ABSTRACT
The use of electronics for audio started with the invention of the telephone in the last part of the nineteenth century. This chapter describes analogue synthesis: from voltage control to musical instrument digital interface; from monophonic to polyphonic; from modular to performance oriented; from subtractive synthesis to formant synthesis and beyond. Mixers take several audio sources and combine them. Amplifiers take an audio signal and amplify it. Microphone amplifiers are used for low-output microphones or for extra gain with quiet sound sources. The environment for creating sounds using analogue audio equipment before synthesizers offers a wealth of possibilities, and this should not be overlooked even in a world of digital electronics and computers. Analogue synthesizers are commonly regarded as being very useful for producing bass, brass and the synthesizer ‘cliché’ sounds, but not a very good choice for simulating ‘real’ sounds.
