Class Notes

synthesizer - electronic sound

mammoth ivory flute (350 BCE) - duck whistle to attract animals to hunt them (synthesizing the call of the animal to kill)

Pipe Organ (3rd C BCE)

Taus (4th CE)

Modern organ - opening up a switch for airflow, different volumes based on macro level switches, named after different effects (stops) - “pull out all the stops” - unleashing every pipe in the room

Electricity - 1897 Thaddeus Cahil Telharmonium - pump and dump stock investment - fled to Europe - radio was invented

Leon Theremin (1928)

Maurice Martenot

Hugh Le Caine Electronic Sackbut (1945) - squeeze your knees for voltage to come through

CMC Columbia

Belar and Olsen RCA Mark II (1957)

Robert Moog / Don Buchla - inventors of synthesizer (ripping off a third person you don’t know about - Harald Bode Sound System Synthesizer - 1961)

ARP 2600 (1971)

The People’s Synthesizer (1973) kits from Serge Techerepnin

Roland System 700

The Modular Deser (1985-1995)

The Digital Divide - DSPs

Eurorack Analog Modular System (1995)