History of Synths
So, first off, what's a synth? Synth is short for synthesizer, which is a keyboard instrument, programmed to play any number and type of sound. Commonly they are programmed to sound like electric keyboards, but overall have the capacity for any sound, the options now are almost limitless.
A typical synthesizer contains three most basic modules:
- The Oscillator - the module that produces initial sound.
- The Keyboard - the module that is used to control the sound in the musical way.
- The Filters and Effects to change the nature of the sound.
There's a lot of history to it, so I'll give a short review of some of the most important
moments.
19th Century
Early on, in the 19th century (1896/1897) an American inventor called Thaddeus Cahill decided to apply for a patent in order to protect the principle behind an instrument called the Telharmonium, or Dynamophone.
In 1906 it was presented to the public during multiple concerts, renamed the Telharmony.
Late 1960's
Fast forward to 1969, the EMS VCS3 was released.
This synthesizer was designed to be remarkably more accessible to a wider audience. Created to be cheap, portable and easy to program, it was the first synthesizer that was truly available to the general public.
An artist for instance, who used this synthesizer:
White Noise ‘Love Without Sound’ 1969
1970's
The Moog Minimoog, was properly released in 1971, this synthesizer was the first to be fully intergrated into the music industry. Sold as a “professional audio equipment” rather than an instrument, and was pretty out of reach for even most studios and musicians.
You can hear it on the track Kraftwerk ‘Autobahn’
Yamaha CS-80 1976
This instrument was known to be ridiculously luxurious, unfortunately due to the high price, it couldn’t keep up with the cheaper competition from Sequential circuits Prophet V and Moog’s Polymog.
Roland System 1978
This synth skipped modulars and general bulk entirely, focusing on general consumers first with devices such as the Minikorg 700, Yamaha SY-1 and Roland SH-1000
1990's
Max/MSP 1996
Home computers started to grow in consumption around the 1980’s, which meant the number of musicians wanting software and equipment also rose.
During the 1990’s, the JD-800, M-1, Juno 106 but also Analog synths from back in the 80’s were still also in use.
Now
Throughout history the number of synthesizers had sky rocketed, even now there are thousands of options. Synthesizers have changed the way we perceive and create music for years, it helped mold the hip hop during the 1990’s , and holds a forefront in music for techno music, as well as countless other genre’s that now exist in our time.
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