The Bizarre History of SYNTHESIZERS!

The Bizarre History of SYNTHESIZERS! Check out my audio/music demonstrations using the powerful NORD RACK 2 synthesizer to hear all the amazing controls, parameters, and waveform combinations:

Today I got a nice long presentation about the wacky world of synthesizers! We're talking about the RCA Mark II, the Fairlight Sampler, the Moog Modular, the Minimoog, the Yamaha DX7, and even the crazy electronic sackbut from the 1940s! Also we'll meet Bob, the genius and musical scientist known formally as Robert Moog, and learn about the brave bands like the Doors, Beach Boys, Emerson Lake & Palmer, the Grateful Dead who pioneered the use of the synthesizer in the 1960s-1970s. The synthesizer also found its way into pretty much every genre, even CLASSICAL MUSIC! Also it was extremely popular in the 80s in genres like r&b and jazz fusion. All of these topics and more on today's BIZARRE HISTORY OF SYNTHESIZERS!

Is the synthesizer a REAL instrument, or is it cheating? What's your favorite hardware or software synthesizer? Your favorite song that uses synths? Let us know in the comments down below!

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#owenadams #synthesizer #history

[auntjenifer]

The synthesizer is absolutely a real instrument. Key bed triggers sounds just like a pipe organ but instead of moving air it's moving elements and electrons, especially with tube powered synthesizer.

[hipsterscout]

The first Synth was the Telharmonium in 1897. The Theremin was invented in 1919 and the Ondes- Martenot was invented in 1928 and the Trautonium in 1930, all of which predate the Hammond organ and are much closer to later synths as they used analog oscilators. also Good Vibrations didnt use a theremin, it used a "stringer" or Slide Theremin, which sounds similar but is a different instrument all together. You also could have mentioned Buchla Synths that were invented around the same time as moog modular synths and are simular in some ways but sound very unique and have a rich history in experimental music. Also gotta mention that an original mini moog is way bigger than a microkorg. The DX7 is the 1980s not 1970s.

[NONFamers]

Queen did use synthesizers! The reason they wrote 'no synthesisers' (sic!) on e.g., 'A Night at the Opera' was that the sounds they made were so novel that casual listeners would guess they used synthesizers to produce them. Later in their career, Queen used the DX-7 (e.g., on 'Under Pressure'), and a guitar synthesizer (e.g., 'I Want to Break Free'; probably Brian May's guitar fed through the External Signal Processor of a Korg MS-20). By 1975, the synthesizer was so 'mainstream' in music that many of the best musicians and producers used synthesizers like they would use any other instrument. Examples include Stevie Wonder, ABBA, Toto, Ike & Tina Turner, Ekseption, Weather Report, and Meat Loaf. Synthesizers are just one more range of colours to the sonic palette.

[Silver_Adventures]

my rule is a instrument is a instrument, anything that can make sound is a instrument if used right. your voice is a instrument, wind chimes is a instrument, water is a instrument.

[cynthiabelar]

Nice overview. The RCA Music Synthesizer was polyphonic while the Moog was monophonic, although he popularized it in a way RCA would not. The Hagley Museum has a letter from Moog asking RCA for help in design. My father, Herbert Belar, was the actual inventor; he worked in Olson’s lab.

[AndrewAHayes]

A mellotron does not play cassette tapes or the tape from a cassette, the tape is a totally different size!

[JM]

Analogic Synthesizers are real instruments! Oh Yes, they are!

[cemdasou]

What about the Trautonium? This synth had all those modern functions back in 1936

[jamestremlett]

Great video introduction idea although you did wash over some key facts that people might really need to know like “what is an oscillator?” and “what is the difference between analogue and digital synthesizers?”. If you’re doing an introduction to the history of a subject, you can’t just assume people know all these words and know what they mean!

[chucksl]

Great video!! An instrument is simply a tool to help you do a task. A musical instrument is no different. Whether a person plays a traditional acoustic instrument or uses a computer, its still an instrument to make music. Like your video showed, "haters gonna hate!" Its like saying original traditional instruments arent real because humans have voices and should just sing music. People take no issue with technology when it doesnt use electricity. Put a circuit board in it and suddenly its not "real music".

[johnpaulpatton]

It's funny that you talk about Queen not using synths while showing Freddie Mercury dancing onstage during the era in which they fully embraced using synths.

[samjones]

Killer Queen, Amazing Rock Band and Electronic act!

[rbrtck]

You've got the theremin motions reversed. In actuality, horizontal closeness to the vertical omnipolar antenna controls pitch, while vertical closeness to the horizontal dipolar antenna on the other side controls loudness.

[JohnBassarcticsoundstudios]

The DX 7 came out in the 80s, 83 maybe 82. . The first programmable digital Synth was 1979. The Casio VL tone . primitive but thats was the 1st. A lot of your info was incorrect. But I appreciate the try. No cassettes in the Mellotron either.

[rbrtck]

I think you mixed up aftertouch with velocity sensitivity. The latter generally means that the harder--and therefore faster--you hit a key, the louder the note plays. Aftertouch generally refers to holding a key down after you've hit it, and applying a bit more force to overcome a resistance in order to push the key down farther to modulate the sound in some other way that you've defined. The more force you use, the lower the key moves, and the modulation effect varies accordingly.

Some keyboards have both features, some have neither, and others only have velocity sensitivity.

[kalemitchell_-triumvirate-]

I'd like to hear someone say they aren't real instruments and attempt to make complex growls and other dubstep noises from regular instruments.

[TulioAdriano]

Nice video. Thanks for the research and uncovering very unique early synthesizers. It's curious to hear that Queen was resistant to synths, and in the end they ended up using it on their hit Radio Ga Ga song, where the Jupiter 8 made the arpeggiated bass lines, as well as use of vocoder.
There's no question that synthesizers are instruments by their own merits. Granted: they won't ever sound like any acoustic instrument that whey were trying to mimic in the beginning, but in all honesty the true color and expression of a synthesizer really shows up when you leave the acoustic instruments behind and start exploring all the sonic possibilities that the synthesizer controls offer. Between subtractive synthesis, FM synthesis, additive and sample based synthesis, a whole new palette of sounds becomes possible, and you're right: There's a synth for each kind of music much as there are acoustic instruments as well. A musician who are rejecting a whole "kind" of instruments is really just choosing to paint with less colors in their palette. In the end is a matter of taste, choice, and affinity. Either way, synthesizers have earned their place as instruments of their own merit and expressiveness, not just as instruments that attempt to recreate acoustic sounds.

[scurvyjoe]

Even though the synthesizer has not been around as long as other insruments, I believe that it is a real instrument. Each synthesizer that has been developed over the decades may have some limitations, but the music creativity has unlimited potential! The reason why I have the synthesizer as my favorite instrument, because there are a lot of styles of playing it. Not only that, these styles are impossible to duplicate! That's why I like it, the beauty of the synthesizer at its best! All because of different synthesizer players having different applications in their compositions! Also, the analog synthesizers of the past are making a comeback, both digitally and physically. The Moog Modular System 55 has been revamped, and is being sold again by Moog Music Inc. Same goes for the Minimoog! Now, younger generations will be able to enjoy the Moog products of the past!

If they cannot afford the prices of Moog synthesizers and their competitors, I recommend the synthesizers made by Arturia. They are midi controller synthesizers that run on either standalone synth programs, or VSTs loaded in any DAW! They may be digital program versions of vintage synths, but Arturia has something for everyone! These Arturia products also sound like the real thing! You can also buy new sounds on Arturia's website! For those who can afford Moog products or any other vinatge synthesizer in physical form, I really don't envy you out of pure respect. I tip my hat to you! For those who cannot afford them, I highly recommend buying Arturia products from eBay. That is where I found my two Arturia synthesizers, and they pack quite the punch!

The only spoilers that I can give you, is that (1) you are going to love the prices on eBay, and (2) you are going to love the programs available to them! Check them out at www.arturia.com to find the right synth and programs for it as well. Then, head to eBay to find you want for a lower price! I dare you! Good luck to those who take up my dare! The Arturia synthesizers and programs are that good!

[cannedmusic]

Okay, a question for the music purists. A person sits at a keyboard, downloads 15 hot pipe sets from across Europe, and plays, is he/she playing a synth (Moog) or the newest take on the Mellotron? When I was first learning about synthesizers my music teacher taught us sampling was a form of synthesis. I always thought synthesizers took a wave form and modulated it.

[Peter_S_]

Good Vibrations didn't use a Theremin. They used an instrument called an "Tannerin", invented in the 1950s by trombonist Paul Tanner and amateur inventor Bob Whitsell. It uses a horizontal slide to set the pitch and a volume knob operated by the left hand. Notes are gated by touching the slider. The Tannerin put out a pure sine wave so it out Theremined the Theremin in terms of space noises. Theremins have a waveshape more like a distorted triangle.
Another note: Queen did indeed use synthesizers including an Oberheim OB-X, Yamaha DX-7, and a Jupiter 8. Look at Queen - Live At Wembley Stadium (12-7-1986) to watch Brian May pay the keyboard parts in Who Wants to Live Forever on a DX-7.