Electronic synthesizer

The invention: Portable electronic device that both simulates the
sounds of acoustic instruments and creates entirely new sounds.
The person behind the invention:
Robert A. Moog (1934- ), an American physicist, engineer,
and inventor
From Harmonium to Synthesizer
The harmonium, or acoustic reed organ, is commonly viewed as
having evolved into the modern electronic synthesizer that can be
used to create many kinds of musical sounds, from the sounds of
single or combined acoustic musical instruments to entirely original
sounds. The first instrument to be called a synthesizer was patented
by the Frenchman J. A. Dereux in 1949. Dereux’s synthesizer, which
amplified the acoustic properties of harmoniums, led to the development
of the recording organ.
Next, several European and American inventors altered and
augmented the properties of such synthesizers. This stage of the
process was followed by the invention of electronic synthesizers,
which initially used electronically generated sounds to imitate
acoustic instruments. It was not long, however, before such synthesizers
were used to create sounds that could not be produced by any
other instrument. Among the early electronic synthesizers were
those made in Germany by Herbert Elmert and Robert Beyer in
1953, and the American Olsen-Belar synthesizers, which were developed
in 1954. Continual research produced better and better versions
of these large, complex electronic devices.
Portable synthesizers, which are often called “keyboards,” were
then developed for concert and home use. These instruments became
extremely popular, especially in rock music. In 1964, Robert A.
Moog, an electronics professor, created what are thought by many
to be the first portable synthesizers to be made available to the public.
Several other well-known portable synthesizers, such as ARP
and Buchla synthesizers, were also introduced at about the same time. Currently, many companies manufacture studio-quality synthesizers
of various types.
Synthesizer Components and Operation
Modern synthesizers make music electronically by building up
musical phrases via numerous electronic circuits and combining
those phrases to create musical compositions. In addition to duplicating
the sounds of many instruments, such synthesizers also enable
their users to create virtually any imaginable sound. Many
sounds have been created on synthesizers that could not have been
created in any other way.
Synthesizers use sound-processing and sound-control equipment
that controls “white noise” audio generators and oscillator circuits.
This equipment can be manipulated to produce a huge variety of
sound frequencies and frequency mixtures in the same way that a
beam of white light can be manipulated to produce a particular
color or mixture of colors.
Once the desired products of a synthesizer’s noise generator and
oscillators are produced, percussive sounds that contain all or many
audio frequencies are mixed with many chosen individual sounds
and altered by using various electronic processing components. The
better the quality of the synthesizer, the more processing components
it will possess. Among these components are sound amplifiers,
sound mixers, sound filters, reverberators, and sound combination
devices.
Sound amplifiers are voltage-controlled devices that change the
dynamic characteristics of any given sound made by a synthesizer.
Sound mixers make it possible to combine and blend two or more
manufactured sounds while controlling their relative volumes.
Sound filters affect the frequency content of sound mixtures by increasing
or decreasing the amplitude of the sound frequencies
within particular frequency ranges, which are called “bands.”
Sound filters can be either band-pass filters or band-reject filters.
They operate by increasing or decreasing the amplitudes of sound
frequencies within given ranges (such as treble or bass). Reverberators
(or “reverb” units) produce artificial echoes that can have significant
musical effects. There are also many other varieties of soundprocessing elements, among them sound-envelope generators,
spatial locators, and frequency shifters. Ultimately, the soundcombination
devices put together the results of the various groups
of audio generating and processing elements, shaping the sound
that has been created into its final form.Avariety of control elements are used to integrate the operation
of synthesizers. Most common is the keyboard, which provides the
name most often used for portable electronic synthesizers. Portable
synthesizer keyboards are most often pressure-sensitive devices
(meaning that the harder one presses the key, the louder the resulting
sound will be) that resemble the black-and-white keyboards of
more conventional musical instruments such as the piano and the
organ. These synthesizer keyboards produce two simultaneous outputs:
control voltages that govern the pitches of oscillators, and timing
pulses that sustain synthesizer responses for as long as a particular
key is depressed.
Unseen but present are the integrated voltage controls that control
overall signal generation and processing. In addition to voltage
controls and keyboards, synthesizers contain buttons and other
switches that can transpose their sound ranges and other qualities.
Using the appropriate buttons or switches makes it possible for a
single synthesizer to imitate different instruments—or groups of instruments—
at different times. Other synthesizer control elements
include sample-and-hold devices and random voltage sources that
make it possible to sustain particular musical effects and to add various
effects to the music that is being played, respectively.
Electronic synthesizers are complex and flexible instruments.
The various types and models of synthesizers make it possible to
produce many different kinds of music, and many musicians use a
variety of keyboards to give them great flexibility in performing
and recording.
Impact
The development and wide dissemination of studio and portable
synthesizers has led to their frequent use to combine the sound
properties of various musical instruments; a single musician can
thus produce, inexpensively and with a single instrument, sound
combinations that previously could have been produced only by a
large number of musicians playing various instruments. (Understandably,
many players of acoustic instruments have been upset by
this development, since it means that they are hired to play less often
than they were before synthesizers were developed.) Another consequence of synthesizer use has been the development of entirely
original varieties of sound, although this area has been less
thoroughly explored, for commercial reasons. The development of
synthesizers has also led to the design of other new electronic music-
making techniques and to the development of new electronic
musical instruments.
Opinions about synthesizers vary from person to person—and,
in the case of certain illustrious musicians, from time to time. One
well-known musician initially proposed that electronic synthesizers
would replace many or all conventional instruments, particularly
pianos. Two decades later, though, this same musician noted
that not even the best modern synthesizers could match the quality
of sound produced by pianos made by manufacturers such as
Steinway and Baldwin.