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During the late sixties introduced to the music world and sometime in the seventies breaking through and becoming the most influential music instrument of the recent times, the synthesizer is by no means a new concept. Voice synthesis was reported centuries ago by some mechanical means, and the need to reproduce music and instruments by any synthetic means was sought after for nearly as long. Pinpointing the true inventor of synthesizers is not an easy task. It seems that the person who invents an apparatus is rarely the person that ultimately benefits from it. There is no difference with the inventor of the synthesizer, an electrical engineer from Ohio, Elisha Gray. Elisha Gray was very much involved in the development of the telephone, where serious disputes as to who actually invented the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell or Elisha Gray continue to exist. Evidence is present that Bell, who tried to outrun Gray in finalizing the patent, got information of Gray's patent caveat, and finally beat Gray under very murky circumstances. Nevertheless, the ingenious inventor Gray managed to secure over seventy patents to his name, one of which was the Musical Telegraph, the first synthesizer ever built. The single note oscillator
was generating sound through a self vibrating electromagnetic circuit. Affixed with a simple loudspeaker appliance, later a vibrating diaphragm, the oscillations could be made capable of being heard. The first synthesizer that could be purchased for money and went into series was the Novachord, manufactured by the famous organ building company Hammond. Only about one thousand units were made, but because of the onset of WWII, it never gained popularity, despite being used in horror movies as a sound effect source. The two synthesizer manufacturers who would define the future of this instrument were Buchla & Associates, Inc, and R.A. Moog Co., later named Moog Music. Both emerging with the modular synthesizer concept in 1963 and later, as technology progressed, simplifying the designs, the sound of these two pioneering instrument manufacturers created a standard that is still valid. While Buchla 100 and the subsequent Buchla 200 Electric Music Box, as well as the Buchla Music Easel were all that ever came from that company, Moog invented and reinvented the concept, after Moog Modular came the Minimoog, a revolutionary device featuring pitch wheel and modulation wheel, as well as the future standard signal flow VCO, the oscillator, VCF, the filter and then VCA, the amplifier. The Taurus bass pedal synthesizer by Moog set the standard for the ultimate synthesizer bass sound, Moog Prodigy, Moog Rogue and Memorymoog followed. Moog also helped create and endorsed several VSTi synthesizer plug-in recreations, most notably the Moog Modular V and the Minimoog V by the company Arturia. |
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