What is a synthesizer?
A) Definition
From Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College Edition:
Synthesizer - A person or thing that synthesizes; specifically, an electronic device containing filters, oscillators, and voltage-control amplifiers, used to produce sounds unobtainable from ordinary musical instruments.
Why the word synthesizer? Well, it is evolved from the word synthesis. Synthesis means to put together parts or elements so as to form the whole, according to Webster's Dictionary. That is the general concept behind a synthesizer: To put together parts and elements of a sound, from sound generating devices to sound processing devices, and form a whole sound.
B) A Brief History of Synths
Although the synthesizer concept is a relatively new one, electronic instruments have been with us for a long time. The world's first electronic instrument was invented by Leon Theremin in 1920. The aetherphone, as he first called it, later became known as the theremin. It is one of the few electronic instrument that does not require contact to play - you simply wave your hands in the air around two antennas to raise and lower the volume and pitch. It has been used in countless places (the soundtrack to "Forbidden Planet", the song "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys), and is still used today.
Most of the rest of the electronic instruments produced in the 20s, 30s, and 40s were of the electric organ variety, although there were some notable exceptions (such as the Trautonium and the Ondes Martenot, both invented in the late 1920s, and the RCA Mark I and II synthesizers, created around the 1950s). Particularly of note is the Hammond electronic organ. The first Hammond electronic organ was introduced in 1935; the Hammond name has since become legendary.
It was around the 1950s that electronic instruments became treated more seriously. This is because in the academic music world, the musique concrete style established itself. Musique concrete revolved heavily around taking sounds out of the real world, mixing them, and processing them to form a composition. This style heavily revolved around the newly invented way of recording media: Magnetic tape. Sounds could be recorded, have their pitch raised or lowered, processed through a variety of methods, spliced, looped, and a piece could be formed. The elements found in musique concrete still exist today, in the form of digital samplers (which can do what tapes do, only with a greater precision and accuracy). Many tape studios started looking beyond the real world for sounds, and began collecting a wide variety of electronic devices: Oscillators, amplifiers, and other signal processing devices. It was only natural for synthesizers to come along and make a headway. Several small companies (among them, Buchla and Moog) opened up in the middle 60s to make modulars for this small market.
Synthesizers had existed prior to the late 60s, in various forms (the RCA Mark I and II synthesizers are good examples of this). But until this period, synthesizers were very expensive, and restricted only to more obscure, academic compositions. Electronic synthesizer builders were mostly hobbyists searching for new ways to create sound. In the late 60s, however, popular musicians themselves were searching for new sounds. The Beatles, for instance, experimented with tape loop ideas in several songs, and used a Mellotron (an early "sampler" that used tape loops to create its sound) on others. Film composers were looking for ways to create unique sounds as well. From this, commercial synthesizers (such as the VCS-3 "Putney" and the Moog Minimoog) were born, and the music world would never be the same.
Today, synthesizers are used in almost all forms of music. From providing the backbone of today's most popular music, to providing the strange sounds for the most experimental music, synthesizers are at the forefront of today's music technology. The synthesizer has undergone some radical changes, and now can be found using a wide variety of techniques and methods for creating its sound. But the basic concept remains the same: To start with an electronically generated signal, process the signal through electronic methods, and emerge with a unique sound that often cannot be duplicated by any other instrument.