The history
of synthesizer and sampler development - part II
Mellotron sound was used on the famous
recordings of The Beatles, such as Strawberry Fields Forever.
It was the first sampler in the history using
the pieces of magnetic tapes as today's
digital samplers use digital samples.
Another very important inventor in the history
of music was Robert Moog. He
invented a modular synthesizer, which consists of several
modules combined with each other in different ways by using
cables. Although he was not the first of the inventors of a
modular synthesizer, earlier than him was Büchl Don, who
also introduced the initial concept of this sequencer, but Moog was
important in the sense of establishing a certain standard in the
construction of electronic synthesizers, which since then
are
reproduced by countless companies: the Music Control Voltage (VCA).
Modular Moog synthesizers included voltage control setting
of 1
Volt per octave, to control the basic functions:
pitch (VCO), cut-off filter (VCF) and volume (VCA). Envelope,
low frequency oscillators and keyboard could give the small
voltage needed. Although the Don Buchla synthesizer also used
voltage controls as well as Moog, but did not have such precise
adjustment, it's settings were rather experimental and not
suitable to the broader use in music just like Moog's synthesizer.
On the following photos left to right - Büchla together with his modular synthesizer and early Moog:
Below
- early Buchla's synthesizers :
A very important step forward was the
invention in 1969 by R. Moog 's the MiniMoog synthesizer. It was
an attempt to get rid of huge quantities of cables, which
can be very complicated in operation and adjustment of the modular Moog synthesizer. This
has resulted in fantastically miniaturized instrument:
Moog remedied the problem of huge
quantities of cables by the use of permanent connections
between the modules and by use of large-scale switches, through which
similarly large number of combinations could be obtained,
as using cables. This allowed the extensive use of
synthesizers during concerts, and not only in the
studio. Bass sounds of the Minimoog ibecame quickly the
loved standard for many musicians musicians and took a permanent place in
classic popular music.
Another instrument that has permanently
inscribed on the history of music is the Prophet 5:
Although it was not the first polyphonic
synthesizer, which is capable of playing chords, as such
instruments existed
before, like the Yamaha CS-80 (which is one of
the main Vangelis' instruments in the late'70 and early'80),
its truly innovative value, however, consisted of something
else: it had a miniature internal chips, where a single VCO,
VCF, VCA unit could be built in a linear IC system. The Prophet 5,
thanks to the use of this technology has become the smallest polyphonic
synthesizer, which may be used for concerts, and
is easily transported. Another very important innovation of
Prophet 5 was the overall programmability. Musicians were
for the first time able to
save their sounds in the cells of RAM and recall them
freely during the concerts. This was simply invaluable move
forward for musicians, using the synthesizer as their
principal instrument. Polyphonic synthesizers, which emerged
after the Prophet 5, all used similar technology of miniaturized
integrated circuits of IC type.
So far, the only types of sound synthesis in synthesizers were
either the "additive" and the "subtractive". The first
instrument, which was built on the basis of a completely
different sound synthesis was the New England
Digital Synclavier. Although it was very expensive and
rarely used outside the world of film and experimental music,
but it included many elements, which passed the synthesizer
to the future. First of all, it had a new technology
generators based on the principle of FM synthesis, namely
the mathematical, digital audio synthesis. Secondly, the Synclavier contained a computer, which
governed both the
parameters and the sequencing of sound, and even the sampling
of sounds from outside in the later models. It was to become
the first fully digital sampler and a first digital workstation.
Later, some companies have put on the market their
workstations, which were more miniaturized, such as Ensoniq
ESQ-1, Korg M1, but the concept was discovered and
introduced by the Synclavier. It significantly helped in the
development of electronic music and one of its big fans was
an American composer and guitarist, the great experimenter,
Frank Zappa.
In the photo below New England Digital Synclavier:
One can not mention here is the first digital
sampler, the Fairlight CMI. In the seventies of last century, a group of
people in Sydney in Australia have started work on the
synthesizer controlled by computer. But what
came out was completely different from the original draft
vision.
It turned out that they built the first sampler. This sampler has
changed the face of electronic music by replacing the
complex process of tape looping with much easier digital
processing. Although it was very costly device, its ability
to create and edit sounds, as well as controlling them through
the illuminated graphic pen on the keyboard was highly
coveted by musicians. Excellent French composer, Jean-Michel Jarre in
his early albums was very advanced user of the
device. Fairlight CMI has inspired a lot more, newer
samplers.
The following photo shows that first mass-used sampler:
Another very important synthesizer-sampler designating
new horizons in the development of music is Emu Emulator.
Emu in the early seventies, was a company that produced
modular synthesizers. However, Dave Rossum, founder of Emu
Systems, completely changed its approach when he first saw Fairlight'a CMI in 1980. Then
he came to the conclusion that
there must be a simpler way of sampling and a year later
the EMU produced the first prototype- the Emulator I. User's
interface was
much simpler than the CMI's, the operation of instrument was also easier to
understand, and the price ($ 8000) was significantly lower
than CMI's price. Starting from then Emu has become the dominant
sampling company. Another model was Emulator II, produced
in 1984 - it had longer sampling times, the built-in
sequencer, and the possibility of multisampling. Some of the
sounds have become the standard sounds of eighties, for
example "shakuhachi",
and are still popular today. There are bands such as Depeche Mode, which
still use the Emulator II.
Another important synthesizer in the history is the Yamaha DX7 released
in 1983. This is one of the most famous and
most widespread synthesizers using FM synthesis. Yamaha has
developed technology for their keyboards, the FM has been
in existence for some time, but only this model has brought
up the
desired success. Since that time, FM synthesis has dominated
analog synthesizers and until recently was the
dominant technology used in synthesizers. FM technology was
able to produce good sounds at a relatively low cost that were
previously available only on very expensive and complex
machinery. The DX7 is a digital synthesizer that has the easy
choice of a sound at the touch of a button. It was also
equipped with recently
discovered midi interface, which allowed for easy control of
synthesizer, as well as its co-operation with other sound modules.
The Yamaha DX7 cost was less than $ 2,000. It was
the first really widely available digital synthesizer. It has
proved a huge success, becoming one of the most widely sold
and most widespread synthesizers in history. In the years
1983 - 1987, very many songs on the music market contained
the sounds
from DX-7.
Roland TB-303. Before the techno era it is absolutely
would not get onto this list of the best or most notable
synthesizers. But since the
techno style was invented, this instrument has become the
most desirable instrument to get for a techno musician,
because it's action of unique resonance filter has become very desirable
and fashionable element of the techno style. Interestingly,
the Roland TB-303 was designed and produced as an instrument to
imitate bass guitar. It appeared, however, that it did not
completely suited to this role, it's tone was a very poor attempt
to clone the bass guitar. But the electronic musicians quickly
figured out that with the appropriate settings of the
controls it gives a very nice and interesting, wet filter
sound, with a soft kind of distortion, which is suitable for
many synthesizer lines such as leads and pulsations.
The Roland TB-303 is probably the most classic techno music
synthesizer on the market. It's simplicity and one of a kind
sound have
contributed to its high rank among the best synthesizers
in history.
The
Roland D-50. This instrument was designed by Roland
specifically to make it the same market hit as the Yamaha DX7 for
the Yamaha company. And so
it happened: D50 has become one of the most popular
synthesizers of the eighties, and the whole twentieth century.
It also helped
in the development of today's sample based synthesizers.
The D-50 was one of the first synthesizer with built-in ROM memory
that contained the samples which could be used instead of oscillators.
These samples were short, but good enough to give a lot of
realistic instrument sounds. Another very important
innovation of the Roland D-50 was the introduction of the synthesizer module
effects: the reverb, chorus, equalizer. Many previously
built synthesizers had some effects but they were of
much poorer quality. After the D-50, synthesizers which sounds based on samples almost always had
built in
effects similar to the famous Roland. After adding digital
analog sound emulation it has become a very warm sounding synthesizer,
which actually carried out the majority of the sound of the
eighties
style music. Other synthesizers, such as the Korg
M1, with its capability of imposing various tone over
themselves (Combi feature)
helped much in the development of today's advanced synthesizers,
based on samples. But the Roland D-50 was the beginning of a new
line of synthesizers, which went into the samples.
Therefore, the Roland D-50 is on the short list
of most beloved synthesizers of all time. It is still a
favorite among professional keyboard players. It is much
easier to use than the Yamaha DX-7. It combines the
technology of 8-bit PCM samples with the sounds
generated in the typical synthesizer way, the
so-called LAS technology (Linear Arithmetic Synth), so
it is able to provide a very unique and complex sounds.
PCM sample contains a lot of transients in the attack,
while the rest of the sound comes from the LAS section, which
sounds very analog, soft, in the subtractive synthesis
style and
contains perfectly sounding low-resonance filters.
The instrument has a built-in chorus and reverb that was
the first digital reverb
ever used in a synthesizer, which helps to give
it's sounds extra space and life.
A very interesting solution is the
joystick, which is used to manipulate sounds in real time.
The D-50 was and still is a wonderful instrument for pads, beautiful, sometimes
sounding a bit percussive. The most successful patches are
for example the "Staccato Heaven" or "Glass
Voices" The combination of
sound characteristics of digital loops, featured on the first samplers and analogue warmth gives the D-50
really unmatched sound quality-clean and warm at the same time.
Another famous patch is "Fantasia", a mixture of digital bells
and synthesizers with a slightly warm, out of tune taste to
it.
Yet another notable patches to "DigitalNativeDance", "Soundtrack",
"Pizzagogo" and "Glass Voices" of the
D-50 have characteristics of the
sound of the analog mixed wealth, combined with
crystal, digitally perfect taste, with the expression and overall beauty of
sound, which is difficult to imitate. The Roland recently
released its V-Synth, which is like D-50, thanks to the use
samples of low resolution in some cases.
This popular synthesizer is in wide use in all
music styles among artists such as Eric Clapton, Enya, 808 State,
Jean Michael Jarre, Vince Clarke, Apollo 440, Eat Static,
LTJ Bukem, Fluke, Information Society, Lab-4, Gary Numan,
Rick Wakeman, Kitaro, Rush, Boston and Nick Rhodes of Duran
Duran.
The last synthesizer presented here did not
become so popular as the previous ones, but its importance
lies in the fact that it introduced a new technology to
create new sounds: the modeling. This is the Yamaha
VL1. Its drawback was the high cost. Yamaha VL1 was
first available in the market synthesizer using sound
modeling techniques. It was very expensive and could
only do a few things (for example, play as a true
saxophone). But it had the ability to do those things really
well! Which is why it inspired a new wave of modeling
synthesizers (such as the Clavia Nord Lead and the Korg
Prophecy, which was able to deliver a lot of strange
sound effects, being an affordable solo synthesizer.
Therefore, it enjoyed a big commercial success. Like the Synclavier and Fairlight,
the Yamaha VL1 can be seen as the
beginning of a new generation of advanced synthesizers.
Yamaha VL1
Clavia Nord Lead
Korg Prophecy
The rhythm machine
modules-rhythmic synthesizers and percussion samplers
Very interesting and necessary instrument in the market of
electronic music is a programmable drum and percussion machine. One
of the most successful models is the Roland TR-808. Initially,
Roland has introduced a series of CR:
However, the rhythm could not be fully programmed using
those devices. They had only permanently programmed
factory rhythm 'patterns' and could therefore be used
as fully
professional equipment to create rhythms, and could only be helpful
with, for instance exercises on the guitar. The first
fully programmable drum synthesizer-sampler was the
Roland TR-808 introduced in 1980. This machine has become
very popular and has initiated many styles of music as we
know today as Techno, Rap, modern House, etc. The machine had
a well-sounding samples based on the analogue sound of drums.
Interestingly, although these machines initially had been dominated by
other samplers of this type, such as the Linndrum, the fashion for
Roland TR-808 returned at the end of '80, when hip-hop
artists have discovered that they could tune the sound of a
kick drum of the machine down in such a way that it gave an
extremely powerful, bass sinusoidal wave, which became the
basis for the style in countless productions.
Here's how the Linndrum looks. It dominated the sound of
the sampled drums in the middle of eighties and the Roland TR-808,
which a
classic of the genre at the late eighties:
TR-808 sound:
Here is one more drum and percussion machine. This is
the Roland
TR-909.
The instrument is an analog-digital hybrid, which has become
another classic techno genre. It is used very often in 'house' and
related styles of music. It is a tool that every
producer of dance music already has or will have in his collection. You
can not name all using it, because it is used by everybody.
to name a few
of them they are Technotronic on "Pump Up the Jam"
, "This Beat
Is Technotronic," Speedy J "Pullover", or "Dee-Lite".
There is also yet another famous and widely used
machine of the Roland 'TR' series - the Roland TR-707. It is a machine based on sampled
rock drums, but in combination with a sequencer is
also gives excellent results in dance music. Many of the
Britney Spears' hits and other pop performers enjoy the sounds of
the instrument:
This article shows briefly only some of the most
important synthesizers and samplers in the history of music.
But we hope this gives a good view on the subject for all who
want to enrich their knowledge about the history of
electronic instruments.
For all your questions and
inquires please contact us at:
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