The Quietus
, February 20th, 2021 09:12
For half a century, synthesizer design has been dominated by the piano keyboard, but things could have gone another way. Author of a new book for Velocity Press called Synthesizer Evolution, Oli Freke takes a look at some of the roads not taken by electronic music
All images by Oli Freke
Synth manufacturers have pursued the perfection of electronic music for more than half a century, but in so doing they have arguably sidelined the hitherto wild-west nature of electronic instruments. Since the invention of the modern synthesizer, the majority of manufacturers have followed the basic design principle set by Robert Moog in the early 1960s - several oscillators controlled by a piano-style keyboard and modified with filters, LFOs and envelope generators.