Synthesizers

3rd July 2013

PBC406 Production Analysis Martin Kruger

DipHE Student Point Blank Online

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)

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

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 peoples 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 isnt 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

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 synthesizers 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).

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)

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)

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)

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 Modes People

Are People. The DX7 was not only limited to bass and can be heard in the intro and throughout Chicagos 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) Its 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

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 Juices Rip It Up and Heaven 17s 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 wasnt 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 its 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 its 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:

AKINS, J. (2006) An Overview of Electronic Music History [Online] Available from: http://www.mtsu.edu/~jakins/6030/Electronic%20Music%20History.pdf [Accessed: 11th June 2013] BBC (2011) BBC Synth Britannia. YouTube video, added by Adzee [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Wjc6QYuKI CAVALIERE, S. EVANGELISTA & G. PICCIALLI, A. (1988) Synthesis by Phase Modulation and its Implementation in Hardware. Computer Music Journal. 12(1) [Online] Available from: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3679835?uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102142 327233 CHANNEL4 (2011) THE SHAPE OF THINGS THAT HUM - Yamaha DX7 (Channel 4, 2000). YouTube video, added by GuildfordGhost. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Vuf5taoy4Q EARL, D. (2012) Lmms: A Complete Guide to Dance Music Production. Birmingham: Packt Publishing Ltd. HARRISON, N. (2005) TB-303 Documentary - Bassline Baseline. YouTube video, added by GuildfordGhost. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLQwwtjtiY4 HUBER, D. M. (2007) The MIDI Manual. 3rd Edition. Burlington: Focal Press MILLER. J. (2008) Stripped: Depeche Mode. London: Omnibus Press OWEN, .O (2013) TB-303 Acid Flashback. [Online] Available from: http://www.rolandus.com/blog/2013/03/28/tb-303-acid-flashback/ [Accessed: 26th June 2013] PINCH, T. TROCCO, F. (2004) Analog Days: the invention and impact of the Moog synthesizer. USA: Harvard University Press POOL, J. G. WRIGHT, H. S. (2010) A Research Guide to Film and Television Music in the United States. Maryland: Scarecrow Press ROADS, C. (1996) The Computer Music Tutorial. USA: The MIT Press ROBJOHNS, H. (2010) Analogue Warmth: The Sound Of Tubes, Tape & Transformers [Online] Available from: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb10/articles/analoguewarmth.htm [Accessed: 4th July 2013] RUSS, M. (2008) Sound Synthesis and Sampling. 3rd Edition. Burlington: Focal Press

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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] VINTAGESYNTH (2012) Fairlight CMI (Series I III). [Online] Available from: http://www.vintagesynth.com/misc/fairlight_cmi.php [Accessed: 14th June 2013] ZAGER, M. (2012) Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students. Maryland: Scarecrow Press

Images:

AUDIOFANZINE (n.a.) Roland DX7 [Online Image] Available from: http://medias.audiofanzine.com/images/normal/yamaha-dx7-447837.jpg [Accessed: 21st June 2013] FAIRLIGHT (2007) Fairlight CMI [Online Image] Available from: http://jeanmicheljarre.unblog.fr/files/2007/10/fairlightcmi.jpg [Accessed: 21st June 2013] MOOG (2011) Bob Moog [Online Image] Available from: http://moogarchives.com/bobmoog.jpg [Accessed: 22nd June 2013] TB303 (n.a.) Roland TB-303 Advententie [Online Image] Available from: http://www.tb303.ch/27dae4a18708ee86eeca6340191aeefe_Roland_TB303_Advertentie.jpg [Accessed: 22nd June 2013]

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