Synthesizers

Most US synthesizer manufacturers followed the now all-too-familiar corporate history of rapid growth in the 1970s followed by acrimonious dissolution in the 1980s. What happened to Octave, however, was a little different...

Italian firm Generalmusic have made their reputation in the home keyboard market, but their new Equinox is an extremely well-specified professional workstation.

Last month, Gordon Reid reviewed the babies of the Technosaurus range, the Microcon synthesizer and Cyclodon sequencer. This month, he tackles their (very) big brother, the Selector modular synthesizer...

Waldorf's long-awaited Q synthesizer is now shipping, but without many of the features it will ultimately possess. Gordon Reid takes a hands-on look at what's here now and what's to come.

Gordon Reid gets twiddling with two small but perfectly formed analogue units aimed at the pockets — literally — of today's aceed‑hungry dancemongers.

In Part 1, we saw how manufacturers realised that putting DSP effects on synths made for great sales. Subsequently, they twigged that it was also a good idea to let us take them off again (selectively), and route and adjust them ourselves.

Norm Leete waxes lyrical about the mega-synth that introduced sampling to the world back in 1980 and went on to appear on innumerable hit singles and albums.

We meet the reviewer's dream — a powerful synth that's versatile, easy to use, easy to edit and even demonstrates its own patches for you!

Yamha scored a big success with their famously blue, knob-endowed CS1x Performance synth, and now they seek to build on this with the silver-grey CS2x — but does the 1-digit increment and change of colour scheme constitute revolution or evolution?

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.