Anelectronic musical instrument orelectrophone is amusical instrument that produces sound usingelectronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digitalaudio signal that ultimately is plugged into apower amplifier which drives aloudspeaker, creating the sound heard by the performer and listener.
An electronic instrument might include auser interface for controlling its sound, often by adjusting thepitch,frequency, or duration of eachnote. A common user interface is themusical keyboard, which functions similarly to the keyboard on an acousticpiano where the keys are each linked mechanically to swinging string hammers - whereas with an electronic keyboard, the keyboard interface is linked to asynth module,computer or other electronic or digital sound generator, which then creates a sound. However, it is increasingly common to separate user interface and sound-generating functions into amusic controller (input device) and amusic synthesizer, respectively, with the two devices communicating through a musical performance description language such asMIDI orOpen Sound Control. The solid state nature of electronic keyboards also offers differing "feel" and "response", offering a novel experience in playing relative to operating a mechanically linked piano keyboard.
All electronic musical instruments can be viewed as a subset ofaudio signal processing applications. Simple electronic musical instruments are sometimes calledsound effects; the border between sound effects and actual musical instruments is often unclear.
In the 21st century, electronic musical instruments are now widely used in most styles of music. In popular music styles such aselectronic dance music, almost all of the instrument sounds used in recordings are electronic instruments (e.g.,bass synth,synthesizer,drum machine). Development of new electronic musical instruments, controllers, and synthesizers continues to be a highly active and interdisciplinary field of research. Specialized conferences, such as the International Conference onNew Interfaces for Musical Expression, have organized to report cutting-edge work, as well as to provide a showcase for artists who perform or create music with new electronic music instruments, controllers, and synthesizers.
In musicology, electronic musical instruments are known as electrophones. Electrophones are the fifth category of musical instrument under theHornbostel-Sachs system. Musicologists typically only classify music as electrophones if the sound is initially produced by electricity, excluding electronically controlled acoustic instruments such aspipe organs andamplified instruments such aselectric guitars.
The category was added to theHornbostel-Sachs musical instrument classification system bySachs in 1940, in his 1940 bookThe History of Musical Instruments;[1] the original 1914 version of the system did not include it. Sachs divided electrophones into three subcategories:
The last category included instruments such astheremins orsynthesizers, which he calledradioelectric instruments.
Francis William Galpin provided such a group in his own classification system, which is closer toMahillon than Sachs-Hornbostel. For example, in Galpin's 1937 bookA Textbook of European Musical Instruments, he lists electrophones with three second-level divisions for sound generation ("by oscillation", "electro-magnetic", and "electro-static"), as well as third-level and fourth-level categories based on the control method.[2]
Present-dayethnomusicologists, such asMargaret Kartomi[3] and Terry Ellingson,[4] suggest that, in keeping with the spirit of the original Hornbostel Sachs classification scheme, if one categorizes instruments by what first produces the initial sound in the instrument, that only subcategory 53 should remain in the electrophones category. Thus, it has been more recently proposed, for example, that the pipe organ (even if it uses electrickey action to controlsolenoid valves) remain in theaerophones category, and that theelectric guitar remain in thechordophones category, and so on.
In the 18th-century, musicians and composers adapted a number of acoustic instruments to exploit the novelty of electricity. Thus, in the broadest sense, the first electrified musical instrument was theDenis d'or keyboard, dating from 1753, followed shortly by theclavecin électrique by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste de Laborde in 1761. The Denis d'or consisted of a keyboard instrument of over 700 strings, electrified temporarily to enhance sonic qualities. The clavecin électrique was a keyboard instrument withplectra (picks) activated electrically. However, neither instrument used electricity as a sound source.
The first electric synthesizer was invented in 1876 byElisha Gray.[5][6] The "Musical Telegraph" was a chance by-product of his telephone technology when Gray discovered that he could control sound from a self-vibrating electromagnetic circuit and so invented a basicoscillator. The Musical Telegraph used steel reeds oscillated by electromagnets and transmitted over a telephone line. Gray also built a simple loudspeaker device into later models, which consisted of a diaphragm vibrating in a magnetic field.
A significant invention, which later had a profound effect on electronic music, was theaudion in 1906. This was the first thermionic valve, orvacuum tube and which led to the generation and amplification of electrical signals, radio broadcasting, and electronic computation, among other things. Other early synthesizers included theTelharmonium (1897), theTheremin (1919), Jörg Mager'sSpharophon (1924) and Partiturophone, Taubmann's similarElectronde (1933),Maurice Martenot'sondes Martenot ("Martenot waves", 1928), Trautwein'sTrautonium (1930). The Mellertion (1933) used a non-standard scale, Bertrand's Dynaphone could produce octaves and perfect fifths, while the Emicon was an American, keyboard-controlled instrument constructed in 1930 and the German Hellertion combined four instruments to produce chords. Three Russian instruments also appeared, Oubouhof'sCroix Sonore (1934),Ivor Darreg'smicrotonal 'Electronic Keyboard Oboe' (1937) and theANS synthesizer, constructed by the Russian scientistEvgeny Murzin from 1937 to 1958. Only two models of this latter were built and the only surviving example is currently stored at the Lomonosov University inMoscow. It has been used in many Russian movies—likeSolaris—to produce unusual, "cosmic" sounds.[7][8]
Hugh Le Caine, John Hanert,Raymond Scott, composerPercy Grainger (with Burnett Cross), and others built a variety of automated electronic-music controllers during the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1959Daphne Oram produced a novel method of synthesis, her "Oramics" technique, driven by drawings on a 35 mm film strip; it was used for a number of years at theBBC Radiophonic Workshop.[9] This workshop was also responsible for the theme to the TV seriesDoctor Who a piece, largely created byDelia Derbyshire, that more than any other ensured the popularity of electronic music in the UK.
In 1897Thaddeus Cahill patented an instrument called the Telharmonium (or Teleharmonium, also known as the Dynamaphone). Usingtonewheels to generate musical sounds as electrical signals byadditive synthesis, it was capable of producing any combination of notes and overtones, at any dynamic level. This technology was later used to design theHammond organ. Between 1901 and 1910 Cahill had three progressively larger and more complex versions made, the first weighing seven tons, the last in excess of 200 tons. Portability was managed only by rail and with the use of thirty boxcars. By 1912, public interest had waned, and Cahill's enterprise was bankrupt.[10]
Another development, which aroused the interest of many composers, occurred in 1919–1920. In Leningrad,Leon Theremin built and demonstrated his Etherophone, which was later renamed theTheremin. This led to the first compositions for electronic instruments, as opposed to noisemakers and re-purposed machines. The Theremin was notable for being the first musical instrument played without touching it.[11] In 1929,Joseph Schillinger composedFirst Airphonic Suite for Theremin and Orchestra, premièred with theCleveland Orchestra withLeon Theremin as soloist. The next yearHenry Cowell commissioned Theremin to create the first electronic rhythm machine, called theRhythmicon. Cowell wrote some compositions for it, which he and Schillinger premiered in 1932.
The ondes Martenot is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to atheremin.[12] It was invented in 1928 by the French cellistMaurice Martenot, who was inspired by the accidental overlaps of tones between military radio oscillators, and wanted to create an instrument with the expressiveness of thecello.[12][13]
The French composerOlivier Messiaen used the ondes Martenot in pieces such as his 1949 symphonyTurangalîla-Symphonie, and his sister-in-lawJeanne Loriod was a celebrated player.[14] It appears in numerous film and television soundtracks, particularlyscience fiction andhorror films.[15] Contemporary users of the ondes Martenot includeTom Waits,Daft Punk and theRadiohead guitaristJonny Greenwood.[16]
The Trautonium was invented in 1928. It was based on thesubharmonic scale, and the resulting sounds were often used to emulate bell or gong sounds, as in the 1950s Bayreuth productions ofParsifal. In 1942, Richard Strauss used it for the bell- and gong-part in the Dresden première of hisJapanese Festival Music. This new class of instruments, microtonal by nature, was only adopted slowly by composers at first, but by the early 1930s there was a burst of new works incorporating these and other electronic instruments.
In 1929Laurens Hammond established his company for the manufacture of electronic instruments. He went on to produce theHammond organ, which was based on the principles of theTelharmonium, along with other developments, including early reverberation units.[17] The Hammond organ is an electromechanical instrument, as it used both mechanical elements and electronic parts. A Hammond organ used spinning metal tonewheels to produce different sounds. Amagnetic pickup similar in design to the pickups in anelectric guitar is used to transmit the pitches in the tonewheels to an amplifier and speaker enclosure. While the Hammond organ was designed to be a lower-cost alternative to apipe organ for church music, musicians soon discovered that the Hammond was an excellent instrument forblues andjazz; indeed, an entire genre of music developed built around this instrument, known as theorgan trio (typically Hammond organ, drums, and a third instrument, either saxophone or guitar).
The first commercially manufactured synthesizer was theNovachord, built by theHammond Organ Company from 1938 to 1942, which offered 72-notepolyphony using 12 oscillators drivingmonostable-based divide-down circuits, basicenvelope control and resonantlow-pass filters. The instrument featured 163 vacuum tubes and weighed 500 pounds. The instrument's use of envelope control is significant, since this is perhaps the most significant distinction between the modern synthesizer and other electronic instruments.
The most commonly used electronic instruments aresynthesizers, so-called because they artificially generate sound using a variety of techniques. All early circuit-based synthesis involved the use of analogue circuitry, particularly voltage-controlled amplifiers, oscillators and filters. An important technological development was the invention of theClavivoxsynthesizer in 1956 byRaymond Scott with subassembly byRobert Moog. Frenchcomposer and engineerEdgard Varèse created a variety of compositions usingelectronic horns, whistles, and tape. Most notably, he wrotePoème électronique for the Philips pavilion at theBrussels World Fair in 1958.
RCA produced experimental devices to synthesize voice and music in the 1950s. TheMark II Music Synthesizer, housed at theColumbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center inNew York City. Designed by Herbert Belar and Harry Olson at RCA, with contributions fromVladimir Ussachevsky andPeter Mauzey, it was installed at Columbia University in 1957. Consisting of a room-sized array of interconnected sound synthesis components, it was only capable of producing music by programming,[6] using apaper tapesequencer punched with holes to control pitch sources and filters, similar to a mechanicalplayer piano but capable of generating a wide variety of sounds. Thevacuum tube system had to be patched to create timbres.
In the 1960s, synthesizers were still usually confined to studios due to their size. They were usually modular in design, their stand-alone signal sources and processors connected with patch cords or by other means and controlled by a common controlling device.Harald Bode,Don Buchla,Hugh Le Caine,Raymond Scott andPaul Ketoff were among the first to build such instruments in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Buchla later produced a commercial modular synthesizer, theBuchla Music Easel.[18]Robert Moog, who had been a student ofPeter Mauzey and one of the RCA Mark II engineers, created a synthesizer that could reasonably be used by musicians, designing the circuits while he was at Columbia-Princeton. TheMoog synthesizer was first displayed at theAudio Engineering Society convention in 1964.[19] It required experience to set up sounds, but was smaller and more intuitive than what had come before, less like a machine and more like a musical instrument. Moog established standards for control interfacing, using a logarithmic 1-volt-per-octave for pitch control and a separate triggering signal. This standardization allowed synthesizers from different manufacturers to operate simultaneously. Pitch control was usually performed either with an organ-style keyboard or amusic sequencer producing a timed series of control voltages. During the late 1960s, hundreds of popular recordings used Moog synthesizers. Other early commercial synthesizer manufacturers includedARP, who also started with modular synthesizers before producing all-in-one instruments, and British firmEMS.
In 1970, Moog designed theMinimoog, a non-modular synthesizer with a built-in keyboard. The analogue circuits were interconnected with switches in a simplified arrangement called "normalization." Though less flexible than a modular design, normalization made the instrument more portable and easier to use. TheMinimoog sold 12,000 units.[20] Further standardized the design of subsequent synthesizers with its integrated keyboard, pitch and modulation wheels and VCO->VCF->VCA signal flow. It has become celebrated for its "fat" sound—and its tuning problems. Miniaturized solid-state components allowed synthesizers to become self-contained, portable instruments that soon appeared in live performance and quickly became widely used in popular music and electronic art music.[21]
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Many early analog synthesizers were monophonic, producing only one tone at a time. Popular monophonic synthesizers include the MoogMinimoog. A few, such as the Moog Sonic Six,ARP Odyssey and EML 101, could produce two different pitches at a time when two keys were pressed.Polyphony (multiple simultaneous tones, which enableschords) was only obtainable with electronic organ designs at first. Popular electronic keyboards combining organ circuits with synthesizer processing included the ARP Omni and Moog's Polymoog and Opus 3.
By 1976, affordable polyphonic synthesizers began to appear, such as the Yamaha CS-50, CS-60 andCS-80, theSequential Circuits Prophet-5 and theOberheim Four-Voice. These remained complex, heavy and relatively costly. The recording of settings in digital memory allowed storage and recall of sounds. The first practical polyphonic synth, and the first to use a microprocessor as a controller, was theSequential CircuitsProphet-5 introduced in late 1977.[22] For the first time, musicians had a practical polyphonic synthesizer that could save all knob settings in computer memory and recall them at the touch of a button. The Prophet-5's design paradigm became a new standard, slowly pushing out more complex and recondite modular designs.
In 1935, another significant development was made in Germany. Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft (AEG) demonstrated the first commercially producedmagnetic tape recorder, called theMagnetophon.Audio tape, which had the advantage of being fairly light as well as having good audio fidelity, ultimately replaced the bulkier wire recorders.
The term "electronic music" (which first came into use during the 1930s) came to include the tape recorder as an essential element: "electronically produced sounds recorded on tape and arranged by the composer to form a musical composition".[26] It was also indispensable toMusique concrète.
Tape also gave rise to the first, analogue, sample-playback keyboards, theChamberlin and its more famous successor theMellotron, an electro-mechanical, polyphonic keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s.
During the 1940s–1960s,Raymond Scott, an American composer of electronic music, invented various kinds of music sequencers for his electric compositions. Step sequencers played rigid patterns of notes using a grid of (usually) 16 buttons, or steps, each step being 1/16 of ameasure. These patterns of notes were then chained together to form longer compositions. Software sequencers were continuously utilized since the 1950s in the context ofcomputer music, including computer-played music (software sequencer), computer-composed music (music synthesis), and computersound generation (sound synthesis).
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The firstdigital synthesizers were academic experiments in sound synthesis using digital computers.FM synthesis was developed for this purpose, as a way of generating complex sounds digitally with the smallest number of computational operations per sound sample. In 1983,Yamaha introduced the first stand-alone digital synthesizer, theDX-7. It used frequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis), first developed byJohn Chowning atStanford University during the late sixties.[27] Chowning exclusively licensed his FM synthesis patent to Yamaha in 1975.[28] Yamaha subsequently released their first FM synthesizers, theGS-1 andGS-2, which were costly and heavy. There followed a pair of smaller, preset versions, the CE20 and CE25 Combo Ensembles, targeted primarily at the home organ market and featuring four-octave keyboards.[29] Yamaha's third generation of digital synthesizers was a commercial success; it consisted of theDX7 andDX9 (1983). Both models were compact, reasonably priced, and dependent on custom digital integrated circuits to produce FM tonalities. The DX7 was the first mass-market all-digital synthesizer.[30] It became indispensable to many music artists of the 1980s, and demand soon exceeded supply.[31] The DX7 sold over 200,000 units within three years.[32]
The DX series was not easy to program but offered a detailed, percussive sound that led to the demise of the electro-mechanicalRhodes piano, which was heavier and larger than a DX synth. Following the success of FM synthesis, Yamaha signed a contract with Stanford University in 1989 to developdigital waveguide synthesis, leading to the first commercialphysical modeling synthesizer, Yamaha's VL-1, in 1994.[33] The DX-7 was affordable enough for amateurs and young bands to buy, unlike the costly synthesizers of previous generations, which were mainly used by top professionals.
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TheFairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument), the first polyphonic digitalsampler, was the harbinger of sample-based synthesizers.[34] Designed in 1978 byPeter Vogel andKim Ryrie and based on a dualmicroprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia, the Fairlight CMI gave musicians the ability to modify volume, attack, decay, and use special effects like vibrato. Samplewaveforms could be displayed on-screen and modified using alight pen.[35] TheSynclavier fromNew England Digital was a similar system.[36]Jon Appleton (with Jones and Alonso) invented the Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer, later to become the New England Digital Corp's Synclavier. TheKurzweil K250, first produced in 1983, was also a successful polyphonic digital music synthesizer,[37] noted for its ability to reproduce several instruments synchronously and having a velocity-sensitive keyboard.[38]
An important new development was the advent of computers for the purpose of composing music, as opposed to manipulating or creating sounds.Iannis Xenakis began what is calledmusique stochastique, orstochastic music, which is a method of composing that employs mathematical probability systems. Different probability algorithms were used to create a piece under a set of parameters. Xenakis used graph paper and a ruler to aid in calculating the velocity trajectories ofglissando for his orchestral compositionMetastasis (1953–54), but later turned to the use of computers to compose pieces likeST/4 for string quartet andST/48 for orchestra (both 1962).
The impact of computers continued in 1956.Lejaren Hiller andLeonard Issacson composedIlliac Suite forstring quartet, the first complete work of computer-assisted composition usingalgorithmic composition.[39]
In 1957,Max Mathews atBell Lab wroteMUSIC-N series, a first computer program family for generating digital audio waveforms through direct synthesis. ThenBarry Vercoe wroteMUSIC 11 based onMUSIC IV-BF, a next-generation music synthesis program (later evolving intocsound, which is still widely used).
In mid 80s,Miller Puckette atIRCAM developed graphic signal-processing software for4X calledMax (after Max Mathews), and later ported it toMacintosh (withDave Zicarelli extending it forOpcode[40]) for real-timeMIDI control, bringing algorithmic composition availability to most composers with modest computer programming background.
In 1980, a group of musicians and music merchants met to standardize an interface by which new instruments could communicate control instructions with other instruments and the prevalent microcomputer. This standard was dubbed MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). A paper was authored byDave Smith ofSequential Circuits and proposed to theAudio Engineering Society in 1981. Then, in August 1983, the MIDI Specification 1.0 was finalized.
The advent of MIDI technology allows a single keystroke, control wheel motion, pedal movement, or command from a microcomputer to activate every device in the studio remotely and in synchrony, with each device responding according to conditions predetermined by the composer.
MIDI instruments and software made powerful control of sophisticated instruments easily affordable by many studios and individuals. Acoustic sounds became reintegrated into studios viasampling and sampled-ROM-based instruments.
The increasing power and decreasing cost of sound-generating electronics (and especially of the personal computer), combined with the standardization of theMIDI andOpen Sound Control musical performance description languages, has facilitated the separation of musical instruments into music controllers and music synthesizers.
By far the most common musical controller is themusical keyboard. Other controllers include theradiodrum, Akai'sEWI and Yamaha'sWX wind controllers, the guitar-likeSynthAxe, the BodySynth,[41] theBuchla Thunder, theContinuum Fingerboard, theRoland Octapad, variousisomorphic keyboards including the Thummer, andKaossilator Pro, and kits likeI-CubeX.
The Reactable is a round translucent table with abacklit interactive display. By placing and manipulating blocks calledtangibles on the table surface, while interacting with the visual display via finger gestures, avirtualmodular synthesizer is operated, creating music or sound effects.
AudioCubes are autonomous wireless cubes powered by an internal computer system and rechargeable battery. They have internal RGB lighting, and are capable of detecting each other's location, orientation and distance. The cubes can also detect distances to the user's hands and fingers. Through interaction with the cubes, a variety of music and sound software can be operated. AudioCubes have applications in sound design, music production, DJing and live performance.
The Kaossilator and Kaossilator Pro are compact instruments where the position of a finger on the touch pad controls two note characteristics; usually the pitch is changed with a left-right motion and the tonal property, filter or other parameter changes with an up-down motion. The touch pad can be set to different musical scales and keys. The instrument can record a repeating loop of adjustable length, set to any tempo, and new loops of sound can be layered on top of existing ones. This lends itself to electronic dance music but is more limited for controlled sequences of notes, as the pad on a regular Kaossilator is featureless.
The Eigenharp is a large instrument resembling abassoon, which can be interacted with through big buttons, a drum sequencer and a mouthpiece. The sound processing is done on a separate computer.
The AlphaSphere is a spherical instrument that consists of 48 tactile pads that respond to pressure as well as touch. Custom software allows the pads to be indefinitely programmed individually or by groups in terms of function, note, and pressure parameter among many other settings. The primary concept of the AlphaSphere is to increase the level of expression available to electronic musicians by allowing for the playing style of a musical instrument.
Chiptune, chipmusic, or chip music is music written in sound formats where many of the sound textures are synthesized or sequenced in real time by acomputer orvideo game consolesound chip, sometimes including sample-based synthesis and low-bit sample playback. Many chip music devices featured synthesizers in tandem with low-rate sample playback.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s,do-it-yourself designs were published in hobby electronics magazines (such the Formant modular synth, a DIY clone of the Moog system, published byElektor) and kits were supplied by companies such as Paia in the US, and Maplin Electronics in the UK.
In 1966,Reed Ghazala discovered and began to teach math "circuit bending"—the application of the creative short circuit, a process of chance short-circuiting, creating experimental electronic instruments, exploring sonic elements mainly of timbre and with less regard to pitch or rhythm, and influenced byJohn Cage’saleatoric music concept.[42]
Much of this manipulation of circuits directly, especially to the point of destruction, was pioneered byLouis and Bebe Barron in the early 1950s, such as their work withJohn Cage on theWilliams Mix and especially in the soundtrack toForbidden Planet.
Moderncircuit bending is the creative customization of the circuits within electronic devices such as lowvoltage, battery-poweredguitar effects, children'stoys and small digitalsynthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators. Emphasizing spontaneity and randomness, the techniques of circuit bending have been commonly associated withnoise music, though many more conventional contemporary musicians and musical groups have been known to experiment withbent instruments. Circuit bending usually involves dismantling the machine and adding components such as switches andpotentiometers that alter the circuit. With the revived interest in analogue synthesizers, circuit bending became a cheap solution for many experimental musicians to create their own individual analogue sound generators. Nowadays, many schematics can be found to build noise generators such as theAtari Punk Console or theDub Siren as well as simple modifications for children's toys such as theSpeak & Spell that are often modified by circuit benders.
The modular synthesizer is a type of synthesizer consisting of separate interchangeable modules. These are also available as kits for hobbyist DIY constructors. Many hobbyist designers also make available bare PCB boards and front panels for sale to other hobbyists.
Technologies
In Indian and Asian traditional music
In 1969, a portable version of the studio Moog, called the Minimoog, became the most widely used synthesizer in both popular music and electronic art music
Mellotron M4000's control panel identical to the M400's, aside from the addition of four buttons and an LED display to operate the cycling mechanism.
The front panel user interface has 2 TFT-displays of high quality and are capable of showing pictures of the actual instruments.
This element of embracing errors is at the centre of Circuit Bending, it is about creating sounds that are not supposed to happen and not supposed to be heard (Gard, 2004). In terms of musicality, as with electronic art music, it is primarily concerned with timbre and takes little regard of pitch and rhythm in a classical sense. ... . In a similar vein to Cage's aleatoric music, the art of Bending is dependent on chance, when a person prepares to bend they have no idea of the final outcome.
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