Matt's Gearspace

History

A short history of the synthesiser

From a 200-tonne dynamo to motorised knobs: the synths that changed things, in date order, with what each one added and what the jargon (voltage control, FM, wavetables, virtual analogue) actually means.

Updated 29 September 2026Synth Only

This isn't a list of every synth ever made. Each entry is here because it did something the ones before it couldn't. It might be a new way of making sound, a way of playing more than one note, a way of remembering a sound, or a way of being cheap enough for most people to own. Each card gives the year, what kind of instrument it was, a few hard facts (how many oscillators, how many notes at once) and what it brought. Where a new idea turns up, open the 'What is…?' panel for a plain-English explanation.

The parts every synth is built from

Nearly every synth on this timeline is built from the same few parts. You only need these to follow the rest:

  • Oscillator: makes the raw tone, a repeating waveform (sine, saw, square, triangle) at the pitch you play. More oscillators per note means a thicker sound, because you can detune them against each other or tune one an octave or a fifth away.
  • Filter: takes harmonics away. A low-pass filter darkens the sound. Sweeping its cutoff gives the 'wow' you hear in almost every synth part. Taking harmonics away like this is called subtractive synthesis.
  • Amplifier (VCA): sets how loud the sound is at each moment.
  • Envelope: a shape that runs each time you press a key, usually Attack, Decay, Sustain and Release (ADSR). Put it on the amplifier and it shapes the volume; put it on the filter and it shapes the brightness.
  • LFO: a slow oscillator you don't hear directly. It wobbles something else, giving vibrato (pitch), tremolo (volume) or a filter wah.
  • Monophonic means one note at a time; polyphonic means chords. 'Voices' is how many notes can sound at once.
  • A patch is a saved sound. Early synths had no memory at all: you wrote your settings down or drew them on a chart.

Before the synthesiser (1897–1957)

Electronic instruments are older than most people think. None of these was a 'synthesiser' in the modern sense, but between them they tried out most of the ideas that came later.

  1. 1906

    Telharmonium

    Thaddeus Cahill · Electromechanical, additive

    • Patented 1897
    • Nearly 200 tons
    • Tonewheel dynamos
    • Played down telephone lines

    What it brought: The first instrument to build a sound up out of electrically generated tones. Spinning dynamos made pure tones and the player mixed them to get different timbres. Subscribers heard it through telephone receivers, years before radio broadcasting.

  2. 1920

    Theremin

    Léon Theremin · Electronic, heterodyne

    • Monophonic
    • Played without touching it
    • Two antennas: pitch and volume

    What it brought: One of the first electronic instruments to reach concert audiences. The hand's distance from one antenna sets the pitch and from the other the volume. Two radio-frequency oscillators beat against each other to make an audible tone. It gave film sci-fi its sound for decades.

  3. 1928

    Ondes Martenot

    Maurice Martenot (France) · Electronic, monophonic

    • Monophonic
    • Ring on a wire for glides
    • Pressure key for volume
    • Its own speakers ('diffuseurs')

    What it brought: Expression from a keyboard. Pull a ring along a wire and the pitch glides like a voice; wiggle a key sideways and you get vibrato; press a separate key harder and the note gets louder. Messiaen wrote it into the Turangalîla-Symphonie, and Jonny Greenwood plays one in Radiohead. It is still taught at the Paris Conservatoire, in a class Martenot opened himself in 1947.

  4. 1930

    Trautonium

    Friedrich Trautwein (Germany) · Electronic, monophonic

    • Monophonic
    • Pitch from a wire pressed onto a metal rail
    • Bright tone shaped by resonant filters

    What it brought: Tone shaping. The Trautonium made a buzzy, harmonically rich tone and ran it through resonant filters to pick out vowel-like colours, the same start-bright-and-take-away idea later called subtractive synthesis. Oskar Sala's later Mixtur-Trautonium made the bird sounds in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963).

  5. 1939

    Novachord

    Hammond · Electronic, subtractive

    • 72-note polyphonic
    • 163 valves
    • Filters and envelopes

    What it brought: Full polyphony (every key could sound at once) and a subtractive chain of oscillator, filter and envelope, 35 years before these became normal on synths. It was too big, costly and fragile to catch on, and it was out of production by the end of the war.

  6. 1957

    RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer

    RCA (Harry Olson and Herbert Belar) · Electronic, programmed

    • Room-sized
    • Punched paper-tape input
    • Could not be played live
    • Mark I (1955) first to be called a synthesizer

    What it brought: The best known of the first machines called synthesizers. RCA's Mark I, unveiled in 1955, was the first to carry the name; the Mark II was the bigger machine that composers actually worked on. It had oscillators, filters and envelope-style control, but you programmed it by punching holes in a paper roll and waited to hear the result. Composers at the Columbia-Princeton studio used it, but it was a lab instrument, not something you played.

  7. 1957

    MUSIC

    Max Mathews (Bell Labs) · Digital, computer program

    • Ran on an IBM 704 mainframe
    • Sound calculated sample by sample
    • Not played in real time

    What it brought: Digital sound. Max Mathews's program had a computer calculate a sound one sample at a time and play it back, the way every digital synth, sampler and plug-in has worked since. In 1961 a Bell Labs computer sang 'Daisy Bell', which is why HAL sings it in 2001. John Chowning found FM using software descended from MUSIC.

Voltage control and the modular era (1960–1969)

The big break in the 1960s was transistors and one simple idea: let one part of the instrument control another with a voltage. With that, a keyboard, an envelope or an LFO could all 'play' an oscillator or a filter, and cables could wire them together any way you liked.

  1. 1960

    Modular Audio Processor

    Harald Bode · Electronic, modular

    • Separate modules for making and shaping sound
    • Transistor circuits
    • Monophonic

    What it brought: The modular idea. Harald Bode built a system of separate modules, some making sound and some changing it, patched together to suit the job, four years before Moog's. Moog later sold Bode's frequency shifter and vocoder designs under the Moog name.

  2. 1964

    Moog modular

    R.A. Moog Co. · Analogue, modular, subtractive

    • Separate modules patched with cables
    • Voltage-controlled oscillators, filter, amplifier
    • 1 volt per octave
    • Monophonic

    What it brought: Voltage control made practical and sold as an instrument. Moog presented his voltage-controlled modules to the Audio Engineering Society in New York in 1964. Robert Moog's modules shared one standard: one volt up means one octave up. His transistor 'ladder' filter gave the warm, fat sound still called 'the Moog sound'. Wendy Carlos's Switched-On Bach ↗ (1968) made it famous.

    In the catalogue: Arturia Modular V3

  3. 1965

    Buchla 100 series

    Buchla & Associates · Analogue, modular, 'West Coast'

    • Touch plates instead of a keyboard
    • Sine/saw oscillators with FM
    • Low-pass gates
    • Early step sequencer

    What it brought: A second school of synthesis, built at the same time as Moog's but 3,000 miles away. Buchla started building in 1963, and the first 100 series system was delivered around 1965. Don Buchla made his for the San Francisco Tape Music Center and avoided the organ keyboard on purpose. His approach, shaping tone through modulation rather than filtering, became the 'West Coast' school.

    In the catalogue: Arturia Buchla Easel V

  4. 1969

    VCS3

    EMS (London) · Analogue, semi-modular

    • 3 oscillators
    • Pin-matrix patching
    • Small and portable
    • Monophonic

    What it brought: Modular flexibility in a box you could carry. Instead of cables, you pushed pins into a grid to connect anything to anything. It was affordable by the standards of the time, and it became the sound of British experimental rock and of BBC television.

    In the catalogue: Arturia Synthi V

The synth becomes an instrument (1970–1974)

Modulars filled walls and needed an engineer. The next step was to fix the most useful connections inside one box, so a keyboard player could walk on stage, switch it on and play.

  1. 1970

    Minimoog Model D

    R.A. Moog (later Moog Music) · Analogue, subtractive, 'hard-wired'

    • Monophonic
    • 3 oscillators (the third can be an LFO)
    • Noise generator
    • 24 dB ladder filter
    • 2 envelopes
    • 44 keys

    What it brought: The template for the synthesiser as we know it. The signal runs left to right across the panel: oscillators, mixer, filter, amplifier, and the order never changes, so no patch cables are needed. It also introduced the pitch-bend and modulation wheels that nearly every keyboard still has to the left of the keys.

    In the catalogue: Yamaha reface CS, Arturia Mini V4

  2. 1971

    ARP 2600

    ARP Instruments · Analogue, semi-modular

    • Monophonic (later duophonic)
    • 3 oscillators
    • Pre-wired, but patchable
    • Built-in speakers

    What it brought: The best of both. Every connection is wired up by default, so it makes a sound with no cables in. Plug a cable in and you override that connection. It was built for teaching, and it later gave R2-D2 his voice.

    In the catalogue: Arturia ARP 2600 V3

  3. 1973

    miniKorg 700 and SH-1000

    Korg and Roland (Japan) · Analogue, monophonic

    • Monophonic
    • Preset tones on tabs (SH-1000)
    • Small enough to sit on an organ

    What it brought: Japan arrives. Korg and Roland each built their first synth, small and simple enough to sit on top of an organ, with preset tones for players who didn't want to program. Yamaha's SY-1 followed in 1974. Within a decade these three companies made the Juno, the TB-303, the DX7 and the M1.

Polyphony and memory (1975–1982)

Everything so far played one note at a time, and every sound had to be set up again by hand. The late 70s fixed both of those.

  1. 1975

    Four Voice

    Oberheim · Analogue, polyphonic

    • 4 voices
    • Four complete synth modules (SEMs) side by side
    • Each voice set up separately

    What it brought: Chords from analogue synths. Tom Oberheim put four of his SEM mono synths in one case under a keyboard that could send notes to each in turn. It sounded huge, but at first changing a sound meant setting the same knobs four times. It had company that year: Yamaha's GX-1, an organ-style console of about 300 kg, and Moog's Polymoog, which shared its circuits across the keys like an organ. The Four Voice was the one built from complete synth voices.

    In the catalogue: Arturia SEM V3

  2. 1977

    CS-80

    Yamaha · Analogue, polyphonic

    • 8 voices
    • 2 layers per voice
    • Polyphonic aftertouch
    • Ribbon controller
    • Around 100 kg

    What it brought: Expression. Each key sends pressure on its own, so you can lean into one note of a chord and make it swell or bend. A ribbon along the front slides pitch like a violin. Vangelis's Blade Runner score is the famous example, and very few synths matched its playing expression again until MPE, 40 years later.

    In the catalogue: Arturia CS-80 V4

  3. 1978

    Prophet-5

    Sequential Circuits · Analogue, polyphonic, programmable

    • 5 voices
    • 2 oscillators per voice + noise
    • 40 patch memories (120 on later models)
    • Microprocessor (Z80)
    • Poly-Mod

    What it brought: Memory, done properly. The CS-80 before it had four user memories, set by hand on rows of tiny sliders under a flap. The Prophet-5's microprocessor scanned the keyboard and stored every knob position digitally, 40 patches of them, so the whole instrument could jump to a different sound at the press of a button. It was the first fully programmable polysynth, it made changing sounds mid-set normal, and it became the sound of the late 70s and early 80s.

    In the catalogue: Arturia Prophet-5 V

  4. 1980

    OB-Xa

    Oberheim · Analogue, polyphonic, programmable

    • 4, 6 or 8 voices
    • 2 oscillators per voice
    • Split and layer modes
    • Switchable 12 or 24 dB filter

    What it brought: Two sounds at once. The OB-Xa could split the keyboard (bass on the left, brass on the right) or stack two patches on every key, and its filter could switch between a gentle and a steep slope. Its fat, slightly unruly brass became the sound of 80s rock and pop: Van Halen's 'Jump' is an OB-Xa record, and Prince leaned on Oberheim brass across 1999. See famous synth hooks for more.

    In the catalogue: Nord Lead A1, Melbourne Instruments NINA

  5. 1982

    Juno-60

    Roland · Analogue, polyphonic

    • 6 voices
    • 1 DCO per voice + sub-oscillator
    • 56 memories
    • Built-in chorus
    • Arpeggiator

    What it brought: Polyphony you could afford. It had one oscillator per voice, but a sub-oscillator and a lush built-in chorus made it sound much bigger than that. The oscillators were digitally controlled, so they stayed in tune, and memory came as standard. It cost a fraction of a Prophet and ended up all over pop and house records.

    In the catalogue: Arturia Jun-6 V

Going digital (1979–1990)

Microchips opened up ways of making sound that analogue circuits couldn't manage: recording real sounds, reading waveforms from memory and FM. A new standard also let all of these instruments talk to each other.

  1. 1979

    Fairlight CMI

    Fairlight (Australia) · Digital sampler / workstation

    • 8 voices
    • 8-bit sampling
    • Light-pen screen
    • About £15,000 at launch

    What it brought: Sampling: record any sound and play it back across the keyboard. You could play an orchestra hit, a breaking glass or a choir from the keys. Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush built records around it. The E-mu Emulator (1981), Ensoniq Mirage (1984) and Akai S900 (1986) brought the price down until every studio had a sampler.

    In the catalogue: Arturia CMI V

  2. 1980

    Synclavier II

    New England Digital · Digital FM and additive, later sampling

    • Digital FM and additive synthesis
    • Built-in sequencer
    • Sampling to hard disk added later
    • Cost as much as a house

    What it brought: A digital synthesiser built around a computer. The original Synclavier (1977) was the first commercial instrument to use FM, several years before Yamaha's first FM keyboards. It made bright, metallic FM and additive tones no analogue synth could, recorded performances into its own sequencer, and later recorded samples straight to hard disk. The opening of Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' is replayed note for note from a Synclavier demo record.

  3. 1981

    PPG Wave 2

    PPG (Palm Products GmbH) · Hybrid: digital wavetable, analogue filters

    • 8 voices
    • Digital wavetable oscillators
    • Analogue filters

    What it brought: Wavetables. Each oscillator reads through a table of 64 single-cycle waveforms, and you can sweep through the table while a note plays. The tone morphs from one wave to the next in a way a filter can't do. Wolfgang Palm's Wave Computer 360 (1978) had already been the first wavetable synth on sale; the Wave 2 is the one that caught on. His idea became the basis of Waldorf's synths and paved the way for software wavetable synths such as Serum.

  4. 1981

    TB-303

    Roland · Analogue bass synth with step sequencer

    • Monophonic
    • 1 oscillator (saw or square)
    • Resonant filter
    • Step sequencer with accent and slide

    What it brought: A new genre, by accident. The TB-303 was sold as a bass player in a box for guitarists practising alone, sounded nothing like a bass guitar and flopped. Cheap second-hand, it ended up with Chicago producers who turned the filter resonance up and let the sequencer run. Phuture's 'Acid Tracks' (1987) became acid house, and the squelch runs through Daft Punk's 'Da Funk'.

  5. 1983

    MIDI 1.0

    Sequential Circuits, Roland and others · Standard, not a synth

    • 5-pin DIN cable
    • 16 channels
    • First shown linking a Prophet-600 and a Jupiter-6

    What it brought: A universal language. Dave Smith (Sequential) and Ikutaro Kakehashi (Roland) got the industry to agree, starting from a proposal Smith presented to the Audio Engineering Society in 1981, on a single way for instruments to send notes and controls to each other. Any keyboard could now play any synth, and home computers could sequence whole songs. It is still in use more than 40 years later.

  6. 1983

    DX7

    Yamaha · Digital, FM synthesis

    • 16 voices
    • 6 operators (sine-wave oscillators) per voice
    • 32 algorithms
    • Velocity and aftertouch
    • MIDI
    • Launched at $1,995

    What it brought: FM synthesis in an affordable keyboard (Yamaha's first FM instruments, the GS1 and GS2 of 1981, were expensive preset machines), and the first mass-market digital synth. Its sound is glassy, bright and percussive: electric pianos, bells, slap bass and brass that analogue synths couldn't do. It sold in numbers no synth had come close to, its E.PIANO 1 preset is on countless 80s records, and it pushed analogue out of fashion for a decade. It was also famously hard to program, with one data slider and a two-line screen, so most owners stuck to the presets.

    In the catalogue: Yamaha reface DX, Yamaha MONTAGE M6, Arturia DX7 V

  7. 1986

    Prophet VS

    Sequential Circuits · Hybrid: digital vector synthesis, analogue filters

    • 8 voices
    • 4 digital waveforms per voice
    • Joystick mixes the four
    • Analogue filters

    What it brought: Vector synthesis. Each voice plays four digital waveforms at once, and a joystick sets how much of each you hear. Record the joystick's movement as an envelope and the sound travels between the four on its own as each note plays.

  8. 1987

    D-50

    Roland · Digital, 'Linear Arithmetic' (LA)

    • 16 voices
    • Short PCM samples + synthesised waves
    • Built-in reverb and chorus
    • Joystick

    What it brought: The hybrid trick. Short recorded attacks (a breath, a pluck, a hammer) were glued onto synthesised sustains, so a sound could start real and continue as a synth. It was also one of the first synths with built-in digital effects, and its lush presets ('Fantasia') became the sound of the late 80s.

  9. 1988

    M1

    Korg · Digital, sample-based workstation

    • 16 voices
    • 8-part multi-timbral
    • 8-track sequencer
    • Built-in effects
    • 4 MB of samples

    What it brought: The workstation: a full set of realistic sounds, effects and a sequencer in one keyboard, enough to write a whole track on. It became one of the best-selling synths ever. Its 'M1 Piano' and organ presets defined early-90s house music.

    In the catalogue: Yamaha MONTAGE M6, Yamaha MODX M6

  10. 1989

    SY77

    Yamaha · Digital: FM + samples

    • 6-operator FM
    • Sample playback (AWM)
    • RCM: samples and FM combined
    • 45 FM algorithms
    • Built-in sequencer

    What it brought: Two engines in one voice. FM and samples could be layered, and with what Yamaha called RCM (Real-time Convolution and Modulation) a sample could even modulate an FM operator, so a real attack could sit on top of an FM body. It is the first step on the road to Yamaha's MONTAGE, where FM and samples still run side by side.

  11. 1990

    Wavestation

    Korg · Digital, wave sequencing and vector synthesis

    • 32 voices
    • Wave sequencing
    • Vector joystick
    • Built-in effects

    What it brought: Wave sequencing: a sound that steps through a list of waveforms, each for its own length of time, so one held note becomes a rhythm or a slowly changing texture. It was designed by former Sequential engineers, Dave Smith and John Bowen among them, at the Korg R&D team Smith set up in California after Korg bought Sequential, and it kept the Prophet VS's joystick too. Its evolving pads are all over 90s film and game music.

Modelling, software and modules (1994–2014)

By the 90s, chips were fast enough to calculate a sound as it was played rather than just play recordings back. That was used to imitate real instruments, then to imitate the analogue synths everyone had just sold, and finally to put the whole synth inside a computer.

  1. 1994

    VL1

    Yamaha · Digital, physical modelling

    • 2 voices
    • Breath controller
    • £3,999 at launch

    What it brought: Physical modelling. It simulates the physics of a real instrument, such as a reed vibrating, air in a tube or a bow on a string, instead of playing a recording of one. It responds to breath and pressure the way a real wind instrument does. It was too expensive to sell in numbers, but the idea now lives on in plenty of synths and plug-ins.

  2. 1995

    Nord Lead

    Clavia (Sweden) · Digital, virtual analogue

    • 4 voices (expandable to 12)
    • 2 oscillators per voice
    • A knob for every function
    • Bright red

    What it brought: Virtual analogue: an analogue-style synth, with the knobs laid out like an analogue synth, that is really code running on a DSP chip. It was light, stayed in tune and remembered its patches, and it made hands-on subtractive synthesis fashionable again. Roland's JP-8000 (1997) followed and brought the 'supersaw' that defined trance.

    In the catalogue: Yamaha reface CS, Yamaha MONTAGE M6, Arturia Jup-8000 V

  3. 1995

    A-100 (the Eurorack format)

    Doepfer · Analogue modular standard

    • 3U-high modules
    • 3.5 mm patch cables
    • Width measured in HP

    What it brought: Modular synthesis, affordable and open to everyone. Dieter Doepfer's module size and power standard was simple enough for anyone to build to. Hundreds of makers now sell thousands of Eurorack modules, and the 60s modular idea is bigger today than it ever was then.

  4. 1999

    VST instruments (Neon)

    Steinberg · Software

    • Runs inside your recording software
    • As many copies as the computer can run

    What it brought: The synth as a plug-in. Seer Systems' Reality (1997) had already sold a synth as software alone; VST made one something any DAW could load. Steinberg's VST 2.0 let software instruments run inside a DAW, and the little Neon synth came with it. Since then an unlimited number of synths costs only CPU time, every setting is saved with the song, and classic hardware can be recreated for a fraction of the price: Arturia's V Collection now models more than a dozen of the synths on this page. For many producers the first synth they ever use is software.

    In the catalogue: Arturia V Collection 11 Pro

  5. 2014

    Serum

    Xfer Records · Software, wavetable

    • 2 wavetable oscillators
    • Draw or import your own wavetables
    • Visual everything

    What it brought: Wavetable synthesis made visible. You can watch the waveform change as you move the knobs, and drop in any audio to turn it into a wavetable. Clean, alias-free oscillators and a drag-and-drop modulation system made it the default synth for a generation of electronic producers. Serum 2 followed in 2025.

The analogue revival and new ways to play (2010s–now)

Once software could do everything, hardware had to offer something else: real knobs, real circuits and better ways of playing. Analogue came back, new expressive controllers arrived, and the best current instruments combine several of the older ideas in one box.

  1. 2016

    minilogue

    Korg · Analogue, polyphonic

    • 4 voices
    • 2 VCOs per voice
    • 200 memories
    • Built-in oscilloscope display
    • £449 at launch

    What it brought: Analogue polyphony at a price most people could pay. The revival had started earlier: Moog's Voyager (2002), Dave Smith's Prophet '08 (2007), Arturia's MiniBrute (2012). But four real analogue voices with memory for the price of a mid-range controller keyboard brought it to everyone. Reissues and clones of nearly every classic on this page followed.

  2. 2018

    MPE (MIDI Polyphonic Expression)

    MIDI Manufacturers Association · Standard, not a synth

    • Pitch bend for each note
    • Pressure for each note
    • Up-and-down slide for each note

    What it brought: The CS-80's dream for everyone. MPE became an official MIDI standard in 2018, after controllers such as the ROLI Seaboard (2013) and LinnStrument (2014) had shown what it could do. Each finger can bend, swell and brighten its own note. Synths and plug-ins that support it respond like an acoustic instrument.

  3. 2022

    NINA

    Melbourne Instruments · Analogue polysynth with digital oscillators

    • 12 voices
    • 2 analogue VCOs + a digital oscillator (wavetable, or 45 models since 2026)
    • Ladder filter
    • Motorised knobs
    • 4-part multi-timbral

    What it brought: Memory you can see. Recall a patch and every knob physically turns to its saved position, which fixes the oldest problem with programmable synths: the knobs not matching the sound. It also combines ideas from this whole page in one box: analogue oscillators, a Moog-style ladder filter, wavetables and modelled oscillators.

    In the catalogue: Melbourne Instruments NINA, Melbourne Instruments DELIA

  4. 2023

    MONTAGE M

    Yamaha · Digital: samples + FM + virtual analogue

    • Up to 256 voices (AWM2)
    • 8-operator FM-X
    • AN-X virtual analogue
    • 16 parts
    • Aftertouch (polyphonic on the M8x)

    What it brought: Everything at once. A flagship workstation now combines three of this timeline's big ideas: samples (the Fairlight and M1), FM (the DX7, with two more operators and 88 algorithms; the SY77 paired it with samples in 1989) and virtual analogue (the Nord Lead). They run layered together and are controlled from one Super Knob. It is where 60 years of synthesis currently ends up on a single stage keyboard.

    In the catalogue: Yamaha MONTAGE M6, Yamaha MONTAGE M7, Yamaha MODX M6

The whole story in one list

  1. Additive: build a sound from sine waves (Telharmonium, Hammond). Digital: calculate the sound in a computer (MUSIC, 1957).
  2. Voltage control: let one part play another; modules patched with cables (Moog, Buchla).
  3. Hard-wiring: the useful patch fixed inside one playable box (Minimoog).
  4. Polyphony: several complete voices, one per note (Oberheim, CS-80).
  5. Memory: a microprocessor saves and recalls every setting (Prophet-5).
  6. Sampling: record real sounds and play them from the keys (Fairlight).
  7. Wavetables: sweep through stored waveforms (PPG).
  8. MIDI: every instrument speaks one language (1983).
  9. FM: oscillators modulating oscillators for bright, changing tones (DX7).
  10. Vectors and wave sequences: mix or step between waveforms as a note plays (Prophet VS, Wavestation).
  11. Workstations: samples, effects and a sequencer in one keyboard (M1).
  12. Modelling: calculate the instrument, or the analogue circuit, live (VL1, Nord Lead).
  13. Software: the synth as a plug-in (VST).
  14. Now: analogue again, expression for every note (MPE) and hybrids that do all of the above.

Sources

Most of what's here is well documented, but this is where the dates, figures and 'firsts' came from. Where sources disagree on a year, we've gone with the year the instrument went on sale. The first list covers the history as a whole; the second goes entry by entry.

  • History of the Synthesizer, Part 1 ↗ (Yamaha): the RCA Mark I as the first 'synthesizer', Harald Bode's Modular Audio Processor, Buchla's start in 1963, Moog's 1964 paper to the Audio Engineering Society, the GX-1 and Polymoog, the CS-80's memories, the original Synclavier's FM and the PPG Wave Computer 360.
  • History of the Synthesizer, Part 2 ↗ (Yamaha): John Chowning's discovery of FM, the GS1 and GS2, the 1981 MIDI proposal, the Prophet VS, SY77 and Wavestation, and Seer Systems' Reality.
  • Instrument history: the synthesizer ↗ (Philharmonie de Paris, on Google Arts & Culture): the early European instruments, including the Ondes Martenot and the Trautonium.
  • Martenot waves ↗ (Conservatoire de Paris): the Ondes Martenot class, opened by Martenot in 1947 and still running.
  • The IBM 7090 is the first computer to sing ↗ (History of Information): the 1961 Bell Labs 'Daisy Bell' and how Arthur C. Clarke came to give it to HAL.
  • Dave Smith (engineer) ↗) (Wikipedia): the former Sequential team behind the Wavestation.

Entry by entry:

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