Synthesizer
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
A musical synthesizer is an instrument that uses electricity to make musical sounds. Very often synthesizers have a keyboard like that of a piano. When playing a piano keyboard, sounds are made by hitting soft hammers against strings pulled very tight. When playing a synthesizer keyboard, sounds are made by turning electrical oscillators on and off. Since "synthesizer" is such a big word, the word is usually shortened to "synth".
Contents |
[change] How synths are used
The first synths were made more than a hundred years ago. They were very hard to make. As people learned more about electricity, inventors started trying harder to turn electricity into sound.
[change] The theremin
A famous, early synth was called the theremin. It was named after its inventor, Léon Theremin. The theremin contains a simple oscillator. It is controlled with two 'wands' that are never touched. One wand controls how loud the sound is. The other wand controls the pitch of the sound so that different notes can be played.
The theremin became quite famous after it was used to make many spooky sounds for the movie "Forbidden Planet" in the 1950s. Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys also used it in songs, like "Good Vibrations". Theremins are still made and used today.
[change] The Mellotron
The Mellotron was the world's first sampled keyboard instrument. It used loops of tape recordings, of different instruments, but made a unique sound with them. The Beatles and other bands used Mellotrons.
[change] The Moog synthesizer
Synths were found mostly in universitiess and research labs until the 1960s. Then a man named Robert Moog invented and sold a synth made of many separate sections called "modules". It used a keyboard and it had many knobs to control the sound. As well, the musician could change the electronic sounds by connecting wires called "patch cords". The cords were used to connect the different modules of the synth in different ways.
There was no way to "save" the connections. So it was very hard to make the same sound again. When a cord was broken it could be very hard to find which cord was broken. Only a tape recorder could "save" or record the sounds.
The "Moog synthesizer" became famous in the late 1960s when it was used to make an LP called "Switched-On Bach". The music was played by Walter Carlos, a skilled musician. He used the "Moog" to play one sound at a time into a tape recorder. It took months of work to join together all the sounds he made.
The "Moog" made many interesting and strange sounds. However, it but cost a lot of money. Also, it could not be moved around easily. Some Moogs were 2 meters (6 feet) long and a meter (3 feet) high. Other companies like Roland, Arp and Korg started to make their own synths in the 1970s. Many of these synthesizers were lighter in weight and easier to use.
[change] The 1980s
By the early 1980s, many musicians could buy a synth. Synths had also become smaller and lighter. They could be carried to concerts.
Kraftwerk, a group from Germany, is one best-known synth bands of the 1980s. To this day, many nice synths are made in Germany.
[change] How synthesizers work
An oscillator is something that "vibrates", or repeats the same pattern. The pendulum of a clock, for example, is a very slow oscillator. A piano string "oscillates" when struck by a hammer.
Electric oscillators might be made using transistors. They turn electricity into electrical patterns, or signals, that repeat over and over. When different keys are pressed , different notes are heard. This is done by making the signal from the oscillator repeat at different rates.
The signal can be boosted in strength and sent straight to a loudspeaker. But the sound of a simple signal can be boring after a while. Sounds can be made more interesting in many ways!
- For example
- Signals are often shaped by changing how fast they get loud and then soft again. This method, called "ADSR", helps synthesizers to sound more like older instruments — pianos, trumpets, flutes, and so on.
- The signals from several different oscillators may be combined. This helps to make a richer sound (today called "phat").
- The signal can then be sent to one or more filters. Filters are used to take away parts of the signal. For example, they might make the signal sound "brighter" or "duller", "soft" or "harsh".
- Many synthesizers use special oscillators called "LFOs". For example, an LFO might control how loud and soft the signal is, or control the pitch of the signal. An LFO might even control the actions of the filters.
By combining many of these methods, synths can now sound very much like older instruments. For one example, special synths called "drum synths" are used just to make the sounds a drummer might make. Synths can also make many new sounds never heard before.
In the early 2000s, computers got fast enough so "software synths" could be made. These are computer programs designed to look and work like a synth. They tend to be less expensive, so more can be used. Most of these programs can be downloaded for free, however this may be illegal, what means that police officers may arrest the player and send him or her to jail.
There are special tools available to play synths. For example, a thing called a "wind controller" lets players of wind instruments use their special skills. But there is still a need for more ways to control synths to make them more expressive.
[change] Other websites
- Sonic State describing 3000 models of Synthesizers
- Analog & Digital Synthesizers museum - Synthesizers database, resources, user reviews, pictures
- The history of Electronic Music
- 120 years of Electronic Music
