SOUND ON SOUND
How to find this classic multi-part 'synthesis explained' tutorial series on the current Sound On Sound site.
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...
In Part 1 of this (63-part) series exploring the world of subtractive synthesis, Gordon Reid goes right back to basics. What are waveforms and harmonics, where do they come from, and how does the theory relate to what we actually hear?
Gordon Reid gets twiddling with two small but perfectly formed analogue units aimed at the pockets — literally — of today's aceed‑hungry dancemongers.
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.
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.
Prepare to shed a tear in another near-miss tale of a desirable analogue synth swept aside by the rise of digital technology.
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.
A synth company that produced as many classic and well-loved instruments as did Moog Music is surely allowed the odd turkey! Gordon Reid waxes critical over one of them.
It was 1973 and everyone was playing Minimoogs, and ARP Odysseys. So why did the Keio ORGan company produce a little synthesizer with the most unorthodox controls imaginable, call it the MiniKORG 700, and try to convince the keyboard cognoscenti that it was worth buying? Gordon Reid explains...