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A synthesizer is an electronic instrument, capable of producing a wide variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequencies. It is typically operated by a keyboard. There are three main types of synthesizers which differ in operation; these include analog, digital and computer software-based. Synthesizers create electrical signals, rather than direct sounds, which are then processed through a loudspeaker or headphones.
Synthesizers are most commonly equipped with a piano-style keyboard. Each key of the keyboard acts as a switch, which can be used to turn electronic circuits on and off. Although synthesizers are the most common input device, other devices such as a mouthpiece, strings, guitars, drum pads or a computer can be used to control a synthesizer. Unlike other instruments, the synthesizer is capable of generating a wide range of sounds, either to imitate other instruments, or to create new sounds. The synthesizer is commonly used by many well-known music artists worldwide.
A synthesizer uses a computer to calculate mathematical functions to generate signals of different frequencies, which are then played through an output device such as a loudspeaker or headphones. In most conventional synthesizers, recordings of real instruments are composed of several components. These component sounds represent the acoustic responses of different parts of the instrument, the sounds produced by the instrument during different parts of a performance, or the behavior of the instrument under different playing conditions (pitch, intensity of playing, fingering, etc.) The distinctive timbre, intonation and attack of a real instrument can therefore be created by mixing together these components in such a way as resembles the natural behavior of the real instrument. Nomenclature varies by synthesizer methodology and manufacturer, but the components are often referred to as oscillators or partials. A higher fidelity reproduction of a natural instrument can typically be achieved using more oscillators, but increased computational power and human programming is required, and most synthesizers use between one and four oscillators by default.
Types of synthesizer
There are three main types of synthesizers, analog, digital and software. In addition there are synthesizers that rely upon combinations of those three kinds, known as hybrid synthesizers.
PCM synthesis
One kind of synthesizer starts with a binary digital recording of an existing sound. This is called a PCM sample, and is replayed at a range of pitches. Sample playback takes the place of the oscillator found in other synthesizers. The sound is (by most) still processed with synthesizer effects such as filters, LFOs, ring modulators and the like. Most music workstations use this method of synthesis. Often, the pitch of the sample isn't changed, but it is simply played back at a faster speed. For example, in order to shift the frequency of a sound one octave higher, it simply needs to be played at double speed. Playing a sample at half speed causes it to be shifted down by one octave, and so on.
By contrast, an instrument which primarily records and plays back samples is called a sampler. If a sample playback instrument neither records samples nor processes samples as a synthesizer, it is a rompler.
Because of the nature of digital sound storage (sound being measured in fractions of time), anti-aliasing and interpolation techniques (among others) have to be involved to get a natural sounding waveform as end result - especially if more than one note is being played, and/or if arbitrary tone intervals are used. The calculations on sample-data needs to be of great precision (for high quality, >32bits, more like 64bits at least) especially if a lot of different parameters are needed to make a specific sound: more than a few parameters, a lot of calculations need to be made, to avoid the rounding errors of the different calculations taking place.
PCM-sound is obtainable even with a 1-bit system, but the sound is terrible with mostly noise, as there are only two levels, on and off (for example, the MS Windows PC Speaker Driver[1] allows to play a WAV file by only switching on and off quickly the simple built-in beep speaker). Since the beginning of PCM synthesis (<1970), almost all number of bits from 1 to 32 have been used, but today the most common ones are 16 and 24bits, going towards 32bits as the next jump up in quality.
Physical modeling synthesizer
Physical modeling synthesis is the synthesis of sound by using a set of equations and algorithms to simulate a physical source of sound. When an initial set of parameters is run through the physical simulation, the simulated sound is generated.
Although physical modeling was not a new concept in acoustics and synthesis, it wasn't until the development of the Karplus-Strong algorithm, the subsequent refinement and generalization of the algorithm into digital waveguide synthesis by Julius O. Smith III and others, and the increase in DSP power in the late 1980s that commercial implementations became feasible.
Following the success of Yamaha's licensing of Stanford's FM synthesis patent, Yamaha signed a contract with Stanford University in 1989 to jointly develop digital waveguide synthesis. As such, most patents related to the technology are owned by Stanford or Yamaha. A physical modeling synthesizer was first realized commercially with Yamaha's VL-1, which was released in 1994.
Digital synthesizer
Digital synthesizers use digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds. Some digital synthesizers now exist in the form of 'softsynth' software that synthesizes sound using conventional PC hardware. Others use specialized DSP hardware.
Digital synthesizers generate a digital sample, corresponding to a sound pressure, at a given sampling frequency (typically 44100 samples per second). In the most basic case, each digital oscillator is modeled by a counter. For each sample, the counter of each oscillator is advanced by an amount that varies depending on the frequency of the oscillator. For harmonic oscillators, the counter indexes a table containing the oscillator's waveform. For random-noise oscillators, the most significant bits index a table of random numbers. The values indexed by each oscillator's counter are mixed, processed, and then sent to a digital-to-analog converter, followed by an analog amplifier.
To eliminate the difficult multiplication step in the envelope generation and mixing, some synthesizers perform all of the above operations in a logarithmic coding, and add the current ADSR and mix levels to the logarithmic value of the oscillator, to effectively multiply it. To add the values in the last step of mixing, they are converted to linear values.
Fingerboard synthesizer
A fingerboard synthesizer is a synthesizer with a ribbon controller or other fingerboard-like user interface used to control parameters of the sound processing. A ribbon controller is similar to a touchpad, however most of ribbon controllers only register linear motion. Although it could be used to operate any sound parameter, a ribbon controller is most commonly associated with pitch control or pitch bending.
Old types of fingerboard were resistor-based with the long wire pressed to the resistive plate. The modern ribbon controller has no moving parts. Instead, a finger pressed down and moved along it creates an electrical contact at some point along a pair of thin, flexible longitudinal strips whose electric potential varies from one end to the other.
The earliest digital synthesis was performed by software synthesizers on mainframe computers using methods exactly like those described in digital synthesis, above. Music was coded using punch cards to describe the type of instrument, note and duration. The formants of each timbre were generated as a series of sine waves, converted to fixed-point binary suitable for digital-to-analog converters, and mixed by adding and averaging. The data was written slowly to computer tape and then played back in real time to generate the music.
Today, a variety of software is available to run on modern high-speed personal computers. DSP algorithms are commonplace, and permit the creation of fairly accurate simulations of physical acoustic sources or electronic sound generators (oscillators, filters, VCAs, etc). Some commercial programs offer quite lavish and complex models of classic synthesizers--everything from the Yamaha DX7 to the original Moog modular. Other programs allow the user complete control of all aspects of digital music synthesis, at the cost of greater complexity and difficulty of use.
The first electric musical synthesizer was invented in 1876 by Elisha Gray[2], who was also an independent inventor of the telephone. The "Musical Telegraph" was a chance by-product of his telephone technology.
Gray accidentally discovered that he could control sound from a self vibrating electromagnetic circuit and in doing so invented a basic single note oscillator. The Musical Telegraph used steel reeds whose oscillations were created and transmitted, over a telephone line, by electromagnets. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device in later models consisting of a vibrating diaphragm in a magnetic field to make the oscillator audible.
Other early synthesizers used technology derived from electronic analog computers, laboratory test equipment, and early electronic musical instruments. Ivor Darreg created his microtonal 'Electronic Keyboard Oboe' in 1937. Another one of the early synthesizers was the ANS synthesizer, a machine that was constructed by the Russian scientist Evgeny Murzin from 1937 to 1957. Only one copy of ANS was built, and it is currently kept at the Lomonosov University in Moscow.
In the 1950s, RCA produced experimental devices to synthesize both voice and music. The giant Mark II Music Synthesizer, housed at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York City in 1958, was only capable of producing music once it had been completely programmed. The vacuum tube system had to be manually patched to create each new type of sound. It used a paper tapesequencer punched with holes that controlled pitch sources and filters, similar to a mechanical player piano but able to generate a wide variety of sounds.
In 1958 Daphne Oram at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop produced a novel synthesizer using her "Oramics" technique, driven by drawings on a 35 mm film strip. This was used for a number of years at the BBC. Hugh Le Caine, John Hanert, Raymond Scott, the composer Percy Grainger (with Burnett Cross), and others built a variety of automated electronic-music controllers during the late 1940s and 1950s.
By the 1960s, synthesizers were developed that could be played in real time but were confined to studios because of their size. These synthesizers were usually configured using a modular design, with standalone signal sources and processors being connected with patch cords or by other means, and all controlled by a common controlling device.
Modular synthesizers
File:Music easel2.jpgBuchla Music Easel
Early synthesizers were often experimental special-built devices, usually based on the concept of modularity. Don Buchla, Hugh Le Caine, Raymond Scott and Paul Ketoff were among the first to build such instruments, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Only Buchla later produced a commercial modular synthesizer.
Robert Moog, who had been a student of Peter Mauzey, one of the engineers of the RCA Mark II, created a revolutionary synthesizer that could be easily used by musicians. Moog designed the circuits used in his synthesizer while he was at Columbia-Princeton. The Moog synthesizer was first displayed at the Audio Engineering Society convention in 1964. Like the RCA Mark II, it required a lot of experience to set up the machine for a new sound, but it was smaller and more intuitive. Less like a machine and more like a musical instrument, the Moog synthesizer was at first a curiosity, but by 1968 had caused a sensation.
Micky Dolenz of The Monkees bought one of the first three Moog synthesizers and the first commercial release to feature a Moog synthesizer was The Monkees' fourth album, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., in 1967, which also became the first album featuring a synthesizer to hit #1 on the charts. Also among the first music performed on this synthesizer was the million-selling 1968 album Switched-On Bach by Wendy Carlos. Switched-On Bach was one of the most popular classical-music recordings ever made. During the late 1960s, hundreds of other popular recordings used Moog synthesizer sounds. The Moog synthesizer even spawned a subculture of record producers who made novelty "Moog" recordings, depending on the odd new sounds made by their synthesizers (which were not always Moog units) to draw attention and sales.
Moog also established standards for control interfacing, with a logarithmic 1-volt-per-octave pitch control and a separate pulse triggering signal. This standardization allowed synthesizers from different manufacturers to operate together. Pitch control is usually performed either with an organ-style keyboard or a music sequencer, which produces a series of control voltages over a fixed time period and allows some automation of music production.
Other early commercial synthesizer manufacturers included ARP, who also started with modular synthesizers before producing all-in-one instruments, and British firm EMS.
The Minimoog was one of the most popular synthesizers ever built
Popular synthesizers
In 1970, Moog designed an innovative synthesizer with a built-in keyboard and without modular design--the analog circuits were retained, but made interconnectable with switches in a simplified arrangement called "normalization". Though less flexible than a modular design, it made the instrument more portable and easier to use. This first pre-patched synthesizer, the Minimoog, became very popular, with over 12,000 units sold. The Minimoog also influenced the design of nearly all subsequent synthesizers, with integrated keyboard, pitch wheel and modulation wheel, and a VCO->VCF->VCA signal flow.
In the 1970s miniaturized solid-state components allowed synthesizers to become self-contained, portable instruments. They began to be used in live performances. Soon, electronic synthesizers had become a standard part of the popular-music repertoire.
The first movie to make use of synthesized music was the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, in 1969. From that point on, a large number of movies were made with synthesized music. A few movies, like 1982's John Carpenter's "The Thing", used all synthesized music in their musical scores.
Homemade synthesizers
The Maplin 5600 synthesizer could be built from a kit
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was relatively easy to build one's own synthesizer. Designs were published in hobby electronics magazines (notably the Formant modular synth, an impressive DIY clone of the Moog system, published by Elektor) and complete kits were supplied by companies such as Paia in the US, and Maplin Electronics in the UK.
Modern synthesizers
Since the mid to late 1980s most new synthesizers have been completely digital. At the same time analogue synthesizers have also revived in popularity, so in recent years the two trends have sometimes combined in the appearance of virtual analog synthesizers, digital synthesizers which model analog synthesis using digital signal processing techniques. New analogue instruments now also accompany the large number from the digital world (see Analog synthesizer and Digital synthesizer).
Microprocessor controlled and polyphonic analog synthesizers
Early analog synthesizers were always monophonic, producing only one tone at a time. A few, such as the Moog Sonic Six, ARP Odyssey and EML 101, were capable of producing two different pitches at a time when two keys were pressed. Polyphony (multiple simultaneous tones, which enables chords), was only obtainable with electronic organ designs at first. Popular electronic keyboards combining organ circuits with synthesizer processing included the ARP Omni and Moog's Polymoog and Opus 3.
By 1976, the first true music synthesizers to offer polyphony had begun to appear, most notably in the form of the Yamaha GX1, CS-50, CS-60 and Yamaha CS-80 and the Oberheim Four-Voice. These early instruments were very complex, heavy, and costly. Another feature that began to appear was the recording of knob settings in a digital memory, allowing the changing of sounds quickly.
When microprocessors first appeared on the scene in the early 1970s, they were expensive and difficult to apply.
The first practical polyphonic synth, and the first to use a microprocessor as a controller, was the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 introduced in 1978. For the first time, musicians had a practical polyphonic synthesizer that allowed all knob settings to be saved in computer memory and recalled by pushing a button. The Prophet-5 was also physically compact and lightweight, unlike its predecessors. This basic design paradigm became a standard among synthesizer manufacturers, slowly pushing out the more complex (and more difficult to use) modular design.
One of the first real-time polyphonic digital music synthesizers was the Coupland Digital Music Synthesizer. It was much more portable than a piano but never reached commercial production.
The Kurzweil K250, first produced in 1983, was the first polyphonic digital music synthesizer to be commercially successful and is the grandfather of modern synthesis - over 4,000 units were produced.
Synthesizers became easier to integrate and synchronize with other electronic instruments and controllers with the introduction in 1983 of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). First proposed in 1981 by Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits, the MIDI standard was developed by a consortium now known as the MIDI Manufacturers Association. MIDI is an opto-isolatedserial interface and communication protocol. It provides for the transmission, from one device or instrument to another, of real-time performance data including note events, commands for the selection of instrument presets (i.e. sounds [a.k.a. programs or patches] previously stored in the instrument's memory), the control of performance-related parameters such as volume, effects levels and the like, as well as synchronization, transport control and other types of data. MIDI interfaces are now almost ubiquitous on music equipment, and commonly available on personal computers (PCs).
The General MIDI (GM) software standard was devised in 1991 to serve as a consistent way of describing a set of over 200 tones (including percussion) available to a PC for playback of musical scores. For the first time, a given MIDI preset would consistently produce e.g. an oboe or guitar sound on any GM-conforming device. The Standard MIDI File (SMF) format (extension.mid) combined MIDI events with delta times - a form of time-stamping - and became a popular standard for exchange of music scores between computers. In the case of SMF playback using integrated synthesizers (as in computers and cell phones), the hardware component of the MIDI interface design is often unneeded.
OSC, OpenSound Control, is a proposed replacement for MIDI which was designed for networking. In contrast with MIDI, OSC is fast enough to allow thousands of synthesizers or computers to share music performance data over the internet in realtime.
FM synthesis/Yamaha
FM Synthesis is the use of the output of one oscillator to modulate the frequency of another oscillator. Low frequency FM modulation produces siren-like sounds, but when the modulating oscillator frequency enters the audio range the results are very complex waves with many harmonic sidebands. A frequency-modulated oscillator can be used to modulate another oscillator or a parameter of the synth or 'patch' such as rate, depth, etc. of LFOs (Low Frequency Oscillators). These usually control parameters, but oscillators can modulate the LFOs to give a more complex sound. Oscillators can in turn modulate themselves and produce White Noise.
John Chowning of Stanford University is generally considered to be the first researcher to conceive of producing musical sounds by causing one oscillator to modulate the pitch of another. This is called FM, or frequency modulation, synthesis. Chowning's early FM experiments were done with software on a mainframe computer.
Most FM synthesizers use sine-wave oscillators (called operators) which, in order for their fundamental frequency to be sufficiently stable, are normally generated digitally (several years after Yamaha popularized this field of synthesis, they were outfitted with the ability to generate waveforms other than a sine wave). Each operator's audio output may be fed to the input of another operator, via an ADSR or other envelope controller. The first operator modulates the pitch of the second operator, in ways that can produce complex waveforms. Although FM synthesis is in some ways a form of additive synthesis (albeit with much less control), filters used in subtractive synthesizers were typically not used in FM synthesizers until the mid-1990s. By cascading operators and programming their envelopes appropriately, some subtractive synthesis effects can be simulated, though the sound of a resonant analog filter is almost impossible to achieve. FM is well-suited for making sounds that subtractive synthesizers have difficulty producing, particularly non-harmonic sounds, such as bell timbres.
Chowning's patent covering FM sound synthesis was licensed to the Japanese manufacturer Yamaha, and made millions for Stanford during the 1980s. In 1980, Chowning's patent was Stanford's single most lucrative patent, exceeding others in electronics, computer science, and genetic engineering. Yamaha's first FM synthesizers, the GS-1 and GS-2, were costly and heavy. Keyboardist Brent Mydland of the Grateful Dead used a GS-1 extensively in the 1980s. They soon followed the GS series with a pair of smaller, preset versions - the CE20 and CE25 Combo Ensembles [3]- which were targeted primarily at the home organ market and featured four-octave keyboards. Their third generation, consisting of the DX-7 and DX-9 (1983), were about the same size and weight as the Prophet-5, were reasonably priced, and depended on custom digital integrated circuits to produce FM tonalities. The DX-7 was a smash hit and can be heard on many recordings from the mid-1980s. Yamaha later licensed its FM technology to other manufacturers. By the time the Stanford patent ran out, almost every personal computer in the world contained an audio input-output system with a built-in 4-operator FM digital synthesizer -- a fact most PC users are not aware of. It's also notable that FM patches are very simple to wire up on modular synths, and thus had been used long before Yamaha adopting this technology. Buchla instruments in particular used FM, as well as AM synthesis, very successfully as early as the late 1960s.
The GS1 and GS2 had their small memory strips "programmed" by a hardware-based machine that existed only in Hamamatsu (Yamaha Japan headquarters) and Buena Park (Yamaha's U.S. headquarters). It had four 7" monochrome video monitors, each displaying the parameters of one of the four operators within the GS1/2. At that time a single "operator" was a 14"-square circuit board -- this was of course long before Yamaha condensed the FM circuitry to a single ASIC. The GS1/GS2 programmer's envelope circuitry had well over 50 "break points"...but these proved quite ineffective in modifying sounds, hence the subsequent regress to the analog-synth type ADSR envelope generators in the design of the DX series instruments.
During the time period from 1981-1984, Yamaha built a recording studio on Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Angeles dubbed the "Yamaha R&D Studio". Besides operating as a commercial recording studio facility, it served as a test area for new musical instrument products sold by what then was called the "Combo" division of Yamaha.
The Japanese engineers in Hamamatsu failed to create more than a handful of pleasing sounds for the GS1 with the 4-monitor programming machine, although one of them was used on the recording of "Africa" by Toto. At one point, Mr. John Chowning was invited to try to assist in creating new sounds with FM Synthesis. He came to the Yamaha R&D Studio, and spent a long time trying to make the FM theory result in a useful musical sound in practice. He gave up by the end of the week.
Thereafter, a select group of prominent studio synthesists was hired by Yamaha to try to create the voice library for the GS1 (with that same programming tool). They included Gary Leuenberger (who at that time owned an acoustic piano outlet in San Francisco), and Bo Tomlyn (who later founded Key Clique, a third-party DX7 software manufacturer).
Between Gary and Bo (and a third programmer hired in the United Kingdom named David Bristow), they created the bulk of the voices for the GS1 and GS2 that really caught the attention of both musicians and musical instrument dealers in the Yamaha channel, through both NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) demonstrations and in-store demonstrations. Yamaha reports indicated that only 16 GS-1's were ever produced, and they were all either showcase pieces or donated to Yamaha-sponsored artists, which included (in the U.S.) Stevie Wonder, Toto, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea. Despite the fact that it wasn't actually sold (in the U.S.), the GS-1 bore a retail price of about $16,000, and the GS-2 was priced around $8,000.
The CE20 and CE25 "combo ensembles" were sold in the home piano/organ channel in the U.S., but they were accepted to a limited extent in the "professional" music scene. Their sounds were programmed in Japan by some of the engineering staff members who had been working on the GS1 and GS2.
The hardware-based FM "programmer" for the CE20/25 was a rack of breadboard electronics about the size of a telephone booth. The first DX7 print brochure distributed around the world included a picture of that programmer.
At one time, a young Yamaha engineer was assigned the odious task of listening to real instrument recordings, and trying to emulate them with that crude FM synthesis programmer for the CE20/25's EPROM's. That particular engineer was supposedly "locked" in a laboratory for an extended period of time, but eventually failed to produce what the U.S. market thought of as good results in terms of viable synthesizer voices.[citation needed]
Even though the CE20/25 lacked very many commercially pleasing sounds, there were a couple of notable recordings produced in the U.S. utilizing the CE20, including Al Jarreau's "Mornin'".
Further, despite the fact that there was a lot of internal pressure from product management within the Yamaha International US division, (fueled by the fact that was going on at the time in terms of the adoption of the MIDI standard by many other companies in the industry), it was decided that the CE20 and CE25 did not need MIDI, since they were relegated to the "home" channel.
While all of this was going on, the DX7 development team was working on what would be the most successful Yamaha professional keyboard to date at the Nippon Gakki headquarters in Hamamatsu.
They called in the Yamaha International Corporation product managers from the U.S., and held a series of critical meetings in Hamamatsu to review their design concepts.
The Nippon Gakki engineering team was headed by "Karl" Hirano. At that time, many of the Japanese engineers who interfaced with US product managers adopted "American" nicknames. Hirano selected "Karl" because he liked Karl Malden (who at the time, was on the long-running television show, "Streets of San Francisco" with Michael Douglas.)
Key to their design approach during the development stage(1981-82) was that, like the CE20 and CE25, the DX7 should be a "pre-set" synth, with only factory sounds, and no programming capability. Their rationale behind this was the extreme difficulty that the Yamaha team, Bo, Gary, and others had experienced at wielding FM synthesis and the multi-operator algorithms to make good sounds.
Luckily, the American product management staff had their way: to make the DX7 (and the relatively unsuccessful DX9) completely programmable instruments. As a result, the DX7 was an unheralded success, literally hundreds of great sounds were created, and an entire industry surrounding 3rd-party sounds was spawned. Further, as mentioned previously, OEM chipsets in PCs with the FM synthesis engine became standard fare in that industry.
Many of the preset "General MIDI" sounds in Wintel PCs are exact-DNA clones of numerous sounds originally created by Bo, Gary, Dave Bristow, and a handful of other synthesists. Some even retain the same or similar names that were given them during the DX7 era.
When the DX7 was finally introduced in the U.S., Bo Tomlyn, Peter Rochon (from Yamaha Canada) and other Yamaha staff went on the road to show off the product to the North American Yamaha dealer network. Those seminars included what was thought then to be a key element....training the dealers in how to operate and program the DX7. This was a vivid indication that the concern raised in Hamamatsu over the difficulty level of programming the machine had still persisted.
But, demand was so high for the DX7 the first year of introduction that a "grey market" influx of units originally purchased in Akihabara and other electronics outlets in Tokyo and other parts of Japan, quickly developed, and that became a serious concern for Yamaha International Corporation management.
A rumor was propagated by unknown people at Yamaha (or dealers) that the Japanese units would "blow up" upon being plugged into 120V AC outlets in the U.S., and that the sounds were different from the U.S. version. The latter "rumor" was true. The ROM cartridges included in the Japanese version of the DX7 were different from the American release....the U.S. version had many more of the pleasing sounds created by Bo Tomlyn and Gary Leuenberger.
The DX7 exceeded Yamaha's wildest expectations in terms of unit sales; it took many months for production to catch up with demand. The DX9 failed, most prominently because it was a four-operator (vs six in the DX7) FM and had a cassette tape storage system for voice loading/recording.
The rack-mounted TX216 and TX816, although relatively powerful studio instruments at that time, were also poor sellers, due to lack of support and difficult user interface.
After the successful introduction of the DX series, Bo Tomlyn, along with Mike Malizola (the original DX-7 Yamaha product manager) and Chuck Monte (founder of Dyno-My-Piano), founded "Key Clique, Inc.", which sold thousands of ROM cartridges with new FM/DX7 sounds (programmed by Bo) to DX7 owners around the world. Ironically, Key Clique's "Rhodes-electric-piano" voices led to the relative demise of the Fender Rhodes piano, and even the business started by co-founder Monte (Dyno-My-Piano's principal product was a Rhodes modification kit). Later, however, Key Clique's strong dominance in that marketplace was eventually eroded by people "sharing" Tomlyn voice parameter settings over Bulletin Boards on early computers, and many competitors entered the market all at once.
The final outcome was not far afield from what the Yamaha engineers had originally been concerned about....the huge library of sounds that propagated throughout the music industry for the FM instruments were actually created by only a handful of synth programmers. In numerous interviews and case studies conducted by Yamaha product management with both retail store owners and keyboardists, it was discovered that the average DX7 purchaser hardly ever wanted...or needed...to program his or her own synthesizer voices, since it was so difficult, and because there were so many great sounds available "off the shelf".
At the time when the FM Synthesis technology was first licensed from Stanford University, just about everyone in management at both Nippon Gakki and Yamaha International in the U.S. thought that FM would be "long-gone" by the time the license ran out (about 1996). That turned out to be completely untrue - witness the flourishing of the technology in the OPL chipsets in the majority of PCs around the world over the past many years (as mentioned previously in this article).
The list of prominent musical recordings utilizing the DX7 and the myriad of other FM synthesizers that were introduced later is significant, and new compositions utilizing FM are added to the world music library all the time. Software emulation of the DX7 voice library (including many of the Key Clique sounds) exists today in a wide range of both professional and 'pro-sumer' studio software products.
Classic synthesizer designs
This is intended to be a list of classic instruments which marked a turning point in musical sound or style, potentially worth an article of their own. They are listed with the names of performers or styles associated with them. For more synthesizer models see Category:Synthesizers.
