Synthesizer History

Although synthesizers may seem like a modern invention their development actually dates back to the late 1800s when some inventors began to try to produce electronic music. It took until the 1950s, however, for the real results to start showing here and for synthesizers as we know them to start being built.

Until the 1960s synthesizers were hard to learn how to use properly and they were too expensive for most people to buy - at this stage most synthesizers would only be found in recording studios where they became popular with recording artists. In this decade, however, specialists such as Bob Moog and Don Buchla started to work out how to make viable synthesizers that people could generally use and by the 1970s more and more models were being made available to the general public.

At this stage the synthesizers that were being produced were analogue models and many could only produce one sound at a time until polyphonic models came along. Unlike the synthesizers of today (digital synthesizers) you had to physically move the controls up and down on the synthesizer to get the sounds/effects you wanted. Digital technology (such as MIDI technology) allowed synth players to hook synthesizers up to computers and to different synthesizers and gave more scope.