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Wikipedia: A synthesizer
is an electronic musical instrument designed to produce artificially generated
sound, using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM, physical modelling
synthesis, or phase modulation (developed by Casio in the 80's) to create
sounds.
Synthesizers create sounds through direct manipulation of electrical currents
(as in analog synthesizers), mathematical manipulation of discrete values using
computers (as in software synthesizers), or by a combination of both methods. In
the final stage of the synthesizer, electrical currents are used to cause
vibrations in the diaphragms of loudspeakers, headphones, etc. This synthesized
sound is contrasted with recording of natural sound, where the mechanical energy
of a sound wave is transformed into a signal which will then be converted back
to mechanical energy on playback (though sampling significantly blurs this
distinction). |
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From: Jeff Marx <>
>
My question is: When the first moog synth was done? Was it the minimoog?
Well...as far as I can remember without going to my book on the subject, the
first moogs were modular monsters, the different modules connected with series
of patch chords...Walter (Wendy) Carlos had a
beautiful set up in 1969. Keith Emerson got
word of this synthesizer...had Bob Moog ship him over a bunch of modular stuff
in late '69, early '70. Keith opens the box and it's like...."what the hell? Any
instructions come with this?" Minimoogs were later...about 1972-73 guys...gals?
From: "Alan J. Mallery" <>
Moog started building Modulars back in the mid 60's, after building Theramins
and amplifiers for hobby. One of his modulars is what he wound up turning in for
his Doctors' thesis. The Mini debuted in 1970, but really didn't start to sell
too much until 72/73.
From: "Craig A. Shipley" <>
> According to the book "No One Here Gets Out Alive", they (The
Doors) were the first band to use a Moog synthesizer on a record (IIRC, it
was on "Morrison Hotel").
>> That's funny, I recall hearing once that The Monkees were the first to use one (on the songs Star Collector and
Daily Nightly). I'm not sure exactly when the songs were recorded, but they
appear on their fourth album (the one with the astrological signs in the
title).
Yeah, my wife has that album "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd."
from 1967 and it gives either Beaver or Krause, two early synth pioneers, as
playing the Moog synthesizer (one of them also played Moog on the Simon & Garfunkle "Bookends" LP). I did see an episode of the Monkees where Mickey
Dolenz is seated in front of a big Moog modular, poking at the keys, during one
of their song sequences, might have been on the MTV/VH1 retrospective; memory
fails...
> And Manzarek didn't use a Farfisa organ, he used a Kalamazoo, which was
an American knock off of the Farfisa. Sun Ra used one on his Atlantis album.
He (Manzarek) started out with an Italian made Vox Continental, but since
the keys were highly breakable, he was looking for a replacement. Only one had a
flat top to accommodate his Fender/Rhodes piano bass and the was the Kalamazoo
K100, which was later renamed the Gibson G101. Although his Vox was the most
visible in photos of the band at that time, the Gibson was the one that he
recorded with the most. (info taken from "Vintage Synthesizers" by Mark Vail).
From: "Craig A. Shipley" <>
Read a little more about the Kalamazoo / Gibson organ that RM played. Farfisa
organs were made in Italy and distributed in the US by the Chicago Musical
Instrument Company, which owned Gibson. When it was first introduced, the
Farfisa had a distinctive trait of how the legs mounted to the organ (they were
integral to the organ itself and would fold up into the underside). This trait
was later copied for the Lowery, Kalamazoo and Gibson organs that CMI also sold.
This similarity led to the popular misconception that RM replaced his Vox with a
Farfisa, which the aforementioned Gibson physically resembled.
BTW, in the 1960's, there was a plastic model made of the Vox Continental organ!
So, on your shelf next to your P-51, Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea submarine
and your Rat Fink models, you could have had a plastic replica of a Vox! (I
think a Moog would have made a better model, lots more interesting, IMHO...)
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