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95-422: Compact size, 3.5mm mono jacks and cables for patching all signals, and lack of a visual or sonic aesthetic defined by one manufacturer sets Eurorack apart from other modular synthesizer formats, and these factors have contributed to the popularity of Eurorack among both manufacturers and musicians. Before Eurorack, in the late 1970s, several modular systems based on the industrial “Euro” card frames appeared: By

190-403: A 6.35 mm ( 1 ⁄ 4  in) jack, Bantam connectors are used for mixing console and outboard patchbays in recording studio and live sound applications, where large numbers of patch points are needed in a limited space. The slightly different shape of Bantam plugs is also less likely to cause shorting as they are plugged in. A two-pin version, known to the telecom industry as

285-895: A UK NATO or European NATO connector. In the most common arrangement, consistent with the original intention of the design, the male plug is connected to a cable, and the female socket is mounted in a piece of equipment. A considerable variety of line plugs and panel sockets is available, including plugs suiting various cable sizes, right-angle plugs, and both plugs and sockets in a variety of price ranges and with current capacities up to 15 amperes for certain heavy-duty 1 ⁄ 4  in versions intended for loudspeaker connections. Common uses of phone plugs and their matching sockets include: Any number of 3.5 mm sockets for input and output may be found on personal computers , either from integrated sound hardware common on motherboards or from insertable sound cards . The 1999 PC System Design Guide's color code for 3.5 mm TRS sockets

380-540: A graphical user interface for the software sequencer. Also in 1983, Roland Corporation 's CMU-800 sound module introduced music synthesis and sequencing to the PC, Apple II , and Commodore 64 . The spread of MIDI on personal computers was facilitated by Roland's MPU-401 , released in 1984. It was the first MIDI-equipped PC sound card , capable of MIDI sound processing and sequencing. After Roland sold MPU sound chips to other sound card manufacturers, it established

475-554: A "310 connector", consists of two 1 ⁄ 4 -inch phone plugs at a centre spacing of 5 ⁄ 8 inch (16 mm). The socket versions of these can be used with normal phone plugs provided the plug bodies are not too large, but the plug version will only mate with two sockets at 5 ⁄ 8  inches centre spacing, or with line sockets, again with sufficiently small bodies. These connectors are still used today in telephone company central offices on "DSX" patch panels for DS1 circuits . A similar type of 3.5 mm connector

570-607: A 0.281 in (7.1 mm) diameter shaft with four conductors, allowing two for the headphones, and two for the microphone. Also used is the U-384/U (Nexus TP-105), which has the same diameter as the U-174/U but is slightly longer and has 5 conductors instead of 4. There is a confusingly similar four-conductor British connector, Type 671 (10H/18575), with a slightly larger diameter of 7.57 mm (0.298 in) used for headsets in many UK military aircraft and often referred to as

665-501: A CRT display to simplify the management of music synthesis in realtime, 12-bit D/A converter for realtime sound playback, an interface for CV/gate analog devices, and even several controllers including a musical keyboard, knobs, and rotating joysticks to capture realtime performance. In 1971, Electronic Music Studios (EMS) released one of the first digital sequencer products as a module of Synthi 100 , and its derivation, Synthi Sequencer series. After then, Oberheim released

760-454: A MIDI sequencer. Since its introduction, MIDI has remained the musical instrument industry standard interface through to the present day. In 1987, software sequencers called trackers were developed to realize the low-cost integration of sampling sound and interactive digital sequencer as seen on Fairlight CMI II "Page R". They became popular in the 1980s and 1990s as simple sequencers for creating computer game music , and remain popular in

855-421: A common bipolar 12 V DC power bus (+12V , 0 V, −12 V). This can be distributed by one of two connectors with a standard 2.54 mm (0.1 in) pitch : Audio and control signals are exchanged between modules via 3.5 mm mono jack cables. The electrical characteristics of signals are split into three loosely defined categories: Several manufacturers offer Eurorack-compatible modules in

950-490: A gateway to learning more about electronics and physical manufacturing, as well as being satisfying and developing a more intimate connection with the synthesizer as a personal musical instrument. Some manufacturers such as Befaco , Bastl Instruments and Erica Synths offer some or all of their modules both as assembled products or as kits to be assembled by the buyer. Doepfer offers a case and power supply kit, as well as 'low cost' cases designed to be customised and finished by

1045-608: A light-pen that would be converted into sound, simplifying the process of composing computer-generated music . It used PDP-5 minicomputer for data input, and IBM 7094 mainframe computer for rendering sound. Also in 1970, Mathews and F. R. Moore developed the GROOVE (Generated Real-time Output Operations on Voltage-controlled Equipment) system, a first fully developed music synthesis system for interactive composition (that implies sequencer) and realtime performance, using 3C/ Honeywell DDP-24 (or DDP-224 ) minicomputers. It used

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1140-546: A maximum of 5200 notes (large for the time), and a polyphony function which allocated multiple pitch CVs to a single Gate . It was capable of eight-channel polyphony, allowing the creation of polyrhythmic sequences. The MC-8 had a significant impact on popular electronic music , with the MC-8 and its descendants (such as the Roland MC-4 Microcomposer ) impacting popular electronic music production in

1235-416: A mic) are often compatible with standard TRS stereo headphones, whereby the contact that expects a mic signal will instead simply become shorted to ground and thus will provide a zero signal. Conversely, those TRRS headsets can plug into TRS sockets, in which case its speakers may still work even though its mic won't work (the mic's signal contact will be disconnected). Because of a lack of standardization in

1330-572: A number of models for different purposes, including: By 1950, the two main plug designs were: Several modern designs have descended from those earlier versions: U.S. military versions of the Western Electric plugs were initially specified in Amendment No.1, MIL-P-642, and included: The 3.5 mm or miniature size was originally designed in the 1950s as two-conductor connectors for earpieces on transistor radios , and remains

1425-464: A pair of phone connectors. A standard 1 ⁄ 4 -inch (6.3 mm) 2 or 3-conductor plug, type PJ-055, is used for headphones. For the microphone, a smaller 3 ⁄ 16 -inch (0.206 inch / 5.23 mm) diameter 3-conductor plug, type PJ-068, is used. Military aircraft and civil helicopters have another type termed the U-174/U (Nexus TP-101), also known as U-93A/U (Nexus TP-102) and Nexus TP-120. These are also known as US NATO plugs. These have

1520-548: A patent in 1901 for improved construction of the telephone switchboard-plug with today's 1 ⁄ 4 inch TS form still used on audio equipment. Western Electric was the manufacturing arm of the Bell System , and thus originated or refined most of the engineering designs, including the telephone jacks and plugs which were later adopted by other industries, including the US military . By 1907, Western Electric had designed

1615-589: A polyphonic synthesizer with sequencer called Andromatic built for them by Erkki Kurenniemi . The step sequencer s played rigid patterns of notes using a grid of (usually) 16 buttons, or steps, each step being 1/16 of a measure . These patterns of notes were then chained together to form longer compositions. Sequencers of this kind are still in use, mostly built into drum machines and grooveboxes . They are monophonic by nature, although some are multi-timbral , meaning that they can control several different sounds but only play one note on each of those sounds. On

1710-399: A receptacle designed for the shorter (15 mm) plug may damage the receptacle, and may damage any electronics located immediately behind the receptacle. However, partially inserting the plug will work as the tip/ring/ring distances are the same for both variants. A shorter plug in a socket designed for the longer connector may not be retained firmly and may result in wrong signal routing or

1805-411: A selection of the following: (1) a high-pass filter (where anything above a certain frequency can “pass”), (2) a low-pass filter (anything below a given frequency can pass), (3) a band-pass filter (where anything “in between” two frequencies can pass), and (4) a notch filter (where one cuts a specific range of frequencies out allowing everything else to pass). Essentially, modules that can both operate as

1900-643: A sequencer for the GS-1 . It was only available at Yamaha's headquarters in Japan ( Hamamatsu ) and the United States ( Buena Park, California ). In June 1981, Roland Corporation founder Ikutaro Kakehashi proposed the concept of standardization between different manufacturers' instruments as well as computers, to Oberheim Electronics founder Tom Oberheim and Sequential Circuits president Dave Smith . In October 1981, Kakehashi, Oberheim and Smith discussed

1995-412: A short circuit inside the equipment (e.g. the plug tip may cause the contacts inside the receptacle – tip/ring 1, etc. – to short together). The shorter 15 mm TRRS variant is more common and physically compatible with standard 3.5 mm TRS and TS connectors. Many small video cameras, laptops, recorders and other consumer devices use a 3.5 mm microphone connector for attaching a microphone to

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2090-577: A shorter tip. Professional audio and the telecommunication industry use a 0.173 in (4.4 mm) diameter plug, associated with trademarked names including Bantam , TT, Tini-Telephone, and Tini-Tel. They are not compatible with standard EIA RS-453/IEC 60603-11 1 ⁄ 4 -inch jacks. In addition to a slightly smaller diameter, they have a slightly different geometry. The three-conductor TRS versions are capable of handling balanced signals and are used in professional audio installations. Though unable to handle as much power, and less reliable than

2185-551: A signal (like compressors, or limiters), (2) equalizers, used to change the frequency characteristics of a given sound (sometimes in the form of a eurorack mixer module), or (3) special effects, like delays, reverbs, or choruses. The technical and modular nature of Eurorack often attracts people who are interested in modifying or building their own modules or cases. Many Eurorack manufacturers started off as individuals building " do it yourself " (DIY) modules or offering DIY kits before expanding into production. Building DIY modules can be

2280-433: A single three-conductor socket (for the front speakers) and two four-conductor sockets. This is to accommodate rear-center (6.1) or rear left and right (7.1) channels without the need for additional sockets on the sound card. Some portable computers have a combined 3.5 mm TRS/ TOSLINK jack, supporting stereo audio output using either a TRS connector or TOSLINK (stereo or 5.1 Dolby Digital / DTS ) digital output using

2375-474: A smaller 1U tall format, sometimes referred to as "tiles". As of 2018, there are two competing standards for 1U modules, differing mainly in their height. 1U modules manufactured by Intellijel are 39.65 mm high, whereas 1U modules manufactured by Pulp Logic and other manufacturers are 43.2 mm high. Pulp Logic also proposes a more compact power connector for 1U modules, consisting of only three pins. The most common source of sound in any modular synthesizer

2470-413: A source or a processor of musical content in the form of CV or MIDI messages. The most common kind are step-sequencers , where each individual musical event is triggered in a “step” of a bigger sequence (or loop). Utility modules are the ones responsible for expanding certain capabilities of a specific setup. They can be used to combine, split, divide, multiply, quantize, or offset a signal. One example of

2565-531: A standard still used today. This roughly half-sized version of the original, popularized by the Sony EFM-117J radio (released in 1964), is still commonly used in portable applications and has a length of 15 millimetres (0.59 in). The three-conductor version became very popular with its application on the Walkman in 1979, as unlike earlier transistor radios, these devices had no speaker of their own;

2660-484: A stereo input socket for a mic. The back panel may have additional sockets, most commonly for line out , mic , line in , and less commonly for multiple surround sound outs. Laptops and tablets tend to have fewer sockets than desktops due to size constraints. Some computers include a 3.5 mm TRS socket for mono microphone that delivers a 5 V bias voltage on the ring to power an electret microphone 's integrated buffer amplifier , though details depend on

2755-546: A suitable optical adapter. Most iMac computers have this digital/analog combo output feature as standard, with early MacBooks having two ports, one for analog/digital audio input and the other for output. Support for input was dropped on various later models The original application for the 6.35 mm ( 1 ⁄ 4  in) phone jack was in manual telephone exchanges. Many different configurations of these phone plugs were used, some accommodating five or more conductors, with several tip profiles. Of these many varieties, only

2850-457: A utility module is a multiplier, that allow one to send any CV output to many other inputs. Another example are the attenuators responsible for scaling the CV signal with a control knob (much like faders in a mixing console). A lot similar to the concept in a guitar pedal, effects modules are used to change the sound of an incoming signal. They can be (1) dynamic processors, used to control the level of

2945-522: Is a voltage-controlled oscillator . They depend on a control voltage, a lot of times routed from external hardware (for example, an analog synthesizer with a CV output, or MIDI signals processed on a MIDI-to-CV converter), to both control pitch, and output different waveforms. There are various control-voltage standards for determining the voltage/pitch relationship. The most popular ones are "volts-per-octave", where 1 V equals one octave, and "hertz-per-volt", where each octave equals doubling or halving

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3040-451: Is common, which assigns pink for microphone , light blue for line in , and lime for line level . AC'97 and its 2004 successor Intel High Definition Audio have been widely adopted specifications that, while not mandating physical sockets, do provide specifications for a front panel connector with pin assignments for two ports with jack detection. Front panels commonly have a stereo output socket for headphones and (slightly less commonly)

3135-443: Is indented with a groove. The sleeve contact is nearest the (conductive or insulated) handle . Contacts are insulated from each other by a band of non-conductive material. Between the tip and sleeve are 0 to 3 ring contacts. Since phone connectors have many uses, it is common to simply name the connector according its number of rings: The sleeve is usually a common ground reference voltage or return current for signals in

3230-470: Is inserted into a hole and makes contact with that lever, the lever pivots and breaks its normal connection. The receptacle was called a jack-knife because of its resemblance to a pocket clasp-knife . This is said to be the origin of calling the receptacle a jack . Scribner filed a patent in 1880 which removes the lever and resembles the modern connector and made improvements to switchboard design in subsequent patents filed in 1882. Henry P. Clausen filed

3325-437: Is now common and may be transmitted via USB sound cards , USB headphones, Bluetooth , display connectors with integrated sound (e.g. DisplayPort and HDMI ). Digital devices may also have internal speakers and mics. Thus the phone connector is sometimes considered redundant and a waste of space, particularly on thinner mobile devices . And while low-profile surface-mount sockets waterproofed up to 1 meter exist, removing

3420-408: Is often supported on the drum machines, bass machines and several groove machines . Realtime sequencers record the musical notes in real-time as on audio recorders , and play back musical notes with designated tempo , quantizations , and pitch . For editing, usually " punch in/punch out " features originated in the tape recording are provided, although it requires sufficient skills to obtain

3515-489: Is often used in the armrests of older aircraft, as part of the on-board in-flight entertainment system. Plugging a stereo plug into one of the two mono jacks typically results in the audio coming into only one ear. Adapters are available. A short-barrelled version of the phone plug was used for 20th-century high-impedance mono headphones, and in particular those used in World War II aircraft . These have become rare. It

3610-457: Is physically possible to use a normal plug in a short socket, but a short plug will neither lock into a normal socket nor complete the tip circuit. Less commonly used sizes, both diameters and lengths, are also available from some manufacturers, and are used when it is desired to restrict the availability of matching connectors, such as 0.210-inch (5.3 mm) inside diameter jacks for fire safety communication in public buildings. Digital audio

3705-467: Is possibly referred as " audio sequencing ". Possibly it may be one origin of " audio sequencing ". The early music sequencers were sound-producing devices such as automatic musical instruments , music boxes , mechanical organs , player pianos , and Orchestrions . Player pianos, for example, had much in common with contemporary sequencers. Composers or arrangers transmitted music to piano rolls which were subsequently edited by technicians who prepared

3800-422: Is the jack, while the less fixed connector is the plug, without regard to the gender of the connector contacts. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 1975 also made a standard that was withdrawn in 1997. The intended application for a phone connector has also resulted in names such as audio jack , headphone jack , stereo plug , microphone jack , aux input , etc. Among audio engineers,

3895-655: The Atari ST home computer in the 1980s gave programmers the opportunity to design software that could more easily record and play back sequences of notes played or programmed by a musician. This software also improved on the quality of the earlier sequencers which tended to be mechanical sounding and were only able to play back notes of exactly equal duration. Software-based sequencers allowed musicians to program performances that were more expressive and more human. These new sequencers could also be used to control external synthesizers , especially rackmounted sound modules , and it

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3990-632: The Doepfer A-100 , followed by successive new series of compatible modules in 1997 and 1998. In the UK, Analogue Systems had been independently developing a very similar format, with small technical differences such as the power connectors. Analogue Systems would later change their products to offer Eurorack compatibility. In the mid 2000s, other manufacturers such as Cwejman, Make Noise Music and TipTop Audio adopted Doepfer's Eurorack format and started designing and manufacturing compatible modules. By 2013,

4085-766: The Oramics designed by Daphne Oram in 1957, and so forth. During the 1940s–1960s, Raymond Scott , an American composer of electronic music, invented various kind of music sequencers for his electric compositions. The "Wall of Sound", once covered on the wall of his studio in New York during the 1940s–1950s, was an electro-mechanical sequencer to produce rhythmic patterns, consisting of stepping relays (used on dial pulse telephone exchange ), solenoids , control switches, and tone circuits with 16 individual oscillators . Later, Robert Moog would explain it in such terms as "the whole room would go 'clack – clack – clack', and

4180-538: The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign wrote one of the earliest programs for computer music composition on ILLIAC , and collaborated on the first piece, Illiac Suite for String Quartet , with Leonard Issaction . In 1957 Max Mathews at Bell Labs wrote MUSIC , the first widely used program for sound generation, and a 17-second composition was performed by the IBM 704 computer. Subsequently, computer music

4275-506: The demoscene and chiptune music. Modern computer digital audio software after the 2000s, such as Ableton Live , incorporates aspects of sequencers among many other features. In 1978, Japanese personal computers such as the Hitachi Basic Master equipped the low-bit D/A converter to generate sound which can be sequenced using Music Macro Language (MML). This was used to produce chiptune video game music . It

4370-481: The tip and any rings . Thus, the number of transmittable signals is less than the number of contacts. The outside diameter of the sleeve is 6.35 millimetres ( 1 ⁄ 4 inch) for full-sized connectors, 3.5 mm ( 1 ⁄ 8  in) for " mini " connectors, and only 2.5 mm ( 1 ⁄ 10  in) for " sub-mini " connectors. Rings are typically the same diameter as the sleeve. The 1902 International Library of Technology simply uses jack for

4465-455: The 1970s and 1980s more than any other family of sequencers. The MC-8's earliest known users were Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. In 1975, New England Digital (NED) released ABLE computer (microcomputer) as a dedicated data processing unit for Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer (1973), and based on it, later Synclavier series were developed. The Synclavier I , released in September 1977,

4560-590: The 3.5 mm plug and jack are used for certain applications. A four-conductor version is often used in compact camcorders and portable media players, providing stereo sound and composite analog video. It is also used for a combination of stereo audio, a microphone, and controlling media playback, calls, volume and/or a virtual assistant on some laptop computers and most mobile phones , and some handheld amateur radio transceivers from Yaesu . Some headphone amplifiers have used it to connect balanced stereo headphones, which require two conductors per audio channel as

4655-598: The Beatstep and Microbrute designed to be able to communicate with Eurorack modular synthesizers via 3.5 mm jacks transmitting control voltages. In 2015 Moog released the Mother ;32, a Eurorack-compatible semi-modular synthesizer. By the end of fall 2018, the ModularGrid website included more than 316 manufacturers. For synthesizers, Eurorack is a de facto standard to allow different modules to fit in

4750-582: The DAW or the integrated music authoring environments. The features provided as sequencers vary widely depending on the software; even an analog sequencer can be simulated. The user may control the software sequencer either by using the graphical user interfaces or a specialized input devices , such as a MIDI controller . Alternative subsets of audio sequencers include: This type of software actually controls sequences of audio samples; thus, it can potentially be called an " audio sequencer ". This technique

4845-557: The DS-2 Digital Sequencer in 1974, and Sequential Circuits released Model 800 in 1977 In 1977, Roland Corporation released the MC-8 MicroComposer , also called computer music composer by Roland. It was an early stand-alone, microprocessor -based, digital CV/gate sequencer, and an early polyphonic sequencer. It equipped a keypad to enter notes as numeric codes, 16  KB of RAM for

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4940-687: The Eurorack format had gained in popularity. Music technology journalists estimated that there were already at least 80 manufacturers offering over 700 modules, greatly expanding the musical possibilities available from a Eurorack system to include sampling and sample manipulation, West-coast-style wavefolding, DSP-based effects and more. In the mid 2010s, increasing interest in Eurorack modulars prompted large, well-known music technology manufacturers to start producing Eurorack-compatible equipment aimed at this new market. In addition to modules, manufacturers like Arturia started producing outboard devices such as

5035-571: The buyer. Releasing modules exclusively as open source designs and DIY kits allows designers such as Music Thing Modular to design and release popular modules such as the Turing Machine or Radio Music without having to run a company or invest in manufacturing. Open Source licenses for both hardware and code allow individuals to build the modules from scratch, and companies such as Thonk to offer kits. Some manufacturers do not offer kits or intend for end users to build their products, but release

5130-474: The channels do not share a common ground. By the 1940s, broadcast radio stations were using Western Electric Code No. 103 plugs and matching jacks for patching audio throughout studios. This connector was used because of its use in AT&;T 's Long Line circuits for the distribution of audio programs over the radio networks' leased telephone lines. Because of the large amount of space these patch panels required,

5225-451: The code, schematics and layout under open source licenses. Émilie Gillet of Mutable Instruments cites transparency and the possibility for customers to customise or modify their modules as driving reasons for this decision. Phone connector (audio) A phone connector is a family of cylindrically -shaped electrical connectors primarily for analog audio signals . Invented in the late 19th century for tele phone switchboards ,

5320-615: The concept with representatives from Yamaha , Korg and Kawai . In 1983, the MIDI standard was unveiled by Kakehashi and Smith. The first MIDI sequencer was the Roland MSQ-700, released in 1983. It was not until the advent of MIDI that general-purpose computers started to play a role as sequencers. Following the widespread adoption of MIDI, computer-based MIDI sequencers were developed. MIDI-to- CV/gate converters were then used to enable analogue synthesizers to be controlled by

5415-503: The connector manufacturers' nomenclature —referred to as mini phonos . Confusion also arises because phone jack and phone plug may sometimes refer to the RJ11 and various older telephone sockets and plugs that connect wired telephones to wall outlets. The original 1 ⁄ 4 -inch (6.35 mm) version descends from as early as 1877 in Boston when the first telephone switchboard

5510-463: The connector may often simply be called a quarter-inch to distinguish it from XLR , another frequently-used audio connector. These naming variations are also used for the 3.5 mm connectors, which have been called mini-phone , mini-stereo , mini jack , etc. RCA connectors are differently-shaped, but confusingly are similarly-named as phono plugs and phono jacks (or in the UK, phono sockets). 3.5 mm connectors are sometimes—counter to

5605-463: The desired result. For detailed editing, possibly another visual editing mode under graphical user interface may be more suitable. Anyway, this mode provides usability similar to audio recorders already familiar to musicians, and it is widely supported on software sequencers, DAWs, and built-in hardware sequencers. A software sequencer is a class of application software providing a functionality of music sequencer, and often provided as one feature of

5700-473: The female and plug for the male connector. The 1989 Sound Reinforcement Handbook uses phone jack for the female and phone plug for the male connector. Robert McLeish, who worked at the BBC , uses jack or jack socket for the female and jack plug for the male connector in his 2005 book Radio Production . The American Society of Mechanical Engineers , as of 2007, says the more fixed electrical connector

5795-505: The industry began switching to 3-conductor plugs and jacks in the late 1940s, using the WE Type 291 plug with WE type 239 jacks. The type 291 plug was used instead of the standard type 110 switchboard plug because the location of the large bulb shape on this TRS plug would have resulted in both audio signal connections being shorted together for a brief moment while the plug was being inserted and removed. The Type 291 plug avoids this by having

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5890-680: The inventions of phonographs , radios , and sound films which eventually eclipsed all such home music production devices. Of them all, punched-paper-tape media had been used until the mid-20th century. The earliest programmable music synthesizers including the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer in 1957, and the Siemens Synthesizer in 1959, were also controlled via punch tapes similar to piano rolls . Additional inventions grew out of sound film audio technology. The drawn sound technique which appeared in

5985-512: The late 1920s, is notable as a precursor of today's intuitive graphical user interfaces . In this technique, notes and various sound parameters are triggered by hand-drawn black ink waveforms directly upon the film substrate, hence they resemble piano rolls (or the 'strip charts' of the modern sequencers/DAWs). Drawn soundtrack was often used in early experimental electronic music, including the Variophone developed by Yevgeny Sholpo in 1930, and

6080-437: The late 1980s, these had all ceased production. Dieter Döpfer built some Formant modules before producing his own systems. His Voice Modular System from the early 1980s was a Eurocard-based "modular" (the modules were non-patchable voice cards etc.) polyphonic synth, but the front panels look very similar to the later A100 modules. In 1996, Doepfer Musikelektronik released the first Eurorack-format modular synthesizer system,

6175-593: The late-18th or early-19th century, with technological advances of the Industrial Revolution various automatic musical instruments were invented. Some examples: music boxes , barrel organs and barrel pianos consisting of a barrel or cylinder with pins or a flat metal disc with punched holes; or mechanical organs , player pianos and orchestrions using book music / music rolls ( piano rolls ) with punched holes, etc. These instruments were disseminated widely as popular entertainment devices prior to

6270-711: The manufacturer. The Apple PlainTalk microphone socket is a historical variant that accepts either a 3.5 mm line input or an elongated 3.5 mm TRS plug whose tip carries the amplifier's power. Some newer computers, especially laptops, have 3.5 mm TRRS headset sockets, which are compatible with phone headsets and may be distinguished by a headset icon instead of the usual headphones or microphone icons. These are particularly used for voice over IP . Sound cards that output 5.1 surround sound have three sockets to accommodate six channels: front left and right; surround left and right; and center and subwoofer. 6.1 and 7.1 channel sound cards from Creative Labs, however, use

6365-401: The mono plugs of the same size. The results of this physical compatibility are: Equipment aware of this possible shorting allows, for instance: Some devices for an even higher number of rings might possibly be backwards-compatible with an opposite-gendered device with fewer rings, or may cause damage. For example, 3.5 mm TRRS sockets that accept TRRS headsets (stereo headphones with

6460-416: The musical notes designated by a series of knobs or sliders corresponding to each musical note (step). It is designed for both composition and live performance ; users can change the musical notes at any time without regarding recording mode. And also possibly, the time interval between each musical note (length of each step) can be independently adjustable. Typically, analog sequencers are used to generate

6555-422: The newer internal digital buses than the old-style analogue CV/gate interface once used on their prototype system. Then in the early-1980s, they also re-recognized the needs of CV/gate interface, and supported it along with MIDI as options . Yamaha 's GS-1, their first FM digital synthesizer , was released in 1980. To program the synthesizer, Yamaha built a custom computer workstation designed to be used as

6650-702: The on-off switch and used a two-pronged connector with both the 3.5 and 2.5 mm plugs. They were also used for low-voltage DC power input from wall adapters. In the latter role, they were soon replaced by coaxial DC power connectors . 2.5 mm phone jacks have also been used as headset jacks on mobile telephones (see § Mobile devices ). The 1 ⁄ 8  in and 1 ⁄ 10  in sizes, approximately 3.5 mm and 2.5 mm respectively in mm, though those dimensions are only approximations. All sizes are now readily available in two-conductor (unbalanced mono) and three-conductor ( balanced mono or unbalanced stereo) versions. Four-conductor versions of

6745-428: The opposite of the pink noise, with more power concentrated on the higher frequencies, among others. Under the category of processors, modulators modify an incoming signal. The effects produced are widely varied and a lot of times, modules are built for a specific function, for example: Another kind of processor, filters are modules shaping the sound by attenuating specific frequency ranges. These modules contain all or

6840-416: The other hand, software sequencers were continuously utilized since the 1950s in the context of computer music , including computer- played music (software sequencer), computer- composed music ( music synthesis ), and computer sound generation ( sound synthesis ). In June 1951, the first computer music Colonel Bogey was played on CSIRAC , Australia's first digital computer. In 1956, Lejaren Hiller at

6935-414: The past regarding the dimensions (length) given to the ring conductor and the insulating portions on either side of it in 6.35 mm ( 1 ⁄ 4  in) phone connectors and the width of the conductors in different brands and generations of sockets, there are occasional issues with compatibility between differing brands of plug and socket. This can result in a contact in the socket bridging (shorting)

7030-421: The phone connector remains in use for interfacing wired audio equipment , such as head phones , speakers , micro phones , mixing consoles , and electronic musical instruments (e.g. electric guitars , keyboards , and effects units ). A male connector (a plug), is mated into a female connector (a socket), though other terminology is used. Plugs have 2 to 5 electrical contacts . The tip contact

7125-430: The repeated minimalistic phrases which may be reminiscent of Tangerine Dream , Giorgio Moroder or trance music . On step sequencers, musical notes are rounded into steps of equal time intervals, and users can enter each musical note without exact timing; Instead, the timing and duration of each step can be designated in several different ways: In general, step mode, along with roughly quantized semi-realtime mode,

7220-451: The right channel of the amplifier. This attempt has long been abandoned, and now the convention is that all plugs fit all sockets of the same size, regardless of whether they are balanced or unbalanced, mono or stereo. Most 6.35 mm plugs, mono or stereo, now have the profile of the original stereo plug, although a few rounded mono plugs are still produced. The profiles of stereo miniature and sub-miniature plugs have always been identical to

7315-411: The ring and sleeve contacts on a phone connector. Equipment requiring video with stereo audio input or output sometimes uses 3.5 mm TRRS connectors. Two incompatible variants exist, of 15 millimetres (0.59 in) and 17 mm (0.67 in) length, and using the wrong variant may either simply not work, or could cause physical damage. Attempting to fully insert the longer (17 mm) plug into

7410-576: The rolls for mass duplication. Eventually consumers were able to purchase these rolls and play them back on their own player pianos. The origin of automatic musical instruments seems remarkably old. As early as the 9th century, the Persian (Iranian) Banū Mūsā brothers invented a hydropowered organ using exchangeable cylinders with pins, and also an automatic flute -playing machine using steam power , as described in their Book of Ingenious Devices . The Banu Musa brothers' automatic flute player

7505-543: The same cases and communicate among themselves. The basic requirement is compatibility with the Doepfer technical specifications: The physical specification is based on the Eurocard standard of: Eurorack modules may be further characterized by depth: shallow modules (2.5 cm to 4 cm [1] ) can fit into "skiff" cases and are casually referred to as "skiff friendly". The Eurorack electrical specification defines

7600-509: The socket entirely facilitates waterproofing . Chinese phone manufacturers were early in not using a phone socket: first with Oppo 's Finder in July 2012 (which came packaged with micro-USB headphones and supported Bluetooth headphones ), followed by Vivo 's X5Max in 2014 and LeEco in April 2016 and Lenovo 's Moto Z in September 2016. Apple 's September 2016 announcement of the iPhone 7

7695-420: The sounds would come out all over the place". The Circle Machine, developed in 1959, had incandescent bulbs each with its own rheostat , arranged in a ring, and a rotating arm with photocell scanning over the ring, to generate an arbitrary waveform. Also, the rotating speed of the arm was controlled via the brightness of lights, and as a result, arbitrary rhythms were generated. The first electronic sequencer

7790-507: The system. These fall into three categories: Music sequencer A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer ) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music , by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate , MIDI , or Open Sound Control , and possibly audio and automation data for digital audio workstations (DAWs) and plug-ins . The advent of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and

7885-734: The term "sequencer" is often used to describe software. However, hardware sequencers still exist. Workstation keyboards have their own proprietary built-in MIDI sequencers. Drum machines and some older synthesizers have their own step sequencer built in. There are still also standalone hardware MIDI sequencers , although the market demand for those has diminished greatly due to the greater feature set of their software counterparts. Music sequencers can be categorized by handling data types, such as: Also, music sequencer can be categorized by its construction and supporting modes. Analog sequencers are typically implemented with analog electronics , and play

7980-499: The two-conductor version with a rounded tip profile was compatible between different manufacturers, and this was the design that was at first adopted for use with microphones , electric guitars, headphones , loudspeakers , and other audio equipment . When a three-conductor version of the 6.35 mm plug was introduced for use with stereo headphones, it was given a sharper tip profile to make it possible to manufacture jacks that would accept only stereo plugs, to avoid short-circuiting

8075-402: The usual way to listen to them was to plug in headphones. There is also an EIA standard for 0.141-inch miniature phone jacks. The 2.5 mm or sub-miniature sizes were similarly popularized on small portable electronics. They often appeared next to a 3.5 mm microphone jack for a remote control on-off switch on early portable tape recorders; the microphone provided with such machines had

8170-417: The voltage. Under the category of source modules, these modules are responsible for producing different “types” of noises (or colors ). They can output (1) white noise — where all frequencies in the spectrum are equally powered, (2) pink noise — where there is more power to the lower end, due to its logarithmic nature, (3) brown noise — similar to pink noise, but steeper slope, (4) blue noise — oversimplified,

8265-522: Was a drum machine where pegs ( cams ) bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummers could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around. In the 14th century, rotating cylinders with pins were used to play a carillon (steam organ) in Flanders, and at least in the 15th century, barrel organs were seen in the Netherlands. In

8360-518: Was initially mocked for removing the socket by other manufacturers like Samsung and Google who eventually followed suit. The socket is also not present in some tablets and thin laptops (e.g. Lenovo Duet Chromebook and Asus ZenBook 13 in 2020 ). The US military uses a variety of phone connectors including 9 ⁄ 32 -inch (0.281-inch, 7.14 mm) and 1 ⁄ 4 -inch (0.25 inch, 6.35 mm) diameter plugs. Commercial and general aviation (GA) civil aircraft headsets often use

8455-455: Was installed or 1878, when an early switchboard was used for the first commercial manual telephone exchange in New Haven created by George W. Coy . Charles E. Scribner filed a patent in 1878 to facilitate switchboard operation using his spring-jack switch . In it, a conductive lever pushed by a spring is normally connected to one contact. But when a cable with a conductive plug

8550-451: Was invented by Raymond Scott, using thyratrons and relays . Clavivox , developed since 1952, was a kind of keyboard synthesizer with sequencer. On its prototype, a theremin manufactured by young Robert Moog was utilized to enable portamento over 3-octave range, and on later version, it was replaced by a pair of photographic film and photocell for controlling the pitch by voltage . In 1968, Ralph Lundsten and Leo Nilsson had

8645-620: Was mainly researched on the expensive mainframe computers in computer centers, until the 1970s when minicomputers and then microcomputers became available in this field. In Japan, experiments in computer music date back to 1962, when Keio University professor Sekine and Toshiba engineer Hayashi experimented with the TOSBAC computer. This resulted in a piece entitled TOSBAC Suite . In 1965, Max Mathews and L. Rosler developed Graphic 1 , an interactive graphical sound system (that implies sequencer) on which one could draw figures using

8740-503: Was no longer necessary for each synthesizer to have its own devoted keyboard. As the technology matured, sequencers gained more features, such as the ability to record multitrack audio . Sequencers used for audio recording are called digital audio workstations (DAWs). Many modern sequencers can be used to control virtual instruments implemented as software plug-ins . This allows musicians to replace expensive and cumbersome standalone synthesizers with their software equivalents. Today

8835-523: Was not until the advent of MIDI , introduced to the public in 1983, that general-purpose computers really started to play a role as software sequencers. NEC 's personal computers, the PC-88 and PC-98 , added support for MIDI sequencing with MML programming in 1982. In 1983, Yamaha modules for the MSX featured music production capabilities, real-time FM synthesis with sequencing, MIDI sequencing, and

8930-669: Was one of the earliest digital music workstation product with multitrack sequencer. Synclavier series evolved throughout the late-1970s to the mid-1980s, and they also established integration of digital-audio and music-sequencer, on their Direct-to-Disk option in 1984, and later Tapeless Studio system. In 1982, renewed the Fairlight CMI Series II and added new sequencer software "Page R", which combined step sequencing with sample playback. While there were earlier microprocessor-based sequencers for digital polyphonic synthesizers, their early products tended to prefer

9025-444: Was the first programmable music sequencer device, and the first example of repetitive music technology , powered by hydraulics . In 1206, Al-Jazari , an Arab engineer , invented programmable musical automata , a " robot band " which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection." It was notably the first programmable drum machine . Among the four automaton musicians were two drummers. It

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