Whether you're an amateur or a professional musician or you have never held an instrument in your life,

you've probably heard about synthesizers at one point or another.

In today's world, synthesizers AKA synths are very popular in the music industry because of their
versatility. They are also considered one of the key points in modern music genres, being constantly
used in many producers and musician’s home studios.

Most synthesizers can be split off into two major sections: digital and analog ones. Since many people
aren’t quite sure what the difference between analog and digital synths is, they often have a lot of
doubts regarding which synth to choose.

In this article, we'll discuss how analog and digital synthesizers work, what the pros and cons of each are
and how to choose the right type for your needs.

Let’s start by discussing how synthesizers actually work.

How Do Synthesizers Work?

When you make sounds acoustically — as by saying something, playing a guitar or another acoustic
instrument — you create vibrations in the air. Your eardrums pick up those vibrations, convert them into
signals which are sent to your brain which then interprets them as sounds or music.

Synthesizers work electronically by mimicking those vibrations. A synthesizer produces a series of

electrical signals which get amplified and projected through a speaker, which then converts those
electrical signals into vibrations our ears can pick up.

All synthesizers are made of a few basic components that work together to create sounds: an oscillator
which produces the waveform and changes its pitch, a filter which carves out certain frequencies in the
wave to change the timbre, an amplifier that controls the signal volume, and modulation that create
effects.

What is an Analog Synthesizer?

When synthesizers were first invented, analog was the only game in town. The first popular analog
synthesizers were produced in the early 60’s. These synthesizers gained popularity over the next couple
decades and could be heard in songs by The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and many others.

Analog synthesizers produce sounds by continuously fluctuating electrical voltages inside the
instrument. The fluctuating electrical voltages come from a Voltage-Controllable Oscillator (VCO) or a
Noise Generator. VCO and noise generator work together to provide several core timbres that get
altered by additional analog circuits, like Voltage-Controllable Filters (VCFs) and Voltage-Controllable
Amplifiers (VCAs). All this allows the user to change the overall tone color and loudness of the sound,
respectively.

To put it in simple words, an analog synthesizer produces sounds by sending waveforms through the
circuit board in different shapes. The different shapes, such as saw, square, triangle, and sine each
sound a little different from each other.

For example, a saw wave is very buzzy sounding, but a sine wave is perfectly smooth. That’s because a
saw waveform is pointy and sharp, and a sine wave is smooth.
Variations of waveform shape, frequency, and amplitude along with distortion and noise lead to a
natural harmonic complexity that is common in acoustic sounds. These acoustic aspects make analog
synthesizer’s sounds very pleasing to human ears.

Unfortunately, as we know, playing and recording acoustic instruments is very challenging and time-
consuming, and that is also the case with analog synthesizers.

However, many people still decide to go with analog synthesizers because of their interface. Analog
synthesizers have more visually-accessible and physically-interactive interface, which many musicians
find very important.

Digital Synthesizers

Digital synthesizers use digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to produce musical sounds. So, while
analog synthesizers use real physical circuits to create sounds, digital models emulate analog
synthesizers.

Digital synthesizers are, at their core, specialized computers. They use meticulously-produced computer
codes that help create streams of data that react to user input and are eventually translated into sound.

The spectrum of the programs and computer codes determines the range of possible sounds instead of
the physical/electrical properties of the components. This means that in theory any type of sound can be
produced.

Digital synthesizers usually have a cleaner user interface compared to analog ones. For instance, a digital
synthesizer can only have a few knobs, and you can scroll between different parameters before selecting
the one you want to adjust. Some digital synthesizers also allow users to assign effects to assignable
knobs, which is something you can’t do on analog synthesizers.

It is also worth saying that digital synthesizers are also cheaper than analog ones, they stay in tune, and
sounds can be reproduced identically time after time.

Here is a short overview of Analog VS Digital synthesizers:

Analog:

Raw waveforms

Complete customizability

Physical knobs

Warmer, thicker sound

Digital:

Powerful Presets

Digital Emulation for Smoother Manipulation

Fewer knobs (sometimes)

More Assignability

Conclusion

Hopefully we’ve managed to cover everything you wanted to know about synthesizer and the
differences between analog and digital models.

There are great digital and analog synthesizers, all at varying prices, and each with their own pros and
cons.

Digital synthesizers sound great, are fun to use and have a great resale value, while digital ones usually
offer more options/features for the money, and are undeniably more practical because they have no
physical footprint.

If you want that vintage analog sound, why not try a nice analog modeled synth? If you think you’d like
digital synths better, then don’t be afraid to explore your own options.

Thanks for reading! Please share your opinion in the comments section.