Timeline of Synthesis, Part 3

In the early ‘80s, the biggest challenge to synthesizer makers was how to increase capabilities, retain a robust sound, and still make a synth affordable. Enter the CZ-101, a fully programmable polyphonic synth, which weighs seven pounds and cost under $500. Its biggest asset was its use of phase-distortion synthesis, developed by Masanori Ishibashi in 1982, giving it a professional sound and a user interface that resembles traditional analog. By using digital synthesis without filters, Casio was able to make these instruments more affordable to musicians. They ended up selling almost 70,000 CZ-101s.

The first synthesizer from Kurzweil Music Systems, founded by Ray Kurzweil, actually included consultation from Bob Moog, ARP’s Alan R. Pearlman, and musicians Lyle Mays and Stevie Wonder. The K250 became the first keyboard to play sampled sounds from memory chips, giving players sounds that closely resembled the real thing. This cutting-edge technology demanded a $10,000 price tag. This 88-note keyboard not only features 12-note polyphony and the ability to layer up to six voices at a time, but you can also assign a different instrument to each key. After six years of production, almost 4,000 units had been sold.

Designed by most of the team who created the Commodore 64, the ESQ-1 was the world’s first affordable multitimbral music workstation. It’s an eight-note polyphonic, eight-part multitimbral synth with a custom wavetable chip designed by Bob Yannes. It also has a built-in eight-track sequencer and stores 40 rewritable patches internally with a cartridge port to load as many as 80 more. Its original retail price of $1,395 allowed amateur musicians to get the most for their money.

Sequential engineer Chris Meyer was trying to come up with a new approach to oscillator modulation. In doing so, he created vector synthesis, wherein the user operates a joystick and mixes four oscillators simultaneously with balanced output levels. You can split this 61-key synth in two or layer two different sounds that crossfade between eight waveshapes. These atmospheric soundscapes are perfect for ambient musicians, which is why Brian Eno and Vangelis used one. Unfortunately, Sequential shut down within one year of its release.

The D-50 was Roland’s foray into digital synthesis, and its 1987 debut created serious competition for the Yamaha DX7. By introducing linear arithmetic (LA) synthesis, Roland created an affordable synth that combined sample playback and digital synthesis as well as onboard effects such as reverb, delay, and chorus. This 16-note polyphonic, multitimbral instrument was designed by Tadao Kikumoto (R&D leader), Toshio Yamambata (development team leader), and Kazz Takahashi (development engineer). Sound design was led by Adrian Scott and by Eric Persing, who eventually founded Spectrasonics in 1994. You’ve most likely heard this synth in late ‘80s hits by George Michael, Michael Jackson, and Paula Abdul.

You are now looking at the bestselling synth of all time. Throughout its nearly seven years of production, Korg sold almost a quarter-million M1s. It was hugely successful because it’s so simple for users to access sounds, edit them, and create a full music arrangement on one instrument. It was heavily used by musicians and studio producers who made house and techno music in the ‘90s, songs like “Vogue,” “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless),” and “Show Me Love.” In fact, if you were dancing in a club back then, chances are that you were moving to the M1’s piano and organ sounds for most of the night.

Dave Smith was never going to let the failure of Sequential keep him from creating new products. After working with Yamaha for a few years, Korg hired his expertise, and this synth was the fruit of the hire. Combining vector synthesis with wave sequencing, which arranges short samples in linear succession, the Wavestation produces continuously evolving sounds that resemble a traditional synth more than a piano. You can hear this 32-note polyphonic, 16-part multitimbral instrument most prominently during the score of the TV show The X-Files. The startup sound for every Mac Quadra 700 and 800 was created with one as well. It received Keyboard Magazine’s Hardware Innovation of the Year Award the year it was released.

This was the first synth to incorporate a user-definable sound engine, allowing the player to select different signal paths to create and shape a sound. Because of its 24-note polyphony and 16-part multitimbral operation, it’s an excellent source for multitrack sequencing. The K2000’s simple user interface and a stereo sample option with extensive editing capabilities allows for a never-ending array of sound possibilities.

Yamaha unleashed the first synthesizer to employ physical modeling or virtual acoustics as its synthesis basis. Rather than just playing back sound samples of a bow hitting a violin string or breath across the reed of a saxophone, the waveform is generated by a mathematical model through a set of equations and algorithms. As awesome as this synth is, it takes a skilled player and technician to master it and bring out its full potential. With that requisite and its hefty price tag, it never caught on as the company hoped it would.

Kawai didn’t have much luck with synthesizers until they created the K5000. It relies on additive synthesis, which allows the user to stack simple waveforms, building up rich, complex timbres. This user-friendly synth was released in three forms: the K5000W, designed to be used as a workstation; the K5000S, designed for live performance; and the K5000R, a rackmount version, controlled via a separate MIDI controller.

University of Illinois professor Lippold Haken invented one of the first multidimensional polyphonic controllers. It has a flat, spongy surface made of neoprene and hundreds of magnetic sensors beneath the surface, which track the user’s finger positions. Finger pressure determines the dynamics, pitch, and vibrato. The Continuum’s internal DSP-based sound engine makes it a complete digital modular synthesizer. It has been used extensively by Jordan Rudess on various Dream Theater albums and by Indian composer A.R. Rahman.