Synthesizers

3rd July 2013

PBC406 – Production Analysis

Martin Kruger DipHE Student – Point Blank Online

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Intro:

One of the most important parts of music is the musical instrument. From human

vocal chords creating dynamic timbres to hammers striking the strings in a piano,

these sounds are integral to the music we hear. Without any instruments, there

would be no music; only the sound of silence.

The synthesizer is one such instrument. Capable of diverse timbres depending on its

method of sound synthesis, the synthesizer grows alongside technology, with new

breakthroughs in electrical or computer technology often leading to a new electrical

component or a new way to design a synthesizer.

The synthesizer comes in two different forms, analog and digital, and it has a variety

of different methods to generate its sound, such as Frequency Modulation (FM),

Subtractive Synthesis and Additive Synthesis.

A feature which exists in most synthesizers is the ADSR (Attack, Decay, Sustain and

Release) Envelope, which allows a user to ‘shape’ a sound into a ‘time-varying

waveform’ (Roads, 1996), such as adjusting the Attack to change between a

percussive or pad type sound, or the Release, that responds when a user lets go of

a key which can be used to ensure the sound is cut off immediately or a slowly

decaying ‘tail’ of audio remains (Fig.2). (Russ, 2008)

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Figure 1: The flow of a basic digital and analog synthesizer.

Figure 2: Attack and Release

Intro (History):

The term ‘synthesizer’ can be traced back to the 1890s when Thomas Cahill was

granted a patent to build the Telharmonium, which used additive synthesis to create

its sounds. In the Patent, Thomas Cahill used the term ‘synthesizer’, which is the first

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known use for the term in electronic music hardware. (Akins, 2006) (Roads, 1996,

p83)

Synthesizers have opened the doors to those without academic training to be able to

participate in a band due to the amazing timbres and evolving sounds that can be

generated from a patch with a very minimal amount of playing, effectively allowing

more people’s music to get out. Before the synthesizer, a person would have had to

train for years with a traditional instrument to be able to get into a band or compose

music, although this isn’t true for all genres.

The type of timbres and sounds of the synthesizer has greatly changed, or led to the

types and genres of music that exist. An example of this is how the Yamaha DX7

was dominant in the 1980s and can be heard in many television scores (Pool &

Wright, 2010) and the pop music of the time. (Channel4, 2011)

With the advent of MIDI, synthesizers also changed the way that people would

compose and arrange their music, as previously they would have had to perform “a

musical passage in real time” (Huber, 2007). MIDI also allowed error-free

synchronization of instruments which used the MIDI specification, effectively allowing

the user to be able to send master commands to trigger events, such as the start of

a musical passage (Huber, 2007).

Brief discussion on early history of synthesizers/electronic instruments:

Advances in technology had a great impact on synthesizers and electronic music.

Traditionally, electronic music instruments were built using vacuum-tubes (United

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States of America), otherwise known as thermionic valves (United Kingdom), which

were fragile and expensive.

Sometime between 1945 and 1948, the transistor was invented which went on to

replace vacuum-tubes (Vardalas, 2003). This was a great moment for the

development of synthesizers as they were now more affordable to experiment with

as well as also played a big role in making synthesizers more compact, reliable and

mobile.

What is a synthesizer’s purpose?

Initially synthesizers were based on subtractive or additive synthesis, however as

technology advanced, people started to experiment with different forms of sound

synthesis (Fig. 3).

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Figure 3: Types of Sound Synthesis

Analog Synthesizers:

Analog synthesizers can be defined as a synthesizer that uses voltages and currents

for its signal path and modulators, of which are transmitted as a continuous signal.

(Russ, 2008)

A name very famous amongst the electronic music world is the American pioneer

Robert “Bob” Moog. (Fig. 4)

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Figure 4: Robert “Bob” Moog

In 1964 Bob Moog, in collaboration with Herbert Deutsch, developed the first

prototype of a voltage-controlled synthesizer. It was only in 1966 that Moog first used

the term ‘synthesizers’ in print for his devices, which he previously referred to as

“electronic music modules”. (Pinch & Trocco, 2004, p.67)

Wendy Carlos, previously known as Walter Carlos, performed pieces by Johann

Sebastian Bach on a Moog synthesizer and released the album, called ‘Switch On

Bach’, in March 1968 (Russ, 2008), which was able to make its way into the

Billboards Top 10. It is believed that this album is what made the public aware of the

Moog synthesizer. (Pinch & Trocco, 2004, p.8)

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Digital Synthesizers:

‘Digital synthesis of sound is the name given to any method that uses predominantly

digital techniques for creating, manipulating and reproducing sounds.’ (Russ, 2008,

p.225)

Digital synthesizers use ‘discrete signals’, meaning “that you use individual finite

sample values taken at regular intervals…” to form the basis of your sounds (Russ,

2008)

Digital synthesizers rely on mathematics for their operation due to the way

computers handle information, being the binary system. Because of the accuracy

and precision of computers, digital synthesizers are able to recreate their sounds in a

linear fashion every time. This accuracy also leads to a very crisp and ‘digital’ sound

as there are no ‘imperfections’ such as electrical interference. (Russ, 2008)

‘Computer music’, being sound generated digitally, can be traced back to the 1950s

with developments such as the Australian CSIRAC and the British Ferranti Mark 1. It

was in 1979 that the world saw one of the first commercially available digital

synthesizers; the Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument) (Fig. 5). (Roads,

1996, p120)

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Figure 5: Fairlight CMI

The Fairlight CMI, being a successor to the Qasar M, made use of samples and

manipulated the parameters of these samples. Initially waveform samples were

used, however upgrades to the memory of the CMI allowed longer and more

‘complete’ sounds to be used.

The Fairlight CMI Series 2 featured the ‘Page R’, which was the first “graphical

pattern-based sequencer” ever made, which made use of a ‘Light pen’, which

sensed light ‘emanating from the display screen’. (Roads, 1996, p626)

The first commercially successful digital synthesizer was the Yamaha DX7 (Fig. 6)

which was released in 1983. It is widely believed that the DX7 makes use of

Frequency Modulation (FM); however the DX7 actually makes use of Phase

Modulation (PM) (Earl, 2012). The PM created distinct sounds which were often

characterised as being ‘bright’ and ‘digital’. The DX7 was prevalent throughout the

1980s. One can hear the DX7 being used as the bass in Depeche Mode’s ‘People

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Are People’. The DX7 was not only limited to bass and can be heard in the intro and

throughout Chicago’s ‘Hard Habit to Break’.

Figure 6: Yamaha DX7

The DX7 did not have a filter, and because it used algorithms to generate its sounds,

there were no knobs or dials to manipulate the sound, but instead used a digital

menu system. Many analog enthusiasts did not like this and there were many mixed

emotions amongst musicians with opinions from both sides of the spectrum.

“The finest synthesizer ever created by man”

Jacques Lu Conte (Channel4, 2011)

“It’s the worst synthesizer known to mankind...”

Band member from Add N to (X) who only used analog synthesizers.

(Channel4, 2011)

“The DX7 was a classic machine that changed the face of keyboard

players… being able to do everything from your great clavinet sounds to brass

sounds and all sorts of things… it was a very clever machine, it changed the

whole face of music.”

Rick Wakeman (Channel4, 2011)

Among the synthesizers that helped defined the music we know today is the Roland

TB-303 Bass Line (Fig. 7), which is short for ‘Transistorized Bass’ (Owen, 2013). The

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TB-303 featured only one saw-tooth oscillator, however this could be turned into a

square wave through a wave-shaping transistor. (TB-303 Schematic, 1982)

Figure 7: Roland TB-303 Advertisement

The TB-303 was initially released to be used as a bass accompaniment to a

musician, such as a solo guitarist, however it was tedious to program and did not

sound like a bass guitar. Musicians started to use it for other bassline purposes,

such as adding a distortion to the output and generating basslines like that heard in

Acid House (Owen, 2013).

Some of the first songs to feature a TB-303 include Newcleus’ ‘Jam On It’, Orange

Juice’s ‘Rip It Up’ and Heaven 17’s ‘Let Me Go’.

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How the music world and ‘purists’ reacted when synths were used:

British bands would traditionally have a line-up of a guitarist, vocalist, bassist and

drummer. Synthesizers, or bands utilising mostly synthesizers, was not perceived

well. (BBC, 2011) Even major labels before the 1980s would neglect British bands

that produced electronic music. (BBC, 2011)

Bands consisting of only electronic instruments, or synthesizer players, were often

criticized by traditional instrument players for not having any ability. As a result,

synthesizers could be considered an ‘underground’ instrument, often being used by

punk bands or for experimental music that wasn’t largely being accepted. (BBC,

2011) (Miller, 2008)

Anyone could join a band:

"I think it's a lot easier to make quite good music now than it was when I

started out. But it's still as difficult to make great music as it ever was."

Daniel Miller

Synthesizer musicians were, and possibly still are, criticized by traditional instrument

players. While it is true that anyone can press and hold a key to produce a pleasing,

evolving sound, it would be foolish to believe that a synth programmer required no

understanding of music or sound synthesis. A programmer would need to

understand the basics of sound synthesis, at the very least, to be able to produce

their own sounds, which would be saved as a ‘patch’ if the synthesizer allowed it.

Conversely, one could possibly understand the grudge held by a trained musician

against a synth player as the amount of effect they put in to play an intricate piece

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can be belittled by a synth player, who can produce pleasant harmonics by only

pressing single keys or playing simple triads in C Major. There could also be the

possibly that trained musicians feel threatened by multitimbral synthesizers, which

could play more than one style of instrument, ultimately replacing them and costing

them their job.

In the corner of the room was a mini-moog... I just realised you can just push

one key and all this other stuff happened. There was a massive amount of

power in them. And depth. Never heard anything like them before. One note.

Gary Numan from Tubeway Army. (BBC, 2011)

If someone wanted to be in a band, they would have needed years of training on

their instrument of choice. Traditional instruments, such as the piano, require many

years of practicing for the musician to master the instrument. The synthesizer broke

this ‘rule’. An artist would not need the years of training to be able to play something

that sounded good to the public.

In the many walks of life, a person would need to work hard to ultimately achieve

their goal; ‘you reap what you sow’. A trained musician would greatly understand

this, as they need to work through pieces of music, not only learning how to play the

correct notes in sequence, but to add the correct emotion, style as well taking into

account the mind-set of the original composer and tools that they had at the time. An

example of this is playing the baroque era piece, ‘Prelude in C’ by Johann Sebastion

Bach, where the musician would need to imitate the playing of a harpsichord. This

means that each note played on a piano would need to have the same amount of

pressure when struck each time, as to mimic the harpsichord only producing the

same volume level of sound regardless of how hard the key is struck.

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The musically, or academically, untrained synth player has bypassed this entirely.

One can understand the frustration of a trained musician, where they possibly feel

that the synth player does not deserve the intricate sound the synth producers, due

to the lack of years of hard work a trained musician would normally have to endure to

create pleasant sounds on their instrument.

In defence of the musically untrained synth player, some people are born with

musical talent. They may have never been given the opportunity to learn how to play

an instrument and before the synthesizer, as well as computer DAW, these people

would never have any possibility of getting involved in the composition of music.

Synthesizers allow these people to be given an opportunity to play or compose.

From a purely musical perspective, one can argue that the trained musician is not in

the wrong for shunning a musically untrained synth player. However, to succeed as a

musician commercially, it is about what the public perceives as ‘good’ or a ‘good

song’, regardless of whether it’s complicated or requires the same note being struck

repeatedly.

Softsynths:

Technology would continue advance to a point that software Digital Audio

Workstations (DAWs) would be invented and able to run on an average household

computer. Computer programmers would use DSP (Digital Sound Processing) to

develop ‘Software Synthesizers’, or ‘soft synths’. ‘Soft synths’ would be made to

emulate existing synthesizers, or be built up on entirely new ways of modular routing

not seen in hardware synthesizers due to the flexibility and almost limitless options of

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the digital environment, such as having an individual Envelope modulating each

parameter.

This once again opened the doors to the general public, enabling a typical consumer

to be able to compose ‘conventional’ music in an affordable manner on their own

home computers.

Hardware synths today:

Musicians, or composers, still seek out older, ‘vintage’, analog synthesizers as it is

the opinion of many that the sound produced sounds better. This is due to the analog

circuitry generating a small amount of distortion, which gives a certain ‘warmth’ to the

sound created. Many of the vintage synthesizers were built in limited numbers, such

as Roland only producing 20,000 TB-303 units, which has created a big demand and

prices for these units have risen far beyond their initial retail price.

Analog synthesizers that use voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) often have minor,

unpredictable voltage changes, which results in a randomness factor, such as the

pitch slightly altering each time a key is played. This inconsistent sound is what

makes the analog synthesizer seem more ‘lively’ in its sound as it’s not always the

same, which is reminiscent of ‘human error’ in traditional instruments. Softsynth

developers often include an “analog” slider or dial which allows one to emulate these

inconsistencies.

Analog synthesizers usually house transformers, which would involve magnetic

coupling. This tends to create “non-linearities [sic] and harmonic distortions”, which is

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often the ‘warmth’ people associate with analog hardware synthesizers. (Robjohns,

2010)

Another aspect of why people prefer analog synthesizers is to do with the routing

outside of the synthesizer and not the actual synthesizer itself. Hardware analog

synthesizers in the past would usually be routed into other analog systems, such as

analogue tape records, which would shape a waveform in a way that would create

additional harmonics, to analog mixing desks, which would shape and distort the

sound in their own unique way.

Conclusion:

Many genres owe their distinct sounds to synthesizers, or sound synthesis

principles, which will ultimately be produced via a hardware or software synthesizer.

The amount of possibilities through different synthesizers, and therefore different

sound synthesis methods, are seemingly limitless. Synthesizers have quite a number

of different methods of sound synthesis, which allow them to have a vast sound

palette. Traditional instruments only generate a specific or small number of timbres,

whereas a synthesizer is capable of manipulating timbres, resulting in a very wide

choice of sounds.

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Bibliography:

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VARDALAS, J. (2003) Twists and Turns in the Development of the Transistor. [Online] Available from: http://www.todaysengineer.org/2003/May/history.asp [Accessed: 26th June 2013]

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