synthesizer (redirected from Music synthesizer)

synthesizer

Machine that electronically generates and modifies sounds, frequently with the use of a digital computer, for use in the composition of electronic music and in live performance. The synthesizer generates wave forms and then subjects them to alteration in intensity, duration, frequency, and timbre. It may use subtractive synthesis (removing unwanted components from a signal containing a fundamental and all related overtones), additive synthesis (building tones from signals for pure sine-wave tones), or other techniques, most importantly whole-sound sampling (digital recording of sounds, usually from acoustic instruments). The first synthesizer was developed c. 1955 by RCA. Compact, commercially viable synthesizers, generally with pianolike keyboards, were produced in the 1960s by Robert Moog (born 1934), Donald Buchla (born 1937), and others. With transistor technology, these soon became portable and cheap enough for practical performance use, and such instruments became fixtures in rock bands, often displacing electric pianos and organs. See also MIDI.

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A device that generates sound by creating waveforms electronically (such as subtractive or FM synthesis) or from stored samples of musical instruments (wave table synthesis). Although rudimentary electronic instruments were developed as far back as the 1920s, it was Robert Moog (pronounced "Mogue") who popularized the synthesizer in the 1960s. The term itself was coined after his devices, which were the first to combine an electronic (piano-style) keyboard with extremely flexible sound creation capabilities. In the 1970s, the Minimoog portable synthesizer was widely accepted. See MIDI and speech synthesis.

Recalling Times Past

Looking very much like the original portable device of the early 1970s, this 21st century transformation of the Minimoog Voyager Signature Edition synthesizer was introduced in 2002. (Image courtesy of Moog Music Inc., www.moogmusic.com)