Analog Synthesizers: Understanding, Performing, Buying, 2nd Edition

2 Aspects of analog sound

In Chapter 1 we looked at the principles of physics that underlie the electronic creation of sound, and the simple circuits used to do this. In this chapter we will look more systematically at the facilities available on analog synthesizers, and give some ideas about how to apply them practically and imaginatively.

As we will see in Chapter 3, the first analog synthesizers were modular – they were divided into individual circuits, each one carrying out a different task – which had to be connected or “patched” together in order to create a complete sound. This may well have been because Robert Moog solved the problems of designing a voltage-controlled oscillator, a voltage-controlled filter, and a voltage-controlled ...