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Synthesizer [synthesiser] (Fr. synthétiseur; Ger.

Synthesizer; It. sintetizzatore)
Hugh Davies

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.27270
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

An electronic instrument, usually incorporating a keyboard, capable of

producing more complex sounds than other electronic instruments that
directly imitate traditional acoustic equivalents. As yet no standard form has
developed, since synthesizers are mostly used for performing rock music
and jazz which is specially composed, arranged or improvised. Several stages
can be observed in the evolution of the synthesizer, each seeing the demise
of existing companies and the rapid growth of new ones. Some earlier
electronic instruments that were called ‘synthesizer’, such as the RCA
Electronic Music Synthesizer (1951–2) and the Siemens Synthesizer (1957–
9) are better classi ed as composition machines, as their sounds are not
produced in real time (see Electronic instruments, §IV, 5, (i)).

The earliest instruments that anticipated aspects of the synthesizer were

developed from the late 1940s onwards, principally by Harald Bode and
Hugh Le Caine. Sound-generating and -processing devices, assembled from
heterogeneous sources in newly founded electronic music studios (such as
the oscillator or sound generator, Filter and Ring modulator), were specially
designed as parts of a single unit or as individual modules within a console;
for the rst time such devices had standardized electrical characteristics,
enabling certain of their functions to be operated remotely by means of
Voltage control. The rst commercial synthesizers were marketed in 1964 by
Buchla and Robert A(rthur) Moog; in the same year Paolo Keto in Rome
produced the Synket. They were followed in 1968 by the Putney or VCS-3
(EMS, London) and the rst Japanese synthesizer (by the company now
known as Korg), and in 1970 by the ARP 2500 synthesizer. These early
modular synthesizers were designed primarily for use in electronic music
studios.

In 1970, to meet the need of an instrument designed for concert perfomance,

and in the face of increasing competition in a limited eld, Moog launched
the Minimoog, a small console containing a monophonic keyboard and a
xed combination of ‘hard-wired’ modules. This appealed to rock
musicians; it was soon followed by ARP's 2600 and Odyssey (both 1971). The
rst polyphonic synthesizers appeared in the mid-1970s, ranging from the
electronic organ-like Polymoog (1976) to the more exible Oberheim Two-,
Four-, six- and Eight-Voice synthesizers (1974–5).

Digital synthesis was pioneered in 1971 in the Allen electronic organ.

Previous electronic instruments had featured a selection of timbres created
by means of lters or other circuitry, each accessible like a pipe organ stop
with the operation of a switch or a potentiometer; digital synthesis
permitted the programming of timbres (‘voices’ or ‘patches’) in the
instrument's software. In the 1980s manufacturers began increasingly to

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commission patches from external musicians. Some companies provided the
user with programming facilities, or o ered additional timbres for sale on
one of the variety of existing removable storage media, including cassettes,
oppy disks, data cards and plug-in microchips, RAM and ROM cartridges.

The introduction of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface; see MIDI) in

1983 initiated a more wide-ranging digital replacement for voltage control,
whereby instruments and other devices from di erent manufacturers could
be interconnected. The rst successful digital synthesizer with MIDI was
Yamaha's DX7 (1983). From the mid-1980s a new generation of
microcomputers like the Apple Macintosh, Atari ST and PC models could be
linked to MIDI synthesizers, and software was written to give users greater
exibility in programming their own timbres.

In the early 1980s some of the most expensive synthesizers, such as the
second versions of the Fairlight CMI and Synclavier, o ered not only digital
synthesis but also the possibility of digitally recording external sounds, a
technique known as ‘sampling’ (see Sampler). The E-mu Emulator (1981)
was the rst ‘dedicated’ keyboard sampler, and in 1985 the Ensoniq Mirage
brought the keyboard sampler within the range of many musicians' pockets
for the rst time. Since then sampling has become the principal method of
creating timbres on all types of electronic instruments. Today an enormous
selection of timbres from instruments from all over the world, including
‘vintage’ electronic instruments, as well as non-musical sounds, are
available for use in synthesizers and samplers, supplied mostly on CDs with
substantial storage capacity.

Synthesizers like the DX7 were entirely digital, even though this meant that
they lacked such simple analogue devices as a low-pass lter for shaping the
nal sound. The greater precision of digital electronics caused many
musicians to feel a nostalgia for the rougher, more individual character of
analogue synthesizers, a trend that is still re ected in the prices of second-
hand instruments, which have increased, often substantially, since 1990. In
parallel with the increasing sophistication achieved by the designers of
digital equipment in creating more realistic sounds that mimic those
produced by acoustic instruments, during the 1990s several combinations of
the most e ective aspects of both analogue and digital synthesis were
established: hybrid combinations of both types of circuitry; digital
instruments furnished with the multiplicity of controls found on the
consoles of analogue instruments; a new generation of analogue
instruments bene ting from the experience of digital circuitry; and ‘virtual
analogue’ digital instruments based on more accurate analysis of analogue
sound generation called ‘physical modelling’. Some of these only became
possible through the increased speed and processing power of digital signal
processing (DSP) microchips.

See also Computers and music; and Electronic instruments.

Bibliography
Contemporary Keyboard (1975–) [continued as Keyboard]

J. CHADABE: ‘The Voltage-Controlled Synthesizer’, The Development and Practice of

Electronic Music, ed. J.H. APPLETON and R.C. PERERA (Englewood Cli s, NJ, 1975), 138–88

T. DARTER and G. ARMBRUSTER, eds: The Art of Electronic Music (New York, 1984)

G. BATEL and D. SALBERT, eds.: Synthesizermusik und Live-Elektronik: geschichtliche,

technologische, kompositorische und pädagogische Aspekte der elektronischen Musik
(Wolfenbüttel, 1985)

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D. FRIEDMAN: The Complete Guide to Synthesizers, Sequencers and Drum Machines (New
York, 1985)

C. ROADS and J. STRAWN, eds.: Foundations of Computer Music (Cambridge, MA, 1985) [incl.
articles on digital synthesizers repr. from Computer Music Journal, i–iii, 1977–9]

Sound on Sound (1985)

D. CROMBIE: The New Complete Synthesizer: a Comprehensive Guide to the World of Electronic
Music (London, 1986)

M. BECKER: Synthesizer von Gestern, 1–2 (Augsburg, 1990–95)

J. PRESSING: Synthesizer Performance and Real-Time Techniques (Madison, WI, 1992)

M. VAIL and others: Vintage Synthesizers: Groundbreaking Instruments and Pioneering

Designers of Electronic Music Synthesizers (San Francisco, 1993) [based on articles in
Keyboard, xv–xix, 1989–93]

P. FORREST: The A–Z of Analogue Synthesizers, i: A–M (Crediton, Devon, 1994, 2/1998), ii: N–Z
(Crediton, Devon, 1996)

J. COLBECK: Keyfax Omnibus Edition (Emeryville, CA, 1996) [surveys 1000 insts]

For further bibliography see Electronic instruments.

See also
Bode, Harald
Jarre, Jean-MicheI
E-mu
Le Caine, Hugh
arp
Carlos, Wendy
Watts, John (ii)
Vocoder

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