds that musicians could make somehow existed in the Moog — all you had to do was push a button that said '
Jascha Heifetz' and out would come the most fantastic violin player".
[Interview with Bob Moog, Plug, Fall 1974, p.2.]
The musician Walter Sear persuaded the AFM that the synthesizer demanded skill, and the category of "synthesizer player" was accepted into the union. However, players were subject to "suspicion and hostility" for years. In 1982, following a tour by Barry Manilow using synthesizers instead of an orchestra, the British Musicians' Union attempted to ban synthesizers, attracting controversy.
Sound synthesis
, complex waveforms are generated by oscillators and then shaped with filters to remove or boost specific frequencies.]]Synthesizers generate audio through various forms of analog and digital synthesis.
-
In subtractive synthesis, complex are generated by oscillators and then shaped with filters to remove or boost specific frequencies.
-
In additive synthesis, a large number of waveforms, usually , are combined into a composite sound.
-
In frequency modulation (FM) synthesis, also known as phase modulation, a carrier wave is modulated with the frequency of a modulator wave; the resulting complex waveform can, in turn, be modulated by another modulator, and this by another, and so on.
-
Phase distortion synthesis, implemented in Casio CZ synthesizers, is similar to FM synthesis.
-
In wavetable synthesis, synthesizers modulate smoothly between digital representations of different waveforms, changing the shape and timbre.
-
In sample-based synthesis, instead of sounds being created by synthesizers, samples (digital recordings of sounds) are played back and shaped with components such as filters, envelopes and LFOs.
-
In vector synthesis, pioneered by the Prophet VS, users crossfade between different sound sources using controllers such as joysticks, envelopes and LFOs.
-
In granular synthesis, an audio sample is split into "grains", usually between one hundredth and one tenth of a second in length, which are recombined and played back.
-
In physical modelling synthesis, a mathematical model of a physical sound source is created.
Components
Oscillators
Oscillators produce waveforms (such as
Sawtooth wave,
Sine wave, or
) with different
.
Voltage-controlled amplifiers
Voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs) control the volume or gain of the audio signal. VCAs can be modulated by other components, such as LFOs and envelopes.
A VCA is a
preamp that boosts (amplifies) the electronic signal before passing it on to an external or built-in power amplifier, as well as a means to control its amplitude (volume) using an attenuator. The gain of the VCA is affected by a
control voltage (CV), coming from an envelope generator, an LFO, the keyboard or some other source.
[
]
Envelopes
Envelopes control how sounds change over time. They may control parameters such as
amplitude (volume), filters (frequencies), or pitch. The most common envelope is the ADSR (attack, decay, sustain, release) envelope:
-
Attack is the time taken for initial run-up of level from nil to peak, beginning when the note is triggered.
-
Decay is the time taken for the subsequent run down from the attack level to the designated sustain level.
-
Sustain is the level during the main sequence of the sound's duration, until the key is released.
-
Release is the time taken for the level to decay from the sustain level to zero after the key is released.
Low-frequency oscillators
Low-frequency oscillators (LFOs) produce waveforms used to modulate parameters, such as the pitch of oscillators (producing
vibrato).
Filters
Filters remove frequencies from the audio signal, similarly to equalization, to shape sounds.
They typically include controls to set the point at which frequencies are attenuated, and to add
resonance.
Common types include low-pass filters, which remove audio above a specified frequency, and high-pass filters, which do the opposite.
Filters may be controlled with envelopes or LFOs.
Arpeggiators
Arpeggiators take input chords and convert them into
. They usually include controls for speed, range and mode (the movement of the arpeggio).
Controllers
Synthesizers are often controlled with electronic or digital
Musical keyboard or
MIDI controller keyboards, which may be built into the synthesizer unit or attached via connections such as CV/gate,
USB, or
MIDI.
Keyboards may offer expression such as velocity sensitivity and aftertouch, allowing for more control over the sound.
Other controllers include ribbon controllers, which track the movement of the finger across a touch-sensitive surface;
, played similarly to woodwind instruments; motion-sensitive controllers similar to video game motion controllers;
Electronic drum, played similarly to the heads of a
drum kit; touchplates, which send signals depending on finger position and force; controllers designed for microtonal tunings;
devices such as
Tablet computer and
;
and fingerpads.
Clones
Synthesizer clones are unlicensed recreations of previous synthesizers, often marketed as affordable versions of famous musical equipment. Clones are available as physical instruments and software. Companies that have sold software clones include
Arturia and Native Instruments.
Behringer manufactures equipment modelled on instruments including the Minimoog,
Pro-One, and TB-303, and
such as the TR-808. Other synthesizer clones include the MiniMOD (a series of
Eurorack modules based on the Minimoog), the Intellijel Atlantis (based on the SH-101), and the x0x Heart (based on the TB-303).
Creating clones of older hardware is legal where the have expired.
See also
- Lists
-
List of synthesizers
-
List of synthesizer manufacturers
- Various synthesizers
- Related instruments & technologies
- Components & technologies
- Music genres
- Notable works
-
List of compositions for electronic keyboard
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
