A Brief History
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument used to generate audio signals and create modified sounds. In 1952, the first instrument we recognize as a true programmable electronic synthesizer was created by Harry Olson and Herbert Belar and developed by the Radio Corporation of America. They called it the RCA Mark II (Philharmonie de Paris n.d.). The size of this synthesizer took up an entire room, and was programmable by a type of player piano system which would receive instructions to prompt certain modules (Soundfly, 2020).
Moving into the 1960s, more compactly-built synthesizers became prominent in the music world, the Moog synthesizer being one which became a standard to which other later models were based on (Pinch 2002, 42). It was around this time that keyboards became the standard means of controlling synthesizers because they were more marketable, although they can also be controlled by sequencers or other instruments.
During the late 1970s and 1980s, even more compact synthesizers were developed. Among the most notable of these was Moog’s MiniMoog Model D, which was even smaller and more portable so that musicians could take it on tour, as well as Yamaha’s 1983 launch of the first mass-produced digital synthesizer, the DX7 (Soundfly, 2020). Throughout the decades of its lifetime, the synthesizer has evolved and been refined in a multitude of ways to explore new soundscapes and capabilities. As you can see if you click the interactive timeline below, what was once a bulky machine has become a transportable compact keyboard, which includes a variety of improvements and simplified guidelines for use.
Link to interactive timeline of the synthesizer: https://www.vintagesynth.com/timeline/archived
