Synthesizers

Ensoniq were as the forefront of workstation and sampling technology in the '80s, but their recent synth offerings have not kept up with the fashion for controller-festooned techno boxes. The Fizmo, however, updates their take on wavetable synthesis with extensive real-time control.

These days, a new synth without some form of DSP effects processing is almost unthinkable — but it wasn't always like that. Paul Wiffen traces the introduction of effects on synthesizers and looks at making the most of the early implementations.

Electronic music pioneer Klaus Schulze talks about the way he'd like to see synthesizer design developing over the next few years.

Two Dutch designers who were influential in the design of the cult '80s Synton Syrinx synth have recently returned to the field, coming up with the exclusive and highly idiosyncratic Fénix synthesizer.

Philip Meehan fondly remembers his first love — a keyboard with the voice of an angel, the mind of a genius, and the body of a heavyweight boxer in a big black coat.

Yamaha's latest XG MIDI module achieves more onboard sounds and greater polyphony and multitimbrality than previous tone generators Ñ and allows users to install additional synthesizer and effects boards. Simon Trask explores the power of MU...

Analogue Systems have expanded their RS Integrator modular range to include an analogue step sequencer and several new modules — as well as a new, complete high-end system.

With several successful dance-oriented synth successes to their name, Quasimidi attempt to buck the trend with their latest offering. The Polymorph does offer plenty to interest the dance fraternity — real-time modulation knobs, and an analogue-style sequencer and user interface — but behind the façade lurks a powerful synth.

FM synthesis was the success story of the mid-'80s, and synth based on its principles, like Yamaha's DX7, sold by the bucketload — until affordable sample-based synths arrived at the end of the decade. Now, with their new FS1R, Yamaha have updated the technology for the late '90s.

The latest product of Korg's long-established A1 synthesis technology, the N1R module may not break any ground, but it bristles with great sounds and is a cinch to edit. Paul White feels thoroughly Nlightened...

Paul Ward reintroduces an instrument now widely neglected on account of its 'digital' tag, and argues that it still has much to recommend it.

Prepare to shed a tear in another near-miss tale of a desirable analogue synth swept aside by the rise of digital technology.

The Minimoog rides again thanks to Welsh company Moog Music Limited. But how close does it sound to the original? We at SOS knew opinion would be split, so we got five of our regular synth reviewers, all previous or current Mini owners, to give us their views.

The latest addition to Waldorf's Microwave family certainly advertises its presence. Paul Nagle finds out if the future's bright as well as orange.

Will physical modelling continue to be at the leading edge of synthesis, or are there other methods moving up on the inside tracks? Paul Wiffen winds up the Synth School series with a little crystal ball-gazing.

Simon Lowther introduces the clan of classic American analogue synths, the Oberheim OBs.

It's certainly borrowed (for the purposes of this review), and it's unquestionably blue, but is it old or new? Synth Guidance Counsellor and long‑time K2000 owner Paul Ward checks out Kurzweil's VP makeover of this legendary workstation.

One of two General MIDI modules are simply a cut above the rest, and Roland's high-end Sound Canvases fit right into this category. Paul White retires to the studio with the latest in the line and dips into a seemingly limitless palette of sound...

In the penultimate part of his series on synthesizer technology, Paul Wiffen turns his attention to the problem of emulating acoustic instruments in which the sound is produced by a string or reed, and amplified and modified by the body of the instrument.

Gordon Reid is bitten by the memory of a brilliant, but deeply flawed trio of Italian synthesizer designs that could have been the last word in affordable analogue.

The streamlined '90s exterior of Emu's Audity 2000 claims to hide a virtual modular hybrid, harking back to the company's own lost '70s analogue megasynth.