| A music synthesizer makes sounds by using an | | | | non-synthetic instruments, but also to create sounds |
| electrical circuit as an oscillator to create and vary the | | | | that absolutely cannot be played by anything but a |
| frequency of sounds in order to produce different | | | | music synthesizer. That is because a music |
| pitches. As long as the pitch is within the range of | | | | synthesizer is well-suited to delicate manipulations of its |
| frequency that can be heard by a human ear, it's | | | | oscillators. Nevertheless, it's a lot easier for a |
| known as a "musical pitch" (so a dog whistle wouldn't | | | | synthesizer to create entirely new sounds than to |
| count) as a musical pitch. You can use a keyboard to | | | | mimic the sounds of acoustic instruments because the |
| vary these pitches at discrete intervals that | | | | waveforms of acoustic instruments are so complex. |
| correspond to the notes on the musical scale. If you | | | | Interestingly, once complex sound that synthesizers so |
| put several oscillators together, you can combine | | | | far have been very bad at reproducing is the human |
| several pitches to create a "chord". | | | | voice (although improvements are being made in this |
| OK, we've got pitch down (at least in a very simple | | | | technology). |
| sense). How do you vary the tone of a particular | | | | The entire electronic music scene would be virtually |
| pitch? That is done by playing a given pitch with | | | | impossible without the use of synthesizers (no doubt |
| waveforms of different shapes (common waveforms | | | | some wish it were). Nevertheless, the number of |
| include sine, square, sawtooth, and triangle | | | | sounds that a musician has to work with has been |
| waveforms). Since the harmonic structure of these | | | | exponentially increasing in recent decades, and we |
| waveforms differ, our ears interpret them as different | | | | have only scratched the surface of the creative |
| tones. The sound you will hear can also be modified by | | | | possibilities. Imagine the consequences if a machine |
| voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCA) and | | | | was invented that could generate 100,000 hitherto |
| voltage-controlled filters (VCF). | | | | unknown colors? |
| Synthesizers are able to only mimic the sounds of | | | | |