What Is a Synthesizer?

Sound synthesis is the electronic production of soundsstarting from their basic properties, such as sine tones and other simple waves. Synthesizers are so named because they can emulate, or synthesize, a wide variety of soundssuch as the sound of another instrument, a voice, a helicopter, a car, or a dog bark. Synthesizers can also produce sounds that dont occur in the natural world. The ability to generate tones that cannot be created in any other way makes the synthesizer a unique musical tool. The simplest form of synthesizer would be a basic sine wave generator that provided little or no control over pitch. Unfortunately, you could not use such a simple synthesizer to synthesize anything except a sine wave. Combining multiple sine generators with pitch control, however, can produce many interesting and useful tones. In a synthesizer, the task of tone generation falls to a component known as an oscillator. Most synthesizer oscillators generate harmonically rich waveforms, such as sawtooth, triangle, square and pulse waves. These waves are named due to the resemblance of their shapes to the teeth on the blades of a saw, to triangles, to squares, and so on. For information about the most common synthesizer waveforms, see Oscillators. Sculpting the fundamental tone and related harmonics into another sound is achieved by routing the signal from one component, also known as a module, to another in the synthesizer. Each module performs a different job that affects the source signal.

In a modular synthesizer, this routing is achieved by physically cabling modules to each other. In most modern synthesizers, however, the signal routing between modules is internally prewired and is typically changed using switches, knobs, and other controls. Synthesizers have been around for much longer than you may think. In the days that preceded the use of digital technology, all electronic synthesizers were analog. And prior to the use of electricity, synthesizers were actually mechanical. What is Analog? An analog synthesizer combines voltage-controlled circuitssuch as oscillators, filters, and amplifiersto generate and shape sounds. The amount of voltage is typically related directly to the waveform pitch, with higher voltages equalling higher pitches. What is Digital? In a digital synthesizer, the signal flow is digital. Binary descriptions of the signala string of zeros and onesare fed from one algorithm to another. Hybrid Analog and Digital Synthesizers Some synthesizer designs feature digital oscillatorswhich generate signals that are sent to analog filtersand amplifiers. The main advantage of this approach is that digital oscillators dont drift in pitch, a problem that analog oscillators are often notorious for. Virtual Analog A virtual analog synthesizer is a digital synthesizer that mimics the architecture, features, and peculiarities of an analog synthesizer. The behaviors and functions of the oscillators, filters, and other modules that you would find in an analog synthesizer are emulated by computer algorithms. Within Logic Express the ES1 is a great example of a virtual analog synthesizer. Its virtual signal flow is that of a typical analog synthesizer, but all the signal processingthe virtual oscillators and so onis performed by the central processing unit (CPU) of your computer.