Digital synthesizer

A digital synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to make musical sounds, in contrast to older analog synthesizers, which produce music using analog electronics, and samplers, which play back digital recordings of acoustic, electric, or electronic instruments. Some digital synthesizers emulate analog synthesizers, while others include sampling capability in addition to digital synthesis.

The very earliest digital synthesis experiments were made with computers, as part of academic research into sound generation.

In 1957, the first programming language for computer music, MUSIC, was developed by Max Mathews on an IBM 704 at Bell Labs in 1957. It generates digital audio waveforms through direct synthesis.

c. 1969, EMS MUSYS 3 system was developed by Peter Grogono (software), David Cockerell (hardware and interfacing) and Peter Zinovieff (system design and operation) at their London (Putney) Studio. The system ran on two mini-computers, Digital Equipment PDP-8's. These had a pair of fast D/A and A/D converters, 12,000 (12k) bytes of core memory (RAM), backed up by a hard drive of 32k and by tape storage (DecTape). The earliest digital sampling was done on that system during 1971–1972 for Harrison Birtwistle's "Chronometer" released in 1975.

In 1972–1974, Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer was developed by Dartmouth College Professors Jon Appleton and Frederick J. Hooven, in association with NED co-founders Sydney A. Alonso and Cameron W. Jones.

In 1977, Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer was developed by Hal Ales at Bell Labs.

In 1977, New England Digital (NED) released the Synclavier, the first commercial synthesizer to use purely digital sound generation and also the world's first commercial FM synthesizer.

Early commercial digital synthesizers used simple hard-wired digital circuitry to implement techniques such as additive synthesis and FM synthesis. Other techniques, such as wavetable synthesis and physical modeling, only became possible with the advent of high-speed microprocessor and digital signal processing technology.^{[citation needed]} Two other early commercial digital synthesizers were the Fairlight CMI, introduced in 1979, and the New England Digital Synclavier II, introduced in 1979 as an upgrade to the original Synclavier. The Fairlight CMI was one of the earlier sampling synthesizers, while the Synclavier originally used FM synthesis technology licensed from Yamaha, before adding the world's first 16-bit, real-time hard drive streaming sampler later in 1982. The Fairlight CMI and the Synclavier were both expensive systems, retailing for more than $20,000 in the early 1980s. The cost of digital synthesizers began falling rapidly in the early 1980s. E-mu Systems introduced the Emulator sampling synthesizer in 1982 at a retail price of $7,900. Although not as flexible or powerful as either the Fairlight CMI or the Synclavier, its lower cost and portability made it popular.