Comment on What Do You Want To Know About Synthesizers?

Pxtl@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• TimeSquirrel@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  There are synthesizers, and there are electronic keyboards. Main difference is, synths generate completely novel sounds using circuits like oscillators, filters, etc, while regular keyboards just play back prerecorded sounds. A synth can come with a keyboard to control it, or it may be a completely independent unit, maybe rack-mountable, that's controlled digitally from a control keyboard or sequencer using MIDI signals.

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  • Pxtl@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Thanks! I’ve heard a million explanations but this is clear - so the synth is taking the composition as input from what most people would think of as the “instrument” (as in, the place where somebody is picking notes and rhythm), but the synth is the thing that controls the shape of the actual soundwaves, and ideally that waveform is fully constructed within the synth from first principles, instead of just being a set of samples that are just pitch-shifted to hit each frequency to play different notes.

    And obviously, adjusting the parameters synth itself is also part of the performance and composition, just as muting a trumpet or hitting an effects pedal is part of that, even though it’s not really part of “what note do I play when”, and with far more parameters available since the sound is wholly constructed instead of just being modifications of eg. a vibrating string or brass.

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    • Wootz@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      which might or might not be a separate unit from the keyboard.

      Funny that you mention it. Synthesizers are very much a product of university research programs. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, when synthesizers as a concept was still new, there was heated debate between the pioneers of the field (Robert Moog in New York and Donald Buchla in Berkley, California) over whether or not synthesizers should even have.

      The origin of the word “synthesizer” isn’t actually “synthetic”, as many believe, but rather synthesis, as in the academic sense of the word, from the idea of breaking a sound down into it’s individual parts and reassembling them.

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    • lofenyy@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      This is exactly right!

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• madsen@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  That mess of knobs and buttons has been around since the '50s — longer than the more compact '80s synths: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_synthesizer Because of their size they are usually considered studio gear and not stage gear, which may also explain why the more compact synths were more visible earlier, because you rarely got to look into studios then compared to now.

  To answer your question: A synthesizer (when talking about sound) is an instrument that generates sound by creating waveforms and possibly combining them in different ways to achieve different sounds. Typically they come with filters and envelopes, that further affect the resulting sound.

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• lofenyy@lemmy.ca ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Fantastic question! A synthesizer is a device that generates audio signals. I remember reading somewhere that they were sometimes referred to as “noise machines”, in regards to I think the Minimoog specifically. A drum machine is a type of synthesizer, as were the electronic-keyboard-having synths of the past.

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• radni@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  And I thought “Wait a second I know the synthesizer, why don’t I use the synthesizer, Which is the sound of the future”

  -Daft Punk

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• can@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Something that allows you to design and shape sounds.

  Ykunmaybhe thinking of a moudalr synth?

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