An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry . Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a power amplifier which drives a loudspeaker , creating the sound heard by the performer and listener.
119-794: A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth ) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals . Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis , additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis . These sounds may be altered by components such as filters , which cut or boost frequencies ; 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 keyboards or controlled by sequencers , software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI . Synthesizer-like instruments emerged in
238-571: A light pen . The Synclavier from New England Digital was a similar system. Jon Appleton (with Jones and Alonso) invented the Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer, later to become the New England Digital Corp's Synclavier. The Kurzweil K250 , first produced in 1983, was also a successful polyphonic digital music synthesizer, noted for its ability to reproduce several instruments synchronously and having
357-470: A paper tape sequencer punched with holes to control pitch sources and filters, similar to a mechanical player piano but capable of generating a wide variety of sounds. The vacuum tube system had to be patched to create timbres. In the 1960s synthesizers were still usually confined to studios due to their size. They were usually modular in design, their stand-alone signal sources and processors connected with patch cords or by other means and controlled by
476-890: A pipe organ for church music, musicians soon discovered that the Hammond was an excellent instrument for blues and jazz ; indeed, an entire genre of music developed built around this instrument, known as the organ trio (typically Hammond organ, drums, and a third instrument, either saxophone or guitar). The first commercially manufactured synthesizer was the Novachord , built by the Hammond Organ Company from 1938 to 1942, which offered 72-note polyphony using 12 oscillators driving monostable -based divide-down circuits, basic envelope control and resonant low-pass filters . The instrument featured 163 vacuum tubes and weighed 500 pounds. The instrument's use of envelope control
595-577: A Moog to compose a soundtrack for the televised footage of the Apollo 11 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 70s and 80s, synthesizers were used in
714-458: 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
833-573: A common controlling device. Harald Bode , Don Buchla , Hugh Le Caine , Raymond Scott and Paul Ketoff were among the first to build such instruments, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Buchla later produced a commercial modular synthesizer, the Buchla Music Easel . Robert Moog , who had been a student of Peter Mauzey and one of the RCA Mark II engineers, created a synthesizer that could reasonably be used by musicians, designing
952-459: A different effect. The first operation, which was the changing of tape speed, was his primary technique. The faster the tape is played, the higher the pitch and vice versa. Tape speed is measured by ips or inches per second. So slowing a recording by half (7-1/2-ips), lowers all pitches by an octave. Le Caine created a three-octave keyboard that allows him to choose different speeds. All the different pitches during Dripsody were achieved by changing
1071-565: A group in his own classification system, which is closer to Mahillon than Sachs-Hornbostel. For example, in Galpin's 1937 book A Textbook of European Musical Instruments , he lists electrophones with three second-level divisions for sound generation ("by oscillation", "electro-magnetic", and "electro-static"), as well as third-level and fourth-level categories based on the control method. Present-day ethnomusicologists , such as Margaret Kartomi and Terry Ellingson, suggest that, in keeping with
1190-536: A group of musicians and music merchants met to standardize an interface by which new instruments could communicate control instructions with other instruments and the prevalent microcomputer. This standard was dubbed MIDI ( Musical Instrument Digital Interface ). A paper was authored by Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits and proposed to the Audio Engineering Society in 1981. Then, in August 1983,
1309-459: A keyboard instrument of over 700 strings, electrified temporarily to enhance sonic qualities. The clavecin électrique was a keyboard instrument with plectra (picks) activated electrically. However, neither instrument used electricity as a sound source. The first electric synthesizer was invented in 1876 by Elisha Gray . The "Musical Telegraph" was a chance by-product of his telephone technology when Gray discovered that he could control sound from
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#17327719719611428-560: A lifelong interest in electronic music and sound generation. In 1937, Le Caine designed an electronic free reed organ, and in the mid-1940s, he built the Electronic Sackbut , now recognised to be one of the first synthesizers . After the success of public demonstrations of his instruments, he was permitted to move his musical activities to the NRC and to work on them full-time in 1954, where he gained funding in order to open ELMUS ,
1547-485: A loud sound emerges then slowly fades away; the second operation's objective is the opposite. Le Caine also used four different tape loops to produce ostinato patterns heard in Dripsody . Three different speeds creates twelve different loops not needing to add additional splices. However, he did use splices as his fourth operation. Splicing different pitches resulted from different playback speeds of initial drop creates
1666-510: A microprocessor as a controller, was the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 introduced in late 1977. For the first time, musicians had a practical polyphonic synthesizer that could save all knob settings in computer memory and recall them at the touch of a button. The Prophet-5's design paradigm became a new standard, slowly pushing out more complex and recondite modular designs. In 1935, another significant development
1785-466: A mouthpiece. The sound processing is done on a separate computer. The AlphaSphere is a spherical instrument that consists of 48 tactile pads that respond to pressure as well as touch. Custom software allows the pads to be indefinitely programmed individually or by groups in terms of function, note, and pressure parameter among many other settings. The primary concept of the AlphaSphere is to increase
1904-590: A non-standard scale, Bertrand's Dynaphone could produce octaves and perfect fifths, while the Emicon was an American, keyboard-controlled instrument constructed in 1930 and the German Hellertion combined four instruments to produce chords. Three Russian instruments also appeared, Oubouhof's Croix Sonore (1934), Ivor Darreg 's microtonal 'Electronic Keyboard Oboe' (1937) and the ANS synthesizer , constructed by
2023-524: A novel experience in playing relative to operating a mechanically linked piano keyboard. All electronic musical instruments can be viewed as a subset of audio signal processing applications. Simple electronic musical instruments are sometimes called sound effects ; the border between sound effects and actual musical instruments is often unclear. In the 21st century, electronic musical instruments are now widely used in most styles of music. In popular music styles such as electronic dance music , almost all of
2142-400: A piece of musique concrète based on the sound of a single drop of water that over the course of the piece is permuted and contorted into a variety of sounds. Le Caine used a metal wastebasket filled with two inches of water, held an eyedropper ten inches above the wastebasket, and tape-recorded the water drops for thirty minutes. After reviewing the resulting recording, Le Caine selected one of
2261-552: A pop staple, used on songs by A-ha , Kenny Loggins , Kool & the Gang . Its "E PIANO 1" preset became particularly famous, especially for power ballads , and was used by artists including Whitney Houston , Chicago , Prince , Phil Collins , Luther Vandross , Billy Ocean , and Celine Dion . Korg M1 presets were widely used in 1990s house music, beginning with Madonna 's 1990 single " Vogue ". Synthesizers are common in film and television soundtracks. In 1969, Mort Garson used
2380-515: A process of chance short-circuiting, creating experimental electronic instruments, exploring sonic elements mainly of timbre and with less regard to pitch or rhythm, and influenced by John Cage ’s aleatoric music concept. Hugh Le Caine Hugh Le Caine (May 27, 1914 – July 3, 1977) was a Canadian physicist , composer , and instrument builder. Le Caine was brought up in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay ) in northwestern Ontario . At
2499-403: A repeating loop of adjustable length, set to any tempo, and new loops of sound can be layered on top of existing ones. This lends itself to electronic dance-music but is more limited for controlled sequences of notes, as the pad on a regular Kaossilator is featureless. The Eigenharp is a large instrument resembling a bassoon , which can be interacted with through big buttons, a drum sequencer and
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#17327719719612618-427: A score of new devices and also presented his ideas and inventions to learned bodies and the general public. But while Le Caine did get excellent responses from both the learned bodies and the public, he did not get a satisfactory response from industry. Fortunately, a few people did eventually come into Le Caine's life to make him feel his efforts were of some value. One of these people was Israeli composer Josef Tal . In
2737-423: A self-vibrating electromagnetic circuit and so invented a basic oscillator . The Musical Telegraph used steel reeds oscillated by electromagnets and transmitted over a telephone line. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, which consisted of a diaphragm vibrating in a magnetic field. A significant invention, which later had a profound effect on electronic music, was the audion in 1906. This
2856-543: A separate triggering signal. This standardization allowed synthesizers from different manufacturers to operate simultaneously. Pitch control was usually performed either with an organ-style keyboard or a music sequencer producing a timed series of control voltages. During the late 1960s hundreds of popular recordings used Moog synthesizers. Other early commercial synthesizer manufacturers included ARP , who also started with modular synthesizers before producing all-in-one instruments, and British firm EMS . In 1970, Moog designed
2975-443: A set of parameters. Xenakis used graph paper and a ruler to aid in calculating the velocity trajectories of glissando for his orchestral composition Metastasis (1953–54), but later turned to the use of computers to compose pieces like ST/4 for string quartet and ST/48 for orchestra (both 1962). The impact of computers continued in 1956. Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Issacson composed Illiac Suite for string quartet ,
3094-620: A showcase for artists who perform or create music with new electronic music instruments, controllers, and synthesizers. In musicology, electronic musical instruments are known as electrophones. Electrophones are the fifth category of musical instrument under the Hornbostel-Sachs system. Musicologists typically only classify music as electrophones if the sound is initially produced by electricity, excluding electronically controlled acoustic instruments such as pipe organs and amplified instruments such as electric guitars . The category
3213-401: A sound depending on how each module is connected to other modules by patch cables . Moog developed a means of controlling pitch through voltage , the voltage-controlled oscillator . This, along with Moog components such as envelopes , noise generators , filters , and sequencers , became standard components in synthesizers. Around the same period, the American engineer Don Buchla created
3332-584: A starting price of $ 13,000, its use was limited to universities, studios and wealthy artists. The Roland D-50 (1987) blended Roland's linear arithmetic algorithm with samples, and was the first mass-produced synthesizer with built-in digital effects such as delay , reverb and chorus . In 1988, the Japanese manufacturer Korg released the M1 , a digital synthesizer workstation featuring sampled transients and loops . With more than 250,000 units sold, it remains
3451-582: A synthesized melody. Soft Cell used a synthesized melody on their 1981 hit " Tainted Love ". Nick Rhodes , 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. The Yamaha DX7, released in 1983, became
3570-549: A time. Popular monophonic synthesizers include the Moog Minimoog . A few, such as the Moog Sonic Six, ARP Odyssey and EML 101, could produce two different pitches at a time when two keys were pressed. Polyphony (multiple simultaneous tones, which enables chords ) was only obtainable with electronic organ designs at first. Popular electronic keyboards combining organ circuits with synthesizer processing included
3689-423: A twelve-note arpeggio . Only twenty-five splices were used to compose the piece, which made him very proud, and the multi-track recorder controlled all other variations. The fifth operation was the use of tape delay, not to be confused with the same term used on the television world that means to postpone broadcasts. To Le Caine, it was an echo effect he produced by playing a sound on the recorder while re-recording
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3808-574: A variety of automated electronic-music controllers during the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1959 Daphne Oram produced a novel method of synthesis, her " Oramics " technique, driven by drawings on a 35 mm film strip; it was used for a number of years at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop . This workshop was also responsible for the theme to the TV series Doctor Who a piece, largely created by Delia Derbyshire , that more than any other ensured
3927-405: A velocity-sensitive keyboard. An important new development was the advent of computers for the purpose of composing music, as opposed to manipulating or creating sounds. Iannis Xenakis began what is called musique stochastique, or stochastic music , which is a method of composing that employs mathematical probability systems. Different probability algorithms were used to create a piece under
4046-505: 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. In the 2010s, new, affordable analog synthesizers were introduced by companies including Moog, Korg, Arturia and Dave Smith Instruments . The renewed interest
4165-493: A young age, he began making musical instruments. In youth, he started imagining "beautiful sounds". He attended high school in Port Arthur at Port Arthur Collegiate Institute (P.A.C.I.). After completing his master of science degree from Queen's University in 1939, Le Caine was awarded a National Research Council of Canada (NRC) fellowship to continue his work on atomic physics measuring devices at Queen's. He worked with
4284-406: Is an electromechanical instrument, as it used both mechanical elements and electronic parts. A Hammond organ used spinning metal tonewheels to produce different sounds. A magnetic pickup similar in design to the pickups in an electric guitar is used to transmit the pitches in the tonewheels to an amplifier and speaker enclosure. While the Hammond organ was designed to be a lower-cost alternative to
4403-582: Is as important, and as ubiquitous, in modern music today as the human voice." 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 vacuum tubes . In 1948,
4522-410: Is credited to the appeal of imperfect "organic" sounds and simpler interfaces, and modern surface-mount technology making analog synthesizers cheaper and faster to manufacture. Early synthesizers were viewed as avant-garde , valued by the 1960s psychedelic and counter-cultural scenes for their ability to make new sounds, but with little perceived commercial potential. Switched-On Bach (1968) ,
4641-425: Is most frequently used, but band-pass filters , band-reject filters and high-pass filters are also sometimes available. The filter may be controlled with a second ADSR envelope. An "envelope modulation" ("env mod") parameter on many synthesizers with filter envelopes determines how much the envelope affects the filter. If turned all the way down, the filter produces a flat sound with no envelope. When turned up
4760-444: Is one of the most important instruments in the music industry, used in nearly every genre. It is considered by the authors of Analog Days as "the only innovation that can stand alongside the electric guitar as a great new instrument of the age of electricity ... Both led to new forms of music, and both had massive popular appeal." According to Fact in 2016, "The synthesizer is as important, and as ubiquitous, in modern music today as
4879-467: Is significant, since this is perhaps the most significant distinction between the modern synthesizer and other electronic instruments. The most commonly used electronic instruments are synthesizers , so-called because they artificially generate sound using a variety of techniques. All early circuit-based synthesis involved the use of analogue circuitry, particularly voltage controlled amplifiers, oscillators and filters. An important technological development
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4998-576: The Buchla Modular Electronic Music System . Instead of a conventional keyboard , Buchla's system used touchplates which transmitted control voltages depending on finger position and force. However, the Moog's keyboard made it more accessible and marketable to musicians, and keyboards became the standard means of controlling synthesizers. Moog and Buchla initially avoided the word synthesizer for their instruments, as it
5117-619: The GS-1 and GS-2 , which were costly and heavy. There followed a pair of smaller, preset versions, the CE20 and CE25 Combo Ensembles, targeted primarily at the home organ market and featuring four-octave keyboards. Yamaha's third generation of digital synthesizers was a commercial success; it consisted of the DX7 and DX9 (1983). Both models were compact, reasonably priced, and dependent on custom digital integrated circuits to produce FM tonalities. The DX7
5236-901: The Minimoog , a non-modular synthesizer with a built-in keyboard. The analogue circuits were interconnected with switches in a simplified arrangement called "normalization." Though less flexible than a modular design, normalization made the instrument more portable and easier to use. The Minimoog sold 12,000 units. Further standardized the design of subsequent synthesizers with its integrated keyboard, pitch and modulation wheels and VCO->VCF->VCA signal flow. It has become celebrated for its "fat" sound—and its tuning problems. Miniaturized solid-state components allowed synthesizers to become self-contained, portable instruments that soon appeared in live performance and quickly became widely used in popular music and electronic art music. Many early analog synthesizers were monophonic, producing only one tone at
5355-695: The OB-X (1979). In 1978, the American company Sequential Circuits released the Prophet-5 , the first fully programmable polyphonic synthesizer. Whereas previous synthesizers required users to adjust cables and knobs to change sounds, with no guarantee of exactly recreating a sound, the Prophet-5 used microprocessors to store sounds in patch memory. This facilitated a move from synthesizers creating unpredictable sounds to producing "a standard package of familiar sounds". The synthesizer market grew dramatically in
5474-536: The Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood . The Trautonium was invented in 1928. It was based on the subharmonic scale, and the resulting sounds were often used to emulate bell or gong sounds, as in the 1950s Bayreuth productions of Parsifal . In 1942, Richard Strauss used it for the bell- and gong-part in the Dresden première of his Japanese Festival Music . This new class of instruments, microtonal by nature,
5593-626: The Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, became a foundation of electronic dance music genres such as house and techno when producers acquired cheap second-hand units later in the decade. The authors of Analog Days connect the synthesizer's origins in 1960s psychedelia to the raves and British " second summer of love " of the 1980s and the club scenes of the 1990s and 2000s. 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
5712-569: The electric guitar remain in the chordophones category, and so on. In the 18th-century, musicians and composers adapted a number of acoustic instruments to exploit the novelty of electricity. Thus, in the broadest sense, the first electrified musical instrument was the Denis d'or keyboard, dating from 1753, followed shortly by the clavecin électrique by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste de Laborde in 1761. The Denis d'or consisted of
5831-406: 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 ). The first digital synthesizers were academic experiments in sound synthesis using digital computers. FM synthesis was developed for this purpose; as a way of generating complex sounds digitally with
5950-592: The 1950s. The Mark II Music Synthesizer , housed at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City . Designed by Herbert Belar and Harry Olson at RCA, with contributions from Vladimir Ussachevsky and Peter Mauzey , it was installed at Columbia University in 1957. Consisting of a room-sized array of interconnected sound synthesis components, it was only capable of producing music by programming, using
6069-520: 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
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#17327719719616188-409: The 21st century, analog synthesizers returned to popularity with the advent of cheaper manufacturing. Synthesizers were initially viewed as avant-garde , valued by the 1960s psychedelic 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
6307-469: 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". The musician Walter Sear persuaded the AFM that the synthesizer demanded skill, and the category of "synthesizer player"
6426-682: The ARP Omni and Moog's Polymoog and Opus 3. By 1976 affordable polyphonic synthesizers began to appear, such as the Yamaha CS-50, CS-60 and CS-80 , the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 and the Oberheim Four-Voice. These remained complex, heavy and relatively costly. The recording of settings in digital memory allowed storage and recall of sounds. The first practical polyphonic synth, and the first to use
6545-604: The Canadian Electronic Music Laboratory. Over the next twenty years, he built over twenty-two different new instruments and helped Canadian universities establish their own studios in the new electronic music medium. One of Le Caine's most notable inventions was the Special Purpose Tape Recorder (later renamed the "Multi-track."). Experiments with his recorder led to the composition of Dripsody in 1955. The subtitle of
6664-706: The Canadian engineer Hugh Le Caine completed the electronic sackbut , a precursor to voltage-controlled synthesizers , 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 paper tape that controlled an analog synthesizer containing 750 vacuum tubes. It
6783-567: The Centre for Electronic Music in Israel, established by Josef Tal. Le Caine also collaborated in the development of pioneering electronic music studios at the University of Toronto in 1959 and at McGill University in 1964. Though his composition output was small, Le Caine is remembered as one of the great pioneer composers of musique concrète , his best known work being Dripsody (1955),
6902-758: 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
7021-715: The MIDI Specification 1.0 was finalized. The advent of MIDI technology allows a single keystroke, control wheel motion, pedal movement, or command from a microcomputer to activate every device in the studio remotely and in synchrony, with each device responding according to conditions predetermined by the composer. MIDI instruments and software made powerful control of sophisticated instruments easily affordable by many studios and individuals. Acoustic sounds became reintegrated into studios via sampling and sampled-ROM-based instruments. The increasing power and decreasing cost of sound-generating electronics (and especially of
7140-821: The Minimoog, Pro-One , and TB-303 , and drum machines 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 patents have expired. In 1997, Mackie lost their lawsuit against Behringer as copyright law in
7259-521: The NRC in Ottawa from 1940 to 1974. During World War II , he assisted in the development of the first radar systems. On an NRC grant he studied nuclear physics from 1948 to 1952 in England. Le Caine wanted to devise new ways to produce those "beautiful sounds", so he established his own electronic music studio where he began to build new electronic instruments after World War II . At home, he pursued
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#17327719719617378-579: The Russian scientist Evgeny Murzin from 1937 to 1958. Only two models of this latter were built and the only surviving example is currently stored at the Lomonosov University in Moscow . It has been used in many Russian movies—like Solaris —to produce unusual, "cosmic" sounds. Hugh Le Caine , John Hanert, Raymond Scott , composer Percy Grainger (with Burnett Cross), and others built
7497-552: The United States did not cover their circuit board designs. Electronic musical instrument An electronic instrument might include a user interface for controlling its sound, often by adjusting the pitch , frequency , or duration of each note . A common user interface is the musical keyboard , which functions similarly to the keyboard on an acoustic piano where the keys are each linked mechanically to swinging string hammers - whereas with an electronic keyboard,
7616-559: The United States in the mid-20th century with instruments such as the RCA Mark II , which was controlled with punch cards 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, noise generators , filters, and sequencers. In 1970, the smaller, cheaper Minimoog standardized synthesizers as self-contained instruments with built-in keyboards, unlike
7735-474: The amateur electronics market, such as a design published in Practical Electronics in 1973. By the mid-1970s, ARP was the world's largest synthesizer manufacturer, though it closed in 1981. Early synthesizers were monophonic , 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 , such as
7854-411: The arpeggio). Synthesizers are often controlled with electronic or digital keyboards 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
7973-468: The bestselling synthesizer in history. The advent of digital synthesizers led to a downturn in interest in analog synthesizers in the following decade. 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
8092-417: The circuits while he was at Columbia-Princeton. The Moog synthesizer was first displayed at the Audio Engineering Society convention in 1964. It required experience to set up sounds but was smaller and more intuitive than what had come before, less like a machine and more like a musical instrument. Moog established standards for control interfacing, using a logarithmic 1-volt-per-octave for pitch control and
8211-528: The cubes, a variety of music and sound software can be operated. AudioCubes have applications in sound design, music production, DJing and live performance. The Kaossilator and Kaossilator Pro are compact instruments where the position of a finger on the touch pad controls two note-characteristics; usually the pitch is changed with a left-right motion and the tonal property, filter or other parameter changes with an up-down motion. The touch pad can be set to different musical scales and keys. The instrument can record
8330-445: The early 1960s. During the 1940s–1960s, Raymond Scott , an American composer of electronic music, invented various kind of music sequencers for his electric compositions. Step sequencers 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. Software sequencers were continuously utilized since
8449-448: 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 Roland TB-303 (1981), in conjunction with
8568-411: The envelope becomes more noticeable, expanding the minimum and maximum range of the filter. The envelope applied on the filter helps the sound designer generating long notes or short notes by moving the parameters up and down such as decay, sustain and finally release. For instance by using a short decay with no sustain, the sound generated is commonly known as a stab . Sound designers may prefer shaping
8687-414: The expressiveness of the cello . The French composer Olivier Messiaen used the ondes Martenot in pieces such as his 1949 symphony Turangalîla-Symphonie , and his sister-in-law Jeanne Loriod was a celebrated player. It appears in numerous film and television soundtracks, particularly science fiction and horror films . Contemporary users of the ondes Martenot include Tom Waits , Daft Punk and
8806-740: The first string synthesizer , designed to emulate string sections . After retail stores started selling synthesizers in 1971, other synthesizer companies were established, including ARP in the US and EMS in the UK. ARP's products included the ARP 2600 , which folded into a carrying case and had built-in speakers, and the Odyssey , a rival to the Minimoog. The less expensive EMS synthesizers were used by European art rock and progressive rock acts including Brian Eno and Pink Floyd . Designs for synthesizers appeared in
8925-781: The first complete work of computer-assisted composition using algorithmic composition. In 1957, Max Mathews at Bell Lab wrote MUSIC-N series, a first computer program family for generating digital audio waveforms through direct synthesis. Then Barry Vercoe wrote MUSIC 11 based on MUSIC IV-BF , a next-generation music synthesis program (later evolving into csound , which is still widely used). In mid 80s, Miller Puckette at IRCAM developed graphic signal-processing software for 4X called Max (after Max Mathews), and later ported it to Macintosh (with Dave Zicarelli extending it for Opcode ) for real-time MIDI control, bringing algorithmic composition availability to most composers with modest computer programming background. In 1980,
9044-492: The first compositions for electronic instruments, as opposed to noisemakers and re-purposed machines. The Theremin was notable for being the first musical instrument played without touching it. In 1929, Joseph Schillinger composed First Airphonic Suite for Theremin and Orchestra , premièred with the Cleveland Orchestra with Leon Theremin as soloist. The next year Henry Cowell commissioned Theremin to create
9163-584: The first electronic rhythm machine, called the Rhythmicon . Cowell wrote some compositions for it, which he and Schillinger premiered in 1932. The ondes Martenot is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin . It was invented in 1928 by the French cellist Maurice Martenot , who was inspired by the accidental overlaps of tones between military radio oscillators, and wanted to create an instrument with
9282-528: The first polyphonic digital sampler , was the harbinger of sample-based synthesizers. Designed in 1978 by Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie and based on a dual microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia, the Fairlight CMI gave musicians the ability to modify volume, attack, decay, and use special effects like vibrato. Sample waveforms could be displayed on-screen and modified using
9401-479: The first weighing seven tons, the last in excess of 200 tons. Portability was managed only by rail and with the use of thirty boxcars. By 1912, public interest had waned, and Cahill's enterprise was bankrupt. Another development, which aroused the interest of many composers, occurred in 1919–1920. In Leningrad, Leon Theremin built and demonstrated his Etherophone, which was later renamed the Theremin . This led to
9520-710: The guitar-like SynthAxe , the BodySynth, the Buchla Thunder , the Continuum Fingerboard , the Roland Octapad , various isomorphic keyboards including the Thummer, and Kaossilator Pro , and kits like I-CubeX . The Reactable is a round translucent table with a backlit interactive display. By placing and manipulating blocks called tangibles on the table surface, while interacting with
9639-662: The human voice." The Moog was adopted by 1960s rock acts including 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
9758-523: The instrument sounds used in recordings are electronic instruments (e.g., bass synth , synthesizer , drum machine ). Development of new electronic musical instruments, controllers, and synthesizers continues to be a highly active and interdisciplinary field of research. Specialized conferences, such as the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression , have organized to report cutting-edge work, as well as to provide
9877-544: The keyboard interface is linked to a synth module , computer or other electronic or digital sound generator, which then creates a sound. However, it is increasingly common to separate user interface and sound-generating functions into a music controller ( input device ) and a music synthesizer , respectively, with the two devices communicating through a musical performance description language such as MIDI or Open Sound Control . The solid state nature of electronic keyboards also offers differing "feel" and "response", offering
9996-461: The keyboard or some other source. Voltage-controlled filters (VCFs) "shape" the sound generated by the oscillators in the frequency domain, often under the control of an envelope or LFO. These are essential to subtractive synthesis. Filters are particularly important in subtractive synthesis , being designed to pass some frequency regions (or "bands") through unattenuated while significantly attenuating ("subtracting") others. The low-pass filter
10115-461: 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. Early synthesizers could only play one note at a time , making them suitable for basslines, leads and solos. With
10234-489: The larger modular synthesizers before it. In 1978, Sequential Circuits released the Prophet-5 , which used microprocessors 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 microchips . In
10353-534: The late 1970s and early 1980s, do-it-yourself designs were published in hobby electronics magazines (such the Formant modular synth, a DIY clone of the Moog system, published by Elektor ) and kits were supplied by companies such as Paia in the US, and Maplin Electronics in the UK. In 1966, Reed Ghazala discovered and began to teach math " circuit bending "—the application of the creative short circuit,
10472-487: The level of expression available to electronic musicians, by allowing for the playing style of a musical instrument. Chiptune , chipmusic, or chip music is music written in sound formats where many of the sound textures are synthesized or sequenced in real time by a computer or video game console sound chip , sometimes including sample-based synthesis and low bit sample playback. Many chip music devices featured synthesizers in tandem with low rate sample playback. During
10591-508: 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 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
10710-816: The movement of the finger across a touch-sensitive surface; wind controllers , played similarly to woodwind instruments ; motion-sensitive controllers similar to video game motion controllers ; electronic drum pads , played similarly to the heads of a drum kit ; touchplates, which send signals depending on finger position and force; controllers designed for microtonal tunings ; touchscreen devices such as tablets and smartphones ; and fingerpads. 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
10829-453: The personal computer), combined with the standardization of the MIDI and Open Sound Control musical performance description languages, has facilitated the separation of musical instruments into music controllers and music synthesizers. By far the most common musical controller is the musical keyboard . Other controllers include the radiodrum , Akai's EWI and Yamaha's WX wind controllers,
10948-428: The piece is "An Étude for Variable Speed Recorder"; Le Caine is acknowledging the musical past with his use of the word étude . French for "study", it allows an instrument to explore or study a specific technical difficulty. Between 1955 and his retirement from the NRC in 1973, Le Caine produced at least fifteen electroacoustic compositions in order to demonstrate the capabilities of his new devices. He also created
11067-683: The popularity of electronic music in the UK. In 1897 Thaddeus Cahill patented an instrument called the Telharmonium (or Teleharmonium, also known as the Dynamaphone). Using tonewheels to generate musical sounds as electrical signals by additive synthesis , it was capable of producing any combination of notes and overtones, at any dynamic level. This technology was later used to design the Hammond organ . Between 1901 and 1910 Cahill had three progressively larger and more complex versions made,
11186-446: The rise of polyphonic synthesizers in the 70s and 80s, "the keyboard in rock once more started to revert to the background, to be used for fills and atmosphere rather than for soloing". Some acts felt that using synthesizers was "cheating"; Queen wrote in their album liner notes that they did not use them. The Minimoog took a place in mainstream African-American music , most notably in the work of Stevie Wonder , and in jazz , such as
11305-547: 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), and the filmmaker John Carpenter used them extensively for his soundtracks. Synthesizers were used to create themes for television shows including Knight Rider (1982) , Twin Peaks (1990) and Stranger Things (2016). The rise of
11424-473: The smallest number of computational operations per sound sample. In 1983 Yamaha introduced the first stand-alone digital synthesizer, the DX-7 . It used frequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis), first developed by John Chowning at Stanford University during the late sixties. Chowning exclusively licensed his FM synthesis patent to Yamaha in 1975. Yamaha subsequently released their first FM synthesizers,
11543-492: The sound at the same time. The new recording had a lower amplitude and created an echo-like sound. Le Caine spent one night manipulating his initial "drop" sound. The overall work could be considered programmatic, it is similar to the ebb and flow of a rain shower. There are various versions since he added a stereo mixing system to the multi-track. Dripsody is one of the most frequently played examples of musique concrète , but Le Caine remained modest. Once when asked why he chose
11662-638: The sound with a filter instead of volume. 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: Low-frequency oscillators (LFOs) produce waveforms used to modulate parameters, such as the pitch of oscillators (producing vibrato ). Arpeggiators, included in many synthesizer models, take input chords and convert them into arpeggios . They usually include controls for speed, range and mode (the movement of
11781-417: The spirit of the original Hornbostel Sachs classification scheme, if one categorizes instruments by what first produces the initial sound in the instrument, that only subcategory 53 should remain in the electrophones category. Thus, it has been more recently proposed, for example, that the pipe organ (even if it uses electric key action to control solenoid valves ) remain in the aerophones category, and that
11900-439: The success of FM synthesis Yamaha signed a contract with Stanford University in 1989 to develop digital waveguide synthesis , leading to the first commercial physical modeling synthesizer , Yamaha's VL-1, in 1994. The DX-7 was affordable enough for amateurs and young bands to buy, unlike the costly synthesizers of previous generations, which were mainly used by top professionals. The Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument),
12019-438: The summer of 1958, Tal had travelled to Ottawa under a UNESCO grant to visit major electronic music studios. Tal grew very excited about the instruments that Le Caine had built, but he did not realize what this meant to Le Caine until the following day when Le Caine, Tal, and several technicians were having lunch in a small restaurant. Tal noticed that not only had Le Caine been rather silent on this day, but on close inspection at
12138-536: The synthesizer led to major changes in music industry jobs, comparable to the earlier arrival of sound in film , which put live musicians accompanying silent films out of work. With its ability to imitate instruments such as strings and horns, the synthesizer threatened the jobs of session musicians . For a period, the Moog was banned from use in commercial work, a restriction negotiated by the American Federation of Musicians (AFM). Robert Moog felt that
12257-527: The table, Le Caine had tears running down his cheeks and falling silently into his soup. When an opportunity arose, Tal delicately asked one of the technicians about this and was told that Le Caine had felt no composer in Canada had a use for his instruments and that Tal was the first composer who had shown any interest in his work. In 1962 Le Caine arrived in Jerusalem to install his Creative Tape Recorder in
12376-612: The tape recorder as an essential element: "electronically produced sounds recorded on tape and arranged by the composer to form a musical composition". It was also indispensable to Musique concrète . Tape also gave rise to the first, analogue, sample-playback keyboards, the Chamberlin and its more famous successor the Mellotron , an electro-mechanical, polyphonic keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in
12495-399: The tape speed. He, sometime in the process of creating the keyboard, assembled the pitches into a pentatonic (five note) scale pattern. The second operation's objective was to play the recorded sound backwards, reversing the direction of the tape. Acoustically, the effect is to change the amplitude envelope. What we normally experience with amplitude is, for example, pressing a key on a piano,
12614-432: The visual display via finger gestures, a virtual modular synthesizer is operated, creating music or sound effects. AudioCubes are autonomous wireless cubes powered by an internal computer system and rechargeable battery. They have internal RGB lighting, and are capable of detecting each other's location, orientation and distance. The cubes can also detect distances to the user's hands and fingers. Through interaction with
12733-472: 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,
12852-504: The water drops and spliced it onto a short tape loop. This allowed the water drop to repeat like a traditional ostinato figure. Le Caine wrote down rhythmic figures he felt stimulated the sound of water drops then he decided how loud to make each figure, writing down a corresponding decibel number. He correlated the time values of the rhythms with different lengths of tape. Coming back to the tape recorder, Le Caine used that new tool to perform five kinds of operations or manipulations, all with
12971-510: 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 synthesizer in 1979, has influenced all genres of music and had a major influence on the development of electronic and hip hop music. In the 1970s, electronic music composers such as Jean Michel Jarre and Isao Tomita released successful synthesizer-led instrumental albums. This influenced
13090-761: 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. That decade, a few musicians skilled at programming the Yamaha DX7 found employment creating sounds for other acts. Synthesizers generate audio through various forms of analog and digital synthesis. Oscillators produce waveforms (such as sawtooth , sine , or pulse waves ) with different timbres . Voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs) control
13209-564: Was acquired by the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and used almost exclusively by Milton Babbitt , a composer at Princeton University . 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
13328-432: Was added to the Hornbostel-Sachs musical instrument classification system by Sachs in 1940, in his 1940 book The History of Musical Instruments ; the original 1914 version of the system did not include it. Sachs divided electrophones into three subcategories: The last category included instruments such as theremins or synthesizers , which he called radioelectric instruments. Francis William Galpin provided such
13447-535: Was associated with the RCA synthesizer; however, by the 1970s, it had become the standard term. 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. In the early 1970s, the British composer Ken Freeman introduced
13566-552: 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. The Synclavier , made with FM technology licensed from Yamaha, offered features such as 16-bit sampling and digital recording. With
13685-517: Was made in Germany. Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft (AEG) demonstrated the first commercially produced magnetic tape recorder , called the Magnetophon . Audio tape , which had the advantage of being fairly light as well as having good audio fidelity, ultimately replaced the bulkier wire recorders. The term " electronic music " (which first came into use during the 1930s) came to include
13804-439: Was only adopted slowly by composers at first, but by the early 1930s there was a burst of new works incorporating these and other electronic instruments. In 1929 Laurens Hammond established his company for the manufacture of electronic instruments. He went on to produce the Hammond organ , which was based on the principles of the Telharmonium , along with other developments including early reverberation units. The Hammond organ
13923-400: Was the first mass market all-digital synthesizer. It became indispensable to many music artists of the 1980s, and demand soon exceeded supply. The DX7 sold over 200,000 units within three years. The DX series was not easy to program but offered a detailed, percussive sound that led to the demise of the electro-mechanical Rhodes piano , which was heavier and larger than a DX synth. Following
14042-490: Was the first thermionic valve, or vacuum tube and which led to the generation and amplification of electrical signals, radio broadcasting, and electronic computation, among other things. Other early synthesizers included the Telharmonium (1897), the Theremin (1919), Jörg Mager's Spharophon (1924) and Partiturophone, Taubmann's similar Electronde (1933), Maurice Martenot 's ondes Martenot ("Martenot waves", 1928), Trautwein's Trautonium (1930). The Mellertion (1933) used
14161-598: Was the invention of the Clavivox synthesizer in 1956 by Raymond Scott with subassembly by Robert Moog . French composer and engineer Edgard Varèse created a variety of compositions using electronic horns , whistles, and tape. Most notably, he wrote Poème électronique for the Philips pavilion at the Brussels World Fair in 1958. RCA produced experimental devices to synthesize voice and music in
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