BY

J.NISHANTHINI
S.NANDHINI
A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses
digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to
make musical sounds. This in contrast to older
analog synthesizers, which produce music using
analog electronics, and samplers, which play
back digital recordings of acoustic, electric, or
electronic instruments. Some digital
synthesizers emulate analog synthesizers;
others include sampling capability in addition to
digital synthesis.
The very earliest digital synthesis experiments
were made with computers, as part of academic
research into sound generation. In 1973,[1] the
Japanese company Yamaha licensed the
algorithms for frequency modulation synthesis
(FM synthesis) from John Chowning, who had
experimented with it at Stanford University
since 1971.[2] Yamaha's engineers began
adapting Chowning's algorithm for use in a
commercial digital synthesizer, adding
improvements such as the "key scaling" method
to avoid the introduction of distortion that
normally occurred in analog systems during
frequency modulation, though it would take
several years before Yamaha were to release
their FM digital synthesizers.[3] In the 1970s,
Yamaha were granted a number of patents,
under the company's former name "Nippon
Gakki Seizo Kabushiki Kaisha", evolving
Chowning's early work on FM synthesis
technology.[4] Yamaha built the first prototype
digital synthesizer in 1974.[1]

Released in 1979,[5] the Casio VL-1 was the first

commercial digital synthesizer,[6] selling for
$69.95.[5] Yamaha eventually commercialized
their FM synthesis technology and released the
first FM digital synthesizer in 1980, the Yamaha
GS-1, but at an expensive retail price of
$16,000.[7]
Early commercial digital synthesizers used
simple hard-wired digital circuitry to implement
techniques such as additive synthesis and FM
synthesis. Other techniques, such as wavetable
synthesis and physical modeling, only became
possible with the advent of high-speed
microprocessor and digital signal processing
technology. Two other early commercial digital
synthesizers were the Fairlight CMI, introduced
in 1979, and the New England Digital
Synclavier II, introduced in 1980. The Fairlight
CMI was a sampling synthesizer, while the
Synclavier originally used FM synthesis
technology licensed from Yamaha,[8] before
adding sampling synthesis later in the 1980s.
The Fairlight CMI and the Synclavier were both
expensive systems, retailing for more than
$20,000 in the early 1980s. The cost of digital
synthesizers began falling rapidly in the early
1980s. E-mu Systems introduced the Emulator
sampling synthesizer in 1982 at a retail price of
$7,900. Although not as flexible or powerful as
either the Fairlight CMI or the Synclavier, its
lower cost and portability made it popular.

The Yamaha DX7 (1983) signalled the rise of

digital synthesizers
Introduced in 1983, the Yamaha DX7 was the
breakthrough digital synthesizer to have a major
impact, both innovative and affordable, and thus
spelling the decline of analog synthesizers.[9] It
used FM synthesis and, although it was
incapable of the sampling synthesis of the
Fairlight CMI, its price was around $2,000,
putting it within range of a much larger number
of musicians.[10] The DX-7 was also known for
its "key scaling" method to avoid distortion and
for its recognizabley bright tonality that was
partly due to its high sampling rate of
57 kHz.[11] It became indispensable to many
music artists of the 1980s,[12] and would become
one of the best-selling synthesizers of all time.[2]
In 1987, Roland released its own influential
synthesizer of the time, the D-50. This popular
synth broke new ground in affordably
combining short samples and digital oscillators,
as well as the innovation[13] of built-in digital
effects (reverb., chorus, equalizer[14]). Roland
called this Linear Arithmetic (LA) synthesis.
This instrument is responsible for some of the
very recognisable preset synthesizer sounds of
the late 1980s, such as the Pizzagogo sound
used on Enya's "Orinoco Flow."
It gradually became feasible to include high
quality samples of existing instruments as
opposed to synthesizing them. In 1988, Korg
introduced the last of the hugely popular trio of
digital synthesizers of the 1980s after the DX7
and D50, the M1. This heralded both the
increasing popularisation of digital sample-
based synthesis, and the rise of 'workstation'
synthesizers.[15] After this time, many popular
modern digital synthesizers have been described
as not being full synthesizers in the most precise
sense, as they play back samples stored in their
memory. However, they still include options to
shape the sounds through use of envelopes,
LFOs, filters and effects such as reverb. The
Yamaha Motif and Roland Fantom series of
keyboards are typical examples of this type,
described as 'ROMplers' ; at the same time, they
are also examples of "workstation" synthesizers.

The Clavia Nord Lead is a popular virtual

analog synth
With the addition of sophisticated sequencers on
board, now added to built-in effects and other
features, the 'workstation' synthesizer had been
born. These always include a multi-track
sequencer, and can often record and playback
samples, and in later years full audio tracks, to
be used to record an entire song. These are
usually also ROMplers, playing back samples,
to give a wide variety of realistic instrument and
other sounds such as drums, string instruments
and wind instruments to sequence and compose
songs, along with popular keyboard instrument
sounds such as electric pianos and organs.
As there was still interest in analog synthesizers,
and with the increase of computing power, over
the 1990s another type of synthesizer arose : the
analog modeling, or "virtual analog"
synthesizer. These use computing power to
simulate traditional analog waveforms and
circuitry such as envelopes and filters, with the
most popular examples of this type of
instrument including the Nord Lead and Access
Virus.
As the cost of processing power and memory
fell, new types of synthesizers emerged, offering
a variety of novel sound synthesis options. The
Korg Oasys was one such example, packaging
multiple digital synthesizers into a single unit.
Digital synthesizers can now be completely
emulated in software ("softsynth"), and run on
conventional PC hardware. Such soft
implementations require careful programming
and a fast CPU to get the same latency response
as their dedicated equivalents. To reduce
latency, some professional sound card
manufacturers have developed specialized
Digital Signal Processing ([DSP]) hardware.
Dedicated digital synthesizers have the
advantage of a performance-friendly user
interface (physical controls like buttons for
selecting features and enabling functionality,
and knobs for setting variable parameters). On
the other hand, software synthesizers have the
advantages afforded by a rich graphical display.
With focus on performance-oriented keyboards
and digital computer technology, manufacturers
of commercial electronic instruments created
some of the earliest digital synthesizers for
studio and experimental use with computers
being able to handle built-in sound synthesis
algorithms.[16]

Analog vs. digital

The main difference is that a digital synthesizer
uses digital processors and analog synthesizers
use analog circuitry. A digital synthesizer is in
essence a computer with (often) a piano-
keyboard and an LCD as an interface. An
analog synthesizer is made up of sound-
generating circuitry and modulators. Because
computer technology is rapidly advancing, it is
often possible to offer more features in a digital
synthesizer than in an analog synthesizer at a
given price. However, both technologies have
their own merit. Some forms of synthesis, such
as, for instance, sampling and additive synthesis
are not feasible in analog synthesizers, while on
the other hand, many musicians prefer the
character of analog synthesizers over their
digital equivalent.
Bands using digital synthesizer
The New wave era of the 1980s first brought the
digital synthesizer to the public ear. Bands like
Talking Heads and Duran Duran used the
digitally made sounds on some of their most
popular albums. Other more pop-inspired bands
like Hall & Oates began incorporating the
digital synthesizer into their sound in the 1980s.
Through breakthroughs in technology in the
1990s many modern synthesizers use DSP.
Digital synthesis
Working in more or less the same way, every
digital synthesizer appears similar to a
computer. At a steady sample rate, digital
synthesis produces a stream of numbers.