Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The History Of Digital Synthesizers

By Charlie Michaels

Synthesizers have revolutionized the way musicians perform on stage. In the old days, they could only recreate sounds through outdated recording techniques. Today, they can generate thousands of notes and frequencies on stage by the touch of a button.

A synthesizer is an electronic device that can simulate various sounds by creating and mixing a combination of different frequencies. By this method, it can create thousands of unique mixes of sounds.

Entertainers who wish to insert the noise of a car horn in their act dont have to use a recording of a car horn. In its place, the noise can be made by merely turning on a switch. The synthesizer even makes several sounds at the same time, such as, for instance, a honking horn or a bird calling.

Elisha Gray invented the first known synthesizer sometime in the latter part of the 1800s. He is mostly renowned for some of his other work: the telegraph and one of the first forms of the telephone. Gray led the way in electronics and was a future thinker in many ways. Although his premiere device was thought to be a little elementary by todays values, it cleared the path for models we have today.

Robert Moog, the father of the modern synthesizer, developed his ideas for an electronic instrument by starting out in 1961 and his synthesizer became publicized during 1990s. The Moog synthesizer is still widely perceived as a novel form of electronic keyboard.

Moog's synthesizer was at the head of the line in using a piano keyboard to control it. Prototypes that came before had used switches, dials and buttons. For that reason, they are compared to the pianos and electronic keyboards produced now. But they can be controlled by other methods. One example of that is a Guitar synthesizer.

Early synthesizers were also quite bulky and difficult to transport. Moog's synthesizer, however, was more compact and easier to travel with. This allowed many more musicians to use them in live performances. Through the years, synthesizers have continued to be grow more smaller and more sophisticated. Today, most synthesizers have utilized computer technologies and contain motherboards and computer chips.

The keyboard synthesizer continues to be widely used by musicians, particularly ones who tour regularly. Both touring and studio musicians frequently use software synthesizers called softsynth to create digital sounds to enhance their music. A less common device that a musician might use is a saxophone-style synthesizer.

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