TIMELINE

In this Timeline I will give you brief information on different synthesisers that were being used between now and 50 years back.



1960

In the 1960s Moog co. where making analog synthesis which were huge consoles where you had to manually connect the different signal pathways to get the sounds you want , unlike now where it's more user friendly.
How ever in those years it want really convenient to perform with these synthesisers (in the late 1960s more synthesisers got smaller and smaller ) they weren't really built for the road and patching up a synthesiser midway through a performance was a bit daunting.


Early analog synthesiser (moog synthesiser)

First Commerical Moog syntheisor



VCS 3 made in 1969 by David Cockerell, was nicknamed (the putney) after the London suburb where he was living at the time. Rather than use patch leads to route the synth you used a pin matrix system which turned on or routed the effect you wanted by putting a pin through the corresponding hole.

1970

In 1970 Moog released the mini Moog which was as its name said a mini versions of the Moog synthesisers, however even thou it was smaller and had less parts than its predecessor it could generate really heavy and great lead and bass sounds which made it an instrument in its own right.

Moog really did set the standard for synthesis because at the time synthesisers werent built for live performances and had unnecessary components that weren't right for the genre,Moog started manufacturing smaller and more practical synthesisers which could be used in live shows and taken on the road just like an instrument.

Mini - Moog synthesiser (1st mono synth with keyboard)

1971 ARP 2600 semi modular synthesiser

In 1973 the first digital synthesors was made
1975 was also when FM synthesis got licensed by Yamaha.

1980 

In the 1980's drum machines became a lot more popular with the release of the TR-808, it was one of the first and most popular drum machines ever produced.
It gained widespread popularity when Marvin Gaye released 'Sexual Healing'
1989 software versions for synthesisors were being made rather than a standalone unit they made them more as a compter peripheral.

Roland TR-808

1990 

General MIDI(GM) was introduced in 1991 to serve as a consistent way of describing a set, of over 200 tones this included percussion.

Yamaha VL1 first modelling synth, it didnt use samples to make different sounding instruments, it modelled the sound from start this means that transitions inbetween the notes and velocity on the notes were realistic and sounded how the real instrument would sound.

Yamaha VL1

2000
In the 2000s a man named Leon theremin created a simple synthesier that was controlled by moving your arms within an electro- magnetic field (much like the aproiatly named theremin instrument)

Alesis Air fx





















2010
Now in 2012 synthesiors have become more compact but have retained there great sounds

Basic info

In the second task i will be talking about the Fair-light CMI and why it was so important in music history.

Fair Light developed in 1979

The Fair-light cmi was the first digital sampling synthesiser, it was first meant to be a synthesiser which you could draw in the harmonics of each wave however it quickly became clear that it was very hard to get any type of good sounds using this technique; which is when they accidentally thought to record a natural sound(found sound) and then they tried to edit the waveform of that sound via the monitor and touch pen from this they found out that it worked better with samples and from this they made the Fair-Light CMI more into a sampler rather than a synthesisor.

When the Fair-light came out it changed how songs were produced because you weren't just limited to instruments you could use virtually anything and with the help of the Fair-light you could make them in key with a piano which meant you could use them in your compositions. The user interface as well set it apart from synthesisers at the time because there were no knobs there was just a monitor and a pen which you used to point at the different setting you wanted(much like a touch pad); this made it very easy to move around the different menus.


The first fairlight sampler had 24khz sampling which was really not great and not up to standards with quality at the time, the updated one however in 1982 fixed the sound quality issues and later midi was introduced and finally in 1985 full 16 bit 44.1 khz was updated with series 3

Heres a  quick video on how a Fairlight CMI can be used to create unique melodies with "Found sounds".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ-lrVMxhMY&feature=relmfu

The fairlight ran its own operating system called QDOS



The Fair Light CMI could recreate whole orchestras, but to do that you had to record the said instrument playing middle c,  when Emerson didn't like the way an orchestra played part of the music for the movie, he reproduced the entire orchestra himself by sampling each instrument and playing in the notes back in with a midi keyboard.


The fair-light cmi used 8'' floppy drives and broke easily, it was very expensive to fix as well as parts were increasingly rare, ( a brand new fairlight cmi when it first came out was £30,000)


The fairlight cmi pioneered the use of sampling and sequencing because as well as being a sampler the Fair-Light also had a sequencer inside it which made it very easy to create songs within the program itself, which made it one of the first portable workstations ever; from this stemmed out all all DAW systems, such as pro tools cubase etc...

Sound Tools came out in 1989 and was a DAW system which was regarded as the first tapeless recording studio this was influenced by the Fair-Light CMI