A short history of the synthesiser

How to read this

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.

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
   • About 200 tonnes
   • 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, decades before radio broadcasting.

2. 1920

   Theremin

   Léon Theremin · Electronic, heterodyne

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

   What it brought: The first electronic instrument played live by a performer, and the first people heard in concert halls. 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. 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.

4. 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

   What it brought: The first machine actually called a synthesizer. 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.

Voltage control and the modular era (1964–1969)

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. 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. 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

2. 1965

   Buchla 100 series

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

   • Touch plates instead of a keyboard
   • Complex oscillators
   • 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. Don Buchla made his for the San Francisco Tape Music Center and avoided the organ keyboard on purpose. He shaped sound by bending waveforms rather than filtering them.

   In the catalogue: Arturia Buchla Easel V

3. 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

   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

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 changing a sound meant setting the same knobs four times.

   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
   • Microprocessor (Z80)
   • Poly-Mod

   What it brought: Memory. A microprocessor scanned the keyboard and stored every knob position, so the whole instrument could jump to a different sound at the press of a button. Before this, you couldn't really use a polysynth for three different sounds in one live set. The Prophet-5 made that normal and 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' and Prince's '1999' are both OB-Xa records. 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 (1979–1988)

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
   • Cost about as much as a house

   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. 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 gong that opens Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' is a Synclavier demo sound.

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 idea became the basis of Waldorf's synths and, much later, of 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 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-sensitive keys
   • MIDI
   • Launched at $1,995

   What it brought: FM synthesis in an affordable keyboard, 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. 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.

8. 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

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
   • Around $5,000

   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 (1996) 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. 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 25 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
   • About £500

   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 + wavetable + 45 modelled oscillators per voice
   • 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
   • Channel aftertouch

   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) 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).
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. Workstations: samples, effects and a sequencer in one keyboard (M1).
11. Modelling: calculate the instrument, or the analogue circuit, live (VL1, Nord Lead).
12. Software: the synth as a plug-in (VST).
13. Now: analogue again, expression for every note (MPE) and hybrids that do all of the above.