The Modern Electronic

In the early 1960s, the advent of the transistor and miniaturization mark a milestone in the history of the synthesizer. The transistor mark the birth of the modern synthesizer. During this decade the (relative) reduction of cost of machinery promotes wider dissemination of the synthesizer. During 1964 two powerful models are developed simultaneously, combining the functions of processing and synthesis of sound:

The first model is called Synket created by engineer Paolo Ketoff. He is a pioneer in integrating the basic elements that will be taken up subsequently in most synthesizers. Transistor, it has several oscillators, filters affecting stamps and a system of frequency modulation.

The second model is an instrument controlled by keyboard, composed of independent modules and voltage controlled (voltage control). It was developed by an engineer whose models to come, will be much written, it is Robert Moog. At the same time, another American, Donald Buchla, also the idea of using modules interconnected.

In 1969, the famous synthesizer VCS-3 developed by UK-based EMS provides for the first time not separate modules, designed in a single portable unit. It marks the beginning of the models pre-wired modules, using small cards that were inserted in a matrix linking the various modules. This synthesizer offered enormous possibilities of sound creation.

A little over ten years will have only enough to pass laboratory prototypes, heavy and bulky, facilities producing instruments transportable on an industrial scale. Marks appear first in the United States, Japan and then offer more devices and more efficient and simple to use. Synthesizers similar soon to consumer goods. Marketing is booming. The early craftsmen synthesizer quickly become marginalized in favor of big brands.

The Electroacoustic instruments

Before the Second World War, electromechanical and electroacoustic instruments are created. If the former are still at an experimental stage in introducing the instrument mechanical devices which are electrical components, such as the Hammond organ, the second, more traditionally crafted, as the guitar, incorporating technologies based on amplification power (the speaker and microphone).
These electromechanical and electroacoustic instruments, which are the first attempts to synthesize instruments invoice "traditional", enable the advent of the synthesizer.

In early 1950, the U.S. firm RCA develops the first experimental synthesizer designed by Harry Olson and Herbert Belar, able to create artificial sounds. At the same time, Max Matthews, an engineer at Bell Telephone invented the digital synthesis (the sounds are created from digital signals). The birth of the first instruments sound generators will therefore transform the relationship between man and machine. The resources required for the composition of electronic music will take shape quickly at first in classical music and film music before being commercially exploited in the various currents of contemporary music (rock, pop, jazz, etc..).

What is a Synthesizer?

It is difficult to define precisely a synthesizer. The term is used to describe instruments using sound synthesis. They can be in turn: expanders, arrangers, samplers, keyboards, laptops, etc.. These instruments have one thing in common: the hardware synthesizer; instrument consisting of a keyboard, a sound generator and a connector capable of controlling and making sounds.

The birth of synthetic sounds back in the early 20th century, when manufacturers, the makers realized that electricity could be a tool for creating extraordinary. Early attempts to broaden the range of acoustic instruments begin with the Theremin (1919), the ondes Martenot (1928) and Trautonium (1930). These early musical machines reflect a growing attraction for sound experimentation. Subsequently, the mastery of certain techniques such as oscillating electric and restitution of sound through speakers are decisive and allow the emergence of electronic and electrical processes that we still use today. This noise control is called "analog", we can define as the result of electrical oscillation similar to the sound wave generated.

History of Electronic Music

The synthesizer has happened gradually, throughout its history, to emerge as an indispensable instrument for the evolution of modern music, even if initially it was considered an accessory by some musicians and other, musicians or scene as a dangerous rival, capable of umbrage: the drum machine to replace the battery or the drums, the synthesizer to replace the bass strings and brass, for example. Obviously, the first analog synthesizers sounds that were like by far the instruments they wanted to imitate the sound of an acoustic instrument being very complex by its harmonics, through its various levels of attack or modulation. Many musicians have therefore preferred, in any sense, operate the instrument as a tool for sound creation.

The synthesizer, although the recent past, is rich in the diversity of models that have marked its history. In recent decades, the synthesizer has experienced a fantastic evolution, the first modular synthesizers tube, through the digital and analog synthesizer to get the models that we know today based on sampling and physical modeling.