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How did the synthesizer become such a crucial part of modern music?
These days it’s easy enough to boot up your cracked copy of Ableton Live or Logic and open any number of VST synths, giving you access to decades of technological innovation. It is however important to know how these sounds took hold in the first place, and why they were so successful. Sometimes it was simply the fact that there was no competition (the Minimoog) and sometimes the success was simply down to price and availability (the MS-20).
The synthesizer is as important, and as ubiquitous, in modern music today as the human voice. The concept is simple enough – a basic circuit generates a tone, and the tone can then be controlled by some sort of input, human or otherwise. It’s a concept that has provided the backbone for countless instruments over the last 100-or-so years, and like it or not, has informed the direction of modern music both in the mainstream and in the underground.
The following list contains a few of the key instruments that helped shape electronic music, from the obvious (the unmistakable Roland TB-303) to the obscure (the humble Alpha Juno 2). You might be surprised how many of them lie at the center of your favourite tracks.
EMS VCS3
- Overview
- Released: 1969
- Original price: £330 + £150 for the keyboard
It was designed to be cheap, portable and easy to program (or “patch”), and the Voltage Controlled Studio No.3 from British company EMS might have become the industry standard if it hadn’t been for Bob Moog’s tidier successor. Nicknamed ‘The Putney’ after EMS’s London location, the VCS3 was basically a modular synthesizer, but instead of patch cables, EMS had come up with a small (and notoriously fiddly) 16×16 matrix which was used to control the synthesizer’s internal routing. This was great for portability, but made the synthesizer incredibly unpredictable, as the different pins’ impedance would vary just enough that a patch would almost never sound the same twice.
What did it sound like?
The VCS3 was weird, and it stands to reason that it ended up being such a science fiction standard. It was so quirky that most musicians couldn’t even fathom how to coax actual melodies out of it, prompting some to label it as a bulky, expensive effects unit. Those that persevered were rewarded, and the bizarre-sounding synthesizer was a bottomless treasure trove of peculiar pops, clangs and whines. The fact that you could play it with a joystick, a la Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones (the keyboard was sold separately), only added to its charm.
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White Noise - Love Without SoundReleased: 1969
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Hawkwind - Silver MachineReleased: 1972
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Roxy Music - LadytronReleased: 1972
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Edgar Froese - UplandReleased: 1974
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Portishead - We Carry OnReleased: 2008
Who used it?
While she actually didn’t love synthesizers as much as people like to think (preferring the “musique concrete” technique), Delia Derbyshire was one of the most important early adopters of the EMS VCS3, using it prominently on her White Noise album An Electric Storm and even persuading the BBC to buy a few units for the Radiophonic Workshop. It’s hardly surprising, as she was a close friend of EMS founder Peter Zinovieff (they were both founder members of Unit Delta Plus, an organization dedicated to the promotion of electronic music), and the machine had been designed by occasional Doctor Who composer (and EMS co-founder) Tristram Carey.
Moog Minimoog
- Overview
- Released: 1969 (prototype), 1971 (production)
- Original price: $1495
Bob Moog’s revered Minimoog was the first fully integrated synthesizer, and as such marked one of the most important developments in electronic music. Earlier Moogs were oppressively bulky and near impossible to take on tour, made up of modules that could fill a small room. They were built to order and sold as “professional audio equipment” rather than instruments, and as such were considered out of reach for most musicians and studios. In contrast the Minimoog was built for portability and was comparatively simple to use, with a selection of user-friendly knobs and switches replacing its predecessor’s clunky patch cables.
What did it sound like?
Being monophonic (meaning only one note could be played at a time), it might not have been suitable for bashing out chords, but the Minimoog’s versatility lay in its generous three oscillators and still-legendary filter. The four-pole low-pass filter is still seen as the best in its class, and is responsible for the thick, bassy throbs that have come to characterize the instrument over the last four-and-a-half decades. It’s a sound that most producers are able to fit into any track, and when you think of how an analogue synthesizer is supposed to sound, you’re probably thinking of a Minimoog.
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Sun Ra - The Wind SpeaksReleased: 1970
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Emerson, Lake & Palmer - AquatarkusReleased: 1971
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Kraftwerk - AutobahnReleased: 1974
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Devo - MongoloidReleased: 1977
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Parliament - FlashlightReleased: 1977
Who used it?
A more pertinent question might be “who didn’t?”, as for a while the Minimoog was considered a crucial (if a little pricey) part of any forward-thinking musician’s arsenal. It was avant jazz vanguard Sun Ra who managed to pip his peers to the post though, as he was given the chance to borrow one of Bob Moog’s early prototypes (a Model B) in 1969. He loved the instrument so much that he never returned it, and even bought a second one when they went into production. He was spotted playing both of them at once on numerous occasions, no doubt in an effort to combat the synthesizer’s monophonic limitations.
ARP Odyssey
- Overview
- Released: 1972
- Original price: unknown
Moog had successfully conjured up a brand new market for portable, user-friendly synthesizers, and American manufacturer ARP knew they needed to get in on the action. Their bulky 2500 and 2600 modular units were popular and incredibly widely used, but it was smaller Minimoog competitor the Odyssey that really captured the public’s imagination. The synth was basically a stripped-down version of the 2600, and turned out to be the company’s best selling synthesizer. Considered by many to be inferior to the Moog, as it only boasted two oscillators to the Minimoog’s three and was saddled with a comparatively limited filter, the Odyssey was actually the world’s first duophonic synthesizer – capable of playing two notes at once
What did it sound like?
Early versions of the Odyssey which featured the two-pole filter (it was later replaced by a four-pole version to come up to snuff with the Minimoog) were notoriously tinny, but gave the Odyssey a character all of its own. It’s often confused with the Moog as many bands (and studios) often owned both synthesizers, but the Odyssey excelled with brassy lead sounds and the kind of resonant twangs that came to characterize the electro pop sound.
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Herbie Hancock - ChameleonReleased: 1973
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John Foxx - UnderpassReleased: 1980
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Peter Howell - Doctor Who ThemeReleased: 1980
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Cybotron - Alleys of Your MindReleased: 1981
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Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That FeedsReleased: 2005
Who used it?
The synth was picked up early on by German electronic outfit Tangerine Dream, as heard on a handful of their early ’70s recordings as well as 1981’s Exit, and was also used by genre-hopping jazzer Herbie Hancock, whose track ‘Chameleon’ opens with the synthesizer’s characteristic pulse. The melody on ABBA’s cheeky 1979 hit ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’ was also played on the Odyssey, and it’s been widely referenced as being Ultravox man John Foxx’s favourite synthesizer of all time – he used it liberally on his 1980 classic Metamatic. Thanks to its popularity, the synth could be obtained fairly inexpensively and was snapped up by a young Richard Davis, who along with Juan Atkins used the Odyssey on their early Cybotron recordings, paving the way for the electro and techno that would follow.
Additional Details
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- The 14 most important synths in electronic music history
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