| In any industry there is always specific things that | | | | sound synthesizer. It wasn't all that cheap but the |
| stand out. This is no different in the synthesizer | | | | booming bass, screeching melodies combined with the |
| industry. Here are a few synthesizers that have really | | | | SFX keyboard players hands made it a most popular |
| left their mark. | | | | possession. It had a unique foldable lid to a beautiful |
| ARP Odyssey dates back to 1972. It has to be | | | | wood case. The problem with it was the fact it didn't |
| remembered for their alleged stealing of the original | | | | have a dedicated LFO plus it wouldn't stay in tune and |
| 4-pole Moog filter design. Needless to say, it became | | | | it didn't have a patch storage. |
| Moogs rival. It didn't take long for the ARP engineers to | | | | The Roland Jupiter during the time period of 1981 is well |
| design their own 2 pole filter. Once this was combined | | | | remembered. It had a digital patch storage, splitting and |
| with the duophonic then players had the advantage of | | | | layering across the keyboard and as if that wasn't |
| an alternative synth. Once more during the entire | | | | enough, it also had an arpeggiator. The sound had to |
| concert, it would remain in tune. | | | | be the most favored feature as Roland made it |
| One might remember the success of Dave Smith and | | | | extremely pleasant, thanks to the analog signal path. |
| associates from Sequential Circuits with the Prophet 5. | | | | Programming was a breeze with the knob laden |
| This was around 1978. These were originally made in | | | | interface. It had a hefty price tag when it came to the |
| their garage and were called the Prophet 10. There | | | | oscillators and filters. |
| was an overheating problem that soon led them to no | | | | Finally, the Yamaha DX-7 must be mentioned. It was |
| other alternative but to reduce the voices to half. It | | | | the first time that polyphone, an excellent keyboard |
| was excellent in the way it could be programmed, plus | | | | and a very inexpensive price all came together. What |
| the microprocessor controlled keyboard allowed for | | | | was achievable with their DX-7's frequency modulation |
| patch storage. To top this all off was the décor | | | | synthesis was spectacular. Not something any famous |
| of the beautiful Koa wood. Eventually it went through | | | | music star wanted to pass up. Programming it was |
| three major revisions. They were no longer produced | | | | somewhat of a mystery, but the FM synthesis has |
| after 1984. | | | | never caused quite the same stir since that time. It |
| In 1970, the Moog MiniMoog was the inception of the | | | | paved the way for other new synthesis types. |