Synthsis

Question 1

what is additive synthesis

Answer 1

a sound synthesis technique that creates timbres by adding sine waves together. this concept led to the invention of the hammond organ

Question 2

what is subtractive synthesis

Answer 2

a method of sound synthesis in which particles of an audio signal are attenuated by a filter to alter the timbre of the sound

Question 3

what is the telharmonium and when was it made

Answer 3

1986 - mechanical synth based on the concept of cogs and magnets

Question 4

what was the audion piano and when was it made

Answer 4

1915 - amplified sound using audio tubes

Question 5

when was the theremin made

Answer 5

1920

Question 6

what was the ondes martenot and when was it made

Answer 6

1928 - combined the ideas of keyboard and the theremin, similar in sound to theremin with switchable loudspeaker

Question 7

when was the hammond organ made and what was it

Answer 7

1933 - electronic organ that used sliding drawer bars. combined with lesley speaker

Question 8

what was the novachord and when was it made

Answer 8

1939 - electronic keyboard, used subtracitve synthesis to generate tones

Question 9

when was the electronic sackbut made

Answer 9

1945

Question 10

when was the clavivox made

Answer 10

1952 - the unit allowed the use of pornamento, vibrato and amplitude effects

Question 11

when was the rca mark 2 made

Answer 11

1957

Question 12

when was the moog modular made

Answer 12

1964

Question 13

when was the buchla modular synthesiser made

Answer 13

1963

Question 14

when was the ems vcs3 made

Answer 14

1969, popular with progressive pop bands like brian eno and roxy music

Question 15

when was the minimoog model d made

Answer 15

1970

Question 16

what is FM synthesis

Answer 16

frequency modulated synthesis, is a form of audio synthesis where the timbre of a simple waveform, is changed by modulating its frequency with a modulator frequency that is also in the audio range, resulting in a more complex waveform

Question 17

what is a popular fm synth

Answer 17

dx7

Question 18

what is the bas fm algorithm

Answer 18

modulator wave - carrier wave -output

Question 19

what does an fm modulator wave do

Answer 19

we do not hear this operator directly, but we hear the tonal effect it has on the carrier wave

Question 20

what does the carrier wave do

Answer 20

this wave we hear at the output, modulated by the modulator. the amount of tonal change we hear is based on the fm modulation depth

Question 21

what happens at the output of an fm algorithm

Answer 21

a more complex, frequency modulated signal is heard

Question 22

what is granular synthesis

Answer 22

a method by which sounds are broken down into tiny grains which are then redistributed to form other sounds.

based on same concept as a sampling, but much smaller pieces.

these pieces are called grains, and may play at different speeds, phases, volumes and frequencies, and can be layered on top of one another

Question 23

what was the upic system and when was it made

Answer 23

1977 - a graphical instrument where the user could draw sound waves and organise them into a musical score.

Question 24

what is wavetable synthesis

Answer 24

a sound synthesis technique that employs arbitrary periodic waveforms in the production of musical tones or notes. the technique was developed by wolfgang palm of PPG in the late 1970s and published in 1979

Question 25

what was the PPG and when was it made

Answer 25

1981 - popular wavetable synthesiser

Question 26

what is vector synthesis

Answer 26

provides movement in a sound by providing dynamic cross fading between sound sources. the sources are conceptually arrange as the extrme point of x and y axis.

Question 27

what was the sequencial circuits prophet vs and when was it made

Answer 27

1986, is a vector synthesiser

Question 28

what is physical modelling synthesis

Answer 28

refers to a method in which the waveform of a sound to be generated is computed using a mathematical source of sound usually a musical instrument. usually has parameters based on physical materials and dimensions of an instrument, other parameters are time based functions.

Question 29

the yamaha VL1 was made

Answer 29

1992 - a physical modelled synthesiser