LIST with the MOST outstanding electronic musical instruments

For thousands of years, human beings have been in charge of inventing new ways of producing sound, from the most basic such as percussion to the construction of musical instruments with infinities of great mechanisms to transform that sound into art. That's when we can call it music.

While for a long time the production of sound was based on physical and mechanical means, electricity and the digital have come to revolutionize to introduce new elements to play with and expand the possibilities of creation. In this lesson from a TEACHER we will have an approach to the electronic musical instruments and digital sound technology.

Before learning about electronic musical instruments it is important to understand what a synthesizer is. Sound is a phenomenon produced by a physical action that produces vibrations that our ears, designed to perceive them, can interpret. Now, thanks to technologies and human curiosity, a new way of creating sound was devised: taking another physical phenomenon as electricity and turn it into sound.

A synthesizer is a machine which can receive an electrical signal and transform it through “modules” to convert it to audible sounds. These modules vary and have different functions depending on the effect they have on electricity. That is, different modules allow create different types of sound. Among these modules we can mention the VCO (voltage controlled oscillator), the LFO (low frequency oscillator), the EG (envelope generator) and the sequencer, among many others. In general they get their names derived from English.

Depending on the arrangement and order of these modules, the varieties of sounds that can be created are limited only by creativity.

Within the most popular electronic musical instruments we can mention the following:

• The keyboard (also called an electric organ)
• Electric guitar
• Electric bass
• Electric battery
• Turntable (used by DJs)
• Beatbox
• Computer, if we take it as an instrument because it has the ability to create digital music

Although not so popular, many other instruments have been adapted to function as an electric instrument, such as the electric saxophone and electric trumpet.

Once again we can realize that human invention is fascinating. We have a whole world of sounds to explore, now having the world of electronics at our disposal.

The first important step in creating the synthesizer dates back to late 9th century, when the engineer Elisha gray invent the first “oscillator”. An oscillator is a device capable of receiving a direct electrical current and transforming it into alternating current with a certain frequency. Yes, we are talking about complex sound engineering terms and in order to understand it we must understand a little about the physics of sound. Let's talk a bit about it.

Sound is what we call it physical effect of vibrations, which then our ears interpret. These vibrations have a frequency determined. Frequency is the number of oscillations that repeat in a given amount of time. More oscillations in a short time equals a high frequency. Otherwise, few oscillations cause a low frequency.

From this concept we can already better understand what an oscillator is, since take an electric current that graphically we can interpret it as a straight line and transform it into a line with curves, more or less as if we took a rope and began to move it to create waves with it.

Now we continue with the story. Starting with the oscillator, many people continued experimenting and inventing components to be able to control and create more variety of sounds from electricity. Until now, the abilities to make music were very limited. The major turning point was in the 1930s and 1940s, with the invention of the polyphonic synthesizers. It is then when synthesizers already take the form of a conventional instrument such as the keyboard, allowing us to use them as a musical instrument. Among the first polyphonic synthesizers we can mention the “Warbo” organ developed in Germany and the “Novachord” from the American brand Hammond.

Other important find of this time was the amplifier and with it, the invention of one of the most popular electric instruments in history: the electric guitar, made by Leo Fender.

Synth boom

Synthesizers took their boom in popularity from the sixties, when he began to enter popular music. Much of this is due to the development of Moog, a modular portable synthesizer and sound processor that allowed voltage control. Popular bands like Rolling Stones and The Doors they began to use it in their recordings and concerts.

Another turning point in the history of the synthesizer takes place in the late 1970s with adaptations to synthesizers, making them smaller and more portable and allowing the assignment of the notes. This is when synthesizers are marketed globally and when “samplers” In short, it is the taking of a sound sample to be able to reproduce it when pressing a key.

Today, the technology of synthesizers and samplers is so advanced that it allows us to compose and produce complete orchestras from our computer, with an impressive approach to the real sound of these instruments or create impressive sound effects that is now belong to a whole musical genre in electronics.