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Quick Guide To
Analogue Synthesis

Analogue synthesis laid the foundation for modern synthesisers. We look at the father of all synthesis and explain how to get a charge from voltage control...

Many forms of synthesis are now available to the musician but it was not always so. Not so long ago if you wanted to make music you had to gather with other musicians and play real musical instruments. Some people still do. But the desire to create new sounds has long been a musician trait and is doubtless what lead Denner to invent the clarinet in 1700 and Adolphe Sax to invent the saxophone in 1846.

However, it wasn't until the development of electronic circuitry that musicians had the most powerful creative force at their disposal. Arguably, the first 'electronic synthesiser' was the Theramin developed by Termen in the 1930s. Over the next two decades, this was followed by various electronic organs and then the RCA Music Synthesizer.

Several companies began developing synthesiser circuits although Robert Moog is commonly regarded as the father of synthesis, primarily through the development of voltage control. Moog synthesisers appeared commercially in 1964 and the rest, as they say, is history.

Hardwired

Most early analogue synths, Moogs in particular, were modular in nature. That is, you got a set of synth modules that you had to patch or link together yourself in order to make a sound. It's a very flexible system but it means you need to know a bit about synthesis before you can even get the thing to squeak.

Many modules ended up being connected in the same way so a natural development was to produce an instrument with the common routings preset or hardwired. This traded off flexibility for ease-of-use but it proved a popular move and most synths, particularly those with a keyboard designed for performance, soon had a degree of hardwiring in them.

Why analogue?

Technology has moved on apace since the 1960s. We have reliable and powerful digital circuitry plus, with modern computers, the ability to emulate synth circuitry in software. Even though there are no voltages as such in soft synths, many adopt a pseudo CV (Control Voltage) system. These include Arturia's Moog Modular V among others.

Even modern hardware synths which are obviously built with digital circuitry, interface with the user through analogue-type controls. And there are still companies such as Analogue Systems (www.analoguesystems.co.uk) and Doepfer (www.doepfer.de) that produce genuine analogue synth modules.

Why? The reason is three-fold. First of all, the principles of analogue synthesis are easy to understand and fairly intuitive. If you understand the basics, you can quickly become acquainted with any synth - far easier than having to learn a new form of synthesis as Yamaha DX7 (which introduced us to the delights of FM synthesis) owners soon learned! However, even alternative forms of synthesis use building blocks from analogue synthesis such as envelope generators and filters.

Secondly, there's something very appealing about twiddling dials and moving sliders - these things are fun to work with.

Soft synths aren't so hands-on but they are still fun, usually many times more powerful than hardware instruments and much, much cheaper.

Finally, many old analogue synthesisers had a distinctive sound - the Moogs were famous for their 'fat' sound, a result of the filters used in their construction. Devotees claim this character is not found in digital synths and many software developers have worked hard to emulate vintage synth circuitry in software.

So can a soft synth or a hardware synth that uses digital circuitry genuinely be called an analogue? Strictly speaking, analogue synthesisers are those created with analogue (as opposed to digital) circuitry. The first synthesisers were analogue because, well, digital circuits had not been invented! However, the term has expanded to include almost any synth that behaves in an analogue fashion.

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