Electronic musical instrument

An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical

instrument that produces sound using electronic circuitry. Such an
instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital
audio signal that ultimately is plugged into a power amplifier which
drives a loudspeaker, creating the sound heard by the performer and
listener.

An electronic instrument might include a user interface for

controlling its sound, often by adjusting the pitch, frequency, or
Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog
duration of each note. A common user interface is the musical
synthesizer
keyboard, which functions similarly to the keyboard on an acoustic
piano where the keys are each linked mechanically to swinging
string hammers - whereas with an electronic keyboard, the keyboard interface is linked to a synth module,
computer or other electronic or digital sound generator, which then creates a sound. However, it is
increasingly common to separate user interface and sound-generating functions into a music controller
(input device) and a music synthesizer, respectively, with the two devices communicating through a musical
performance description language such as MIDI or Open Sound Control. The solid state nature of
electronic keyboards also offers differing "feel" and "response", offering a novel experience in playing
relative to operating a mechanically linked piano keyboard.

All electronic musical instruments can be viewed as a subset of audio signal processing applications. Simple
electronic musical instruments are sometimes called sound effects; the border between sound effects and
actual musical instruments is often unclear.

In the 21st century, electronic musical instruments are now widely used in most styles of music. In popular
music styles such as electronic dance music, almost all of the instrument sounds used in recordings are
electronic instruments (e.g., bass synth, synthesizer, drum machine). Development of new electronic
musical instruments, controllers, and synthesizers continues to be a highly active and interdisciplinary field
of research. Specialized conferences, such as the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical
Expression, have organized to report cutting-edge work, as well as to provide a showcase for artists who
perform or create music with new electronic music instruments, controllers, and synthesizers.

Classification
In musicology, electronic musical instruments are known as electrophones. Electrophones are the fifth
category of musical instrument under the Hornbostel-Sachs system. Musicologists typically only classify
music as electrophones if the sound is initially produced by electricity, excluding electronically controlled
acoustic instruments such as pipe organs and amplified instruments such as electric guitars.
The category was added to the Hornbostel-Sachs musical instrument classification system by Sachs in
1940, in his 1940 book The History of Musical Instruments;[1] the original 1914 version of the system did
not include it. Sachs divided electrophones into three subcategories:

51=electrically actuated acoustic instruments (e.g., pipe organ with electronic tracker action)
52=electrically amplified acoustic instruments (e.g., acoustic guitar with pickup)
53=instruments which make sound primarily by way of electrically driven oscillators
The last category included instruments such as theremins or synthesizers, which he called radioelectric
instruments.

Francis William Galpin provided such a group in his own classification system, which is closer to Mahillon
than Sachs-Hornbostel. For example, in Galpin's 1937 book A Textbook of European Musical Instruments,
he lists electrophones with three second-level divisions for sound generation ("by oscillation", "electro-
magnetic", and "electro-static"), as well as third-level and fourth-level categories based on the control
method.[2]

Present-day ethnomusicologists, such as Margaret Kartomi[3] and Terry Ellingson,[4] suggest that, in
keeping with the spirit of the original Hornbostel Sachs classification scheme, if one categorizes instruments
by what first produces the initial sound in the instrument, that only subcategory 53 should remain in the
electrophones category. Thus, it has been more recently proposed, for example, that the pipe organ (even if
it uses electric key action to control solenoid valves) remain in the aerophones category, and that the electric
guitar remain in the chordophones category, and so on.

Early examples
In the 18th-century, musicians and composers adapted a number of
acoustic instruments to exploit the novelty of electricity. Thus, in the
broadest sense, the first electrified musical instrument was the Denis
d'or keyboard, dating from 1753, followed shortly by the clavecin
électrique by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste de Laborde in 1761. The
Denis d'or consisted of a keyboard instrument of over 700 strings,
electrified temporarily to enhance sonic qualities. The clavecin
Diagram of the clavecin électrique
électrique was a keyboard instrument with plectra (picks) activated
electrically. However, neither instrument used electricity as a sound
source.

The first electric synthesizer was invented in 1876 by Elisha Gray.[5][6] The "Musical Telegraph" was a
chance by-product of his telephone technology when Gray discovered that he could control sound from a
self-vibrating electromagnetic circuit and so invented a basic oscillator. The Musical Telegraph used steel
reeds oscillated by electromagnets and transmitted over a telephone line. Gray also built a simple
loudspeaker device into later models, which consisted of a diaphragm vibrating in a magnetic field.

A significant invention, which later had a profound effect on electronic music, was the audion in 1906. This
was the first thermionic valve, or vacuum tube and which led to the generation and amplification of
electrical signals, radio broadcasting, and electronic computation, among other things. Other early
synthesizers included the Telharmonium (1897), the Theremin (1919), Jörg Mager's Spharophon (1924)
and Partiturophone, Taubmann's similar Electronde (1933), Maurice Martenot's ondes Martenot ("Martenot
waves", 1928), Trautwein's Trautonium (1930). The Mellertion (1933) used a non-standard scale,
Bertrand's Dynaphone could produce octaves and perfect fifths, while the Emicon was an American,
keyboard-controlled instrument constructed in 1930 and the German Hellertion combined four instruments
to produce chords. Three Russian instruments also appeared, Oubouhof's Croix Sonore (1934), Ivor
Darreg's microtonal 'Electronic Keyboard Oboe' (1937) and the ANS synthesizer, constructed by the
Russian scientist Evgeny Murzin from 1937 to 1958. Only two models of this latter were built and the only
surviving example is currently stored at the Lomonosov University in Moscow. It has been used in many
Russian movies—like Solaris—to produce unusual, "cosmic" sounds.[7][8]

Hugh Le Caine, John Hanert, Raymond Scott, composer Percy Grainger (with Burnett Cross), and others
built a variety of automated electronic-music controllers during the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1959 Daphne
Oram produced a novel method of synthesis, her "Oramics" technique, driven by drawings on a 35 mm
film strip; it was used for a number of years at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.[9] This workshop was also
responsible for the theme to the TV series Doctor Who a piece, largely created by Delia Derbyshire, that
more than any other ensured the popularity of electronic music in the UK.

Telharmonium
In 1897 Thaddeus Cahill patented an instrument called the
Telharmonium (or Teleharmonium, also known as the
Dynamaphone). Using tonewheels to generate musical sounds as
electrical signals by additive synthesis, it was capable of producing
any combination of notes and overtones, at any dynamic level. This
technology was later used to design the Hammond organ. Between
1901 and 1910 Cahill had three progressively larger and more
complex versions made, the first weighing seven tons, the last in
Telharmonium console
excess of 200 tons. Portability was managed only by rail and with by Thaddeus Cahill 1897
the use of thirty boxcars. By 1912, public interest had waned, and
Cahill's enterprise was bankrupt.[10]

Theremin
Another development, which aroused the interest of many
composers, occurred in 1919–1920. In Leningrad, Leon
Theremin built and demonstrated his Etherophone, which was
later renamed the Theremin. This led to the first compositions
for electronic instruments, as opposed to noisemakers and re-
purposed machines. The Theremin was notable for being the
first musical instrument played without touching it. In 1929,
Joseph Schillinger composed First Airphonic Suite for Theremin
and Orchestra, premièred with the Cleveland Orchestra with Theremin (1924) Fingerboard
Leon Theremin as soloist. The next year Henry Cowell Theremin
commissioned Theremin to create the first electronic rhythm
machine, called the Rhythmicon. Cowell wrote some
compositions for it, which he and Schillinger premiered in 1932.
Ondes Martenot
The ondes Martenot is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring
along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin.[11]
It was invented in 1928 by the French cellist Maurice Martenot,
who was inspired by the accidental overlaps of tones between
military radio oscillators, and wanted to create an instrument with
the expressiveness of the cello.[11][12]

The French composer Olivier Messiaen used the ondes Martenot in

pieces such as his 1949 symphony Turangalîla-Symphonie, and his Ondes Martenot (c. 1974,
sister-in-law Jeanne Loriod was a celebrated player.[13] It appears in 7th generation model)
numerous film and television soundtracks, particularly science
fiction and horror films.[14] Contemporary users of the ondes
Martenot include Tom Waits, Daft Punk and the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood.[15]

Trautonium
The Trautonium was invented in 1928. It was based on the
subharmonic scale, and the resulting sounds were often used to
emulate bell or gong sounds, as in the 1950s Bayreuth productions
of Parsifal. In 1942, Richard Strauss used it for the bell- and gong-
part in the Dresden première of his Japanese Festival Music. This
new class of instruments, microtonal by nature, was only adopted
slowly by composers at first, but by the early 1930s there was a
burst of new works incorporating these and other electronic Volks Trautonium (1933, Telefunken
instruments. Ela T 42)

Hammond organ and Novachord

In 1929 Laurens Hammond established his company for the
manufacture of electronic instruments. He went on to produce the
Hammond organ, which was based on the principles of the
Telharmonium, along with other developments including early
reverberation units.[16] The Hammond organ is an
electromechanical instrument, as it used both mechanical elements
and electronic parts. A Hammond organ used spinning metal
tonewheels to produce different sounds. A magnetic pickup similar
in design to the pickups in an electric guitar is used to transmit the
Hammond Novachord (1939)
pitches in the tonewheels to an amplifier and speaker enclosure.
While the Hammond organ was designed to be a lower-cost
alternative to a pipe organ for church music, musicians soon discovered that the Hammond was an excellent
instrument for blues and jazz; indeed, an entire genre of music developed built around this instrument,
known as the organ trio (typically Hammond organ, drums, and a third instrument, either saxophone or
guitar).
The first commercially manufactured synthesizer was the Novachord, built by the Hammond Organ
Company from 1938 to 1942, which offered 72-note polyphony using 12 oscillators driving monostable-
based divide-down circuits, basic envelope control and resonant low-pass filters. The instrument featured
163 vacuum tubes and weighed 500 pounds. The instrument's use of envelope control is significant, since
this is perhaps the most significant distinction between the modern synthesizer and other electronic
instruments.

Analogue synthesis 1950–1980

The most commonly used electronic instruments are synthesizers, so-
called because they artificially generate sound using a variety of
techniques. All early circuit-based synthesis involved the use of analogue
circuitry, particularly voltage controlled amplifiers, oscillators and filters.
An important technological development was the invention of the
Clavivox synthesizer in 1956 by Raymond Scott with subassembly by
Robert Moog. French composer and engineer Edgard Varèse created a Siemens Synthesizer at
variety of compositions using electronic horns, whistles, and tape. Most Siemens Studio For
notably, he wrote Poème électronique for the Philips pavilion at the Electronic Music (ca.1959)
Brussels World Fair in 1958.

Modular synthesizers
RCA produced experimental devices to synthesize voice and music in the
1950s. The Mark II Music Synthesizer, housed at the Columbia-Princeton
Electronic Music Center in New York City. Designed by Herbert Belar The RCA Mark II (ca.1957)
and Harry Olson at RCA, with contributions from Vladimir Ussachevsky
and Peter Mauzey, it was installed at Columbia University in 1957.
Consisting of a room-sized array of interconnected sound synthesis components, it was only capable of
producing music by programming,[6] using a paper tape sequencer punched with holes to control pitch
sources and filters, similar to a mechanical player piano but capable of generating a wide variety of sounds.
The vacuum tube system had to be patched to create timbres.

In the 1960s synthesizers were still usually confined to studios due

to their size. They were usually modular in design, their stand-alone
signal sources and processors connected with patch cords or by
other means and controlled by a common controlling device. Harald
Bode, Don Buchla, Hugh Le Caine, Raymond Scott and Paul
Ketoff were among the first to build such instruments, in the late
1950s and early 1960s. Buchla later produced a commercial
modular synthesizer, the Buchla Music Easel.[17] Robert Moog,
Robert Moog who had been a student of Peter Mauzey and one of the RCA Mark
II engineers, created a synthesizer that could reasonably be used by
musicians, designing the circuits while he was at Columbia-
Princeton. The Moog synthesizer was first displayed at the Audio Engineering Society convention in
1964.[18] It required experience to set up sounds but was smaller and more intuitive than what had come
before, less like a machine and more like a musical instrument. Moog established standards for control
interfacing, using a logarithmic 1-volt-per-octave for pitch control and a separate triggering signal. This
standardization allowed synthesizers from different manufacturers to operate simultaneously. Pitch control
was usually performed either with an organ-style keyboard or a music sequencer producing a timed series
of control voltages. During the late 1960s hundreds of popular recordings used Moog synthesizers. Other
early commercial synthesizer manufacturers included ARP, who also started with modular synthesizers
before producing all-in-one instruments, and British firm EMS.

Integrated synthesizers
In 1970, Moog designed the Minimoog, a non-modular synthesizer
with a built-in keyboard. The analogue circuits were interconnected
with switches in a simplified arrangement called "normalization."
Though less flexible than a modular design, normalization made the
instrument more portable and easier to use. The Minimoog sold
12,000 units.[19] Further standardized the design of subsequent
synthesizers with its integrated keyboard, pitch and modulation Minimoog (1970, R.A.Moog)
wheels and VCO->VCF->VCA signal flow. It has become
celebrated for its "fat" sound—and its tuning problems.
Miniaturized solid-state components allowed synthesizers to become self-contained, portable instruments
that soon appeared in live performance and quickly became widely used in popular music and electronic art
music.[20]

Polyphony
Many early analog synthesizers were monophonic, producing
only one tone at a time. Popular monophonic synthesizers
include the Moog Minimoog. A few, such as the Moog Sonic
Yamaha GX-1 E-mu Modular
Six, ARP Odyssey and EML 101, could produce two different
(ca.1973) System (ca.1973)
pitches at a time when two keys were pressed. Polyphony
(multiple simultaneous tones, which enables chords) was only
obtainable with electronic organ designs at first. Popular electronic
keyboards combining organ circuits with synthesizer processing
included the ARP Omni and Moog's Polymoog and Opus 3.

By 1976 affordable polyphonic synthesizers began to appear, such

as the Yamaha CS-50, CS-60 and CS-80, the Sequential Circuits Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 (1977)
Prophet-5 and the Oberheim Four-Voice. These remained complex,
heavy and relatively costly. The recording of settings in digital
memory allowed storage and recall of sounds. The first practical polyphonic synth, and the first to use a
microprocessor as a controller, was the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5 introduced in late 1977.[21] For the
first time, musicians had a practical polyphonic synthesizer that could save all knob settings in computer
memory and recall them at the touch of a button. The Prophet-5's design paradigm became a new standard,
slowly pushing out more complex and recondite modular designs.

Tape recording
In 1935, another significant development was made in Germany.
Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft (AEG) demonstrated the first
commercially produced magnetic tape recorder, called the
Magnetophon. Audio tape, which had the advantage of being fairly
light as well as having good audio fidelity, ultimately replaced the
bulkier wire recorders.

The term "electronic music" (which first came into use during the
1930s) came to include the tape recorder as an essential element: Phonogene (1953) Mellotron
"electronically produced sounds recorded on tape and arranged by for musique MkVI[22][23][24]
concrète
the composer to form a musical composition".[25] It was also
indispensable to Musique concrète.

Tape also gave rise to the first, analogue, sample-playback keyboards, the Chamberlin and its more famous
successor the Mellotron, an electro-mechanical, polyphonic keyboard originally developed and built in
Birmingham, England in the early 1960s.

Sound sequencer
During the 1940s–1960s, Raymond Scott, an American composer
of electronic music, invented various kind of music sequencers for
his electric compositions. Step sequencers played rigid patterns of
notes using a grid of (usually) 16 buttons, or steps, each step being
1/16 of a measure. These patterns of notes were then chained
together to form longer compositions. Software sequencers were
continuously utilized since the 1950s in the context of computer
music, including computer-played music (software sequencer),
computer-composed music (music synthesis), and computer sound One of the earliest digital
generation (sound synthesis). sequencers, EMS Synthi Sequencer
256 (1971)

Digital era 1980–2000

Digital synthesis
The first digital synthesizers were academic experiments in
sound synthesis using digital computers. FM synthesis was
developed for this purpose; as a way of generating
complex sounds digitally with the smallest number of
computational operations per sound sample. In 1983
Yamaha introduced the first stand-alone digital synthesizer,
the DX-7. It used frequency modulation synthesis (FM Synclavier I Synclavier PSMT (1984)
synthesis), first developed by John Chowning at Stanford (1977)
University during the late sixties.[26] Chowning
exclusively licensed his FM synthesis patent to Yamaha in
1975.[27] Yamaha subsequently released their first FM synthesizers, the GS-1 and GS-2, which were costly
and heavy. There followed a pair of smaller, preset
versions, the CE20 and CE25 Combo Ensembles, targeted
primarily at the home organ market and featuring four-
octave keyboards.[28] Yamaha's third generation of digital
synthesizers was a commercial success; it consisted of the Yamaha GS-1 (1980)
DX7 and DX9 (1983). Both models were compact, Yamaha DX7 (1983)
reasonably priced, and dependent on custom digital and Yamaha VL-1
integrated circuits to produce FM tonalities. The DX7 was (1994)
the first mass market all-digital synthesizer. [29] It became
indispensable to many music artists of the 1980s, and
demand soon exceeded supply.[30] The DX7 sold over 200,000 units within three years.[31]

The DX series was not easy to program but offered a detailed, percussive sound that led to the demise of
the electro-mechanical Rhodes piano, which was heavier and larger than a DX synth. Following the
success of FM synthesis Yamaha signed a contract with Stanford University in 1989 to develop digital
waveguide synthesis, leading to the first commercial physical modeling synthesizer, Yamaha's VL-1, in
1994.[32] The DX-7 was affordable enough for amateurs and young bands to buy, unlike the costly
synthesizers of previous generations, which were mainly used by top professionals.

Sampling
The Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument), the first
polyphonic digital sampler, was the harbinger of sample-based
synthesizers.[33] Designed in 1978 by Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie
and based on a dual microprocessor computer designed by Tony
Furse in Sydney, Australia, the Fairlight CMI gave musicians the
ability to modify volume, attack, decay, and use special effects like
vibrato. Sample waveforms could be displayed on-screen and A Fairlight CMI keyboard
modified using a light pen.[34] The Synclavier from New England (1979)
Digital was a similar system.[35] Jon Appleton (with Jones and
Alonso) invented the Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer, later to
become the New England Digital Corp's Synclavier. The Kurzweil
K250, first produced in 1983, was also a successful polyphonic Kurzweil K250 (1984)
digital music synthesizer,[36] noted for its ability to reproduce
several instruments synchronously and having a velocity-sensitive
keyboard.[37]

Computer music
An important new development was the advent of computers for the purpose of composing music, as
opposed to manipulating or creating sounds. Iannis Xenakis began what is called musique stochastique, or
stochastic music, which is a method of composing that employs mathematical probability systems. Different
probability algorithms were used to create a piece under a set of parameters. Xenakis used graph paper and
a ruler to aid in calculating the velocity trajectories of glissando for his
orchestral composition Metastasis (1953–54), but later turned to the use of
computers to compose pieces like ST/4 for string quartet and ST/48 for
orchestra (both 1962).

The impact of computers continued in 1956. Lejaren Hiller and Leonard

Issacson composed Illiac Suite for string quartet, the first complete work of
computer-assisted composition using algorithmic composition.[38]
ISPW, a successor of
In 1957, Max Mathews at Bell Lab wrote MUSIC-N series, a first computer 4X, was a DSP platform
program family for generating digital audio waveforms through direct based on i860 and NeXT,
synthesis. Then Barry Vercoe wrote MUSIC 11 based on MUSIC IV-BF, a by IRCAM.
next-generation music synthesis program (later evolving into csound, which is
still widely used).

In mid 80s, Miller Puckette at IRCAM developed graphic signal-processing software for 4X called Max
(after Max Mathews), and later ported it to Macintosh (with Dave Zicarelli extending it for Opcode[39]) for
real-time MIDI control, bringing algorithmic composition availability to most composers with modest
computer programming background.

MIDI
In 1980, a group of musicians and music merchants met to standardize an
interface by which new instruments could communicate control instructions
with other instruments and the prevalent microcomputer. This standard was
dubbed MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). A paper was authored by
Dave Smith of Sequential Circuits and proposed to the Audio Engineering
Society in 1981. Then, in August 1983, the MIDI Specification 1.0 was MIDI enables
finalized. connections between
digital musical
The advent of MIDI technology allows a single keystroke, control wheel instruments
motion, pedal movement, or command from a microcomputer to activate every
device in the studio remotely and in synchrony, with each device responding
according to conditions predetermined by the composer.

MIDI instruments and software made powerful control of sophisticated instruments easily affordable by
many studios and individuals. Acoustic sounds became reintegrated into studios via sampling and sampled-
ROM-based instruments.

Modern electronic musical instruments

The increasing power and decreasing cost of sound-generating electronics (and especially of the personal
computer), combined with the standardization of the MIDI and Open Sound Control musical performance
description languages, has facilitated the separation of musical instruments into music controllers and music
synthesizers.
By far the most common musical controller is the musical
keyboard. Other controllers include the radiodrum, Akai's EWI
and Yamaha's WX wind controllers, the guitar-like SynthAxe, the
BodySynth,[40] the Buchla Thunder, the Continuum Fingerboard,
the Roland Octapad, various isomorphic keyboards including the
Thummer, and Kaossilator Pro, and kits like I-CubeX.
Wind synthesizer SynthAxe

Reactable
The Reactable is a round translucent table with a backlit interactive
display. By placing and manipulating blocks called tangibles on the
table surface, while interacting with the visual display via finger
gestures, a virtual modular synthesizer is operated, creating music or
sound effects.

Reactable

Percussa AudioCubes
AudioCubes are autonomous wireless cubes powered by an internal
computer system and rechargeable battery. They have internal RGB
lighting, and are capable of detecting each other's location,
orientation and distance. The cubes can also detect distances to the
user's hands and fingers. Through interaction with the cubes, a
variety of music and sound software can be operated. AudioCubes
have applications in sound design, music production, DJing and Audiocubes
live performance.

Kaossilator
The Kaossilator and Kaossilator Pro are compact instruments where the position of a finger on the touch
pad controls two note-characteristics; usually the pitch is changed with a left-right motion and the tonal
property, filter or other parameter changes with an up-down motion. The touch pad can be set to different
musical scales and keys. The instrument can record a repeating loop of adjustable length, set to any tempo,
and new loops of sound can be layered on top of existing ones. This lends itself to electronic dance-music
but is more limited for controlled sequences of notes, as the pad on a regular Kaossilator is featureless.

Eigenharp
The Eigenharp is a large instrument resembling a bassoon, which
can be interacted with through big buttons, a drum sequencer and a
mouthpiece. The sound processing is done on a separate computer.

AlphaSphere
The AlphaSphere is a spherical instrument that consists of 48 tactile
pads that respond to pressure as well as touch. Custom software
allows the pads to be indefinitely programmed individually or by
groups in terms of function, note, and pressure parameter among
many other settings. The primary concept of the AlphaSphere is to
Korg Kaossilator
increase the level of expression available to electronic musicians, by
allowing for the playing style of a musical instrument.

Chip music
Chiptune, chipmusic, or chip music is music written in sound formats where many of the sound textures are
synthesized or sequenced in real time by a computer or video game console sound chip, sometimes
including sample-based synthesis and low bit sample playback. Many chip music devices featured
synthesizers in tandem with low rate sample playback.

DIY culture
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, do-it-yourself designs were published in hobby electronics
magazines (such the Formant modular synth, a DIY clone of the Moog system, published by Elektor) and
kits were supplied by companies such as Paia in the US, and Maplin Electronics in the UK.

Circuit bending
In 1966, Reed Ghazala discovered and began to teach math "circuit
bending"—the application of the creative short circuit, a process of
chance short-circuiting, creating experimental electronic
instruments, exploring sonic elements mainly of timbre and with
less regard to pitch or rhythm, and influenced by John Cage’s
aleatoric music concept.[41]

Much of this manipulation of circuits directly, especially to the point

of destruction, was pioneered by Louis and Bebe Barron in the
Probing for "good bends" using a
early 1950s, such as their work with John Cage on the Williams Mix jeweler's screwdriver and alligator
and especially in the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet. clips

Modern circuit bending is the creative customization of the circuits

within electronic devices such as low voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children's toys and small
digital synthesizers to create new musical or visual instruments and sound generators. Emphasizing
spontaneity and randomness, the techniques of circuit bending have been commonly associated with noise
music, though many more conventional contemporary musicians and musical groups have been known to
experiment with "bent" instruments. Circuit bending usually involves dismantling the machine and adding
components such as switches and potentiometers that alter the circuit. With the revived interest for analogue
synthesizer circuit bending became a cheap solution for many experimental musicians to create their own
individual analogue sound generators. Nowadays many schematics can be found to build noise generators
such as the Atari Punk Console or the Dub Siren as well as simple modifications for children toys such as
the Speak & Spell that are often modified by circuit benders.

Modular synthesizers
The modular synthesizer is a type of synthesizer consisting of separate interchangeable modules. These are
also available as kits for hobbyist DIY constructors. Many hobbyist designers also make available bare PCB
boards and front panels for sale to other hobbyists.

See also
Experimental musical instrument
Live electronic music
Visual music
STEIM
Technologies

Oscilloscope
Stereophonic sound
Instrument families

Vocoder
Individual instruments (historical)

Electronic sackbut
Individual instruments (modern)

Kraakdoos
Metronome
Razer Hydra
In Indian and Asian traditional music

Electronic tanpura
Shruti box

References
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2. Galpin, Francis William (1937), A Textbook of European Musical Instruments
3. Kartomi, Margaret (1990), On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments
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10. Weidenaar, Reynold (1995). Magic Music from the Telharmonium (https://archive.org/details/
bub_gb_Gr2kq-598-YC). Metuchen, New Jersey: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810826922.
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w.theguardian.com/music/2009/oct/12/ondes-martenot). The Guardian. Retrieved
7 September 2018.
12. Jean Laurendeau: Maurice Martenot: Luthier de l'Electronique (Dervy Livres, 1996)
13. Martin, Douglas (19 August 2001). "Jeanne Loriod, Who Transformed Electronic Wails Into
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Bending is dependent on chance, when a person prepares to bend they have no idea of the
final outcome."

Works cited
Loriod, Jeanne (1987). Technique de l'onde electronique type martenot. Paris: Alphonse
Leduc. ISMN 979-0-04-626275-3.

External links
120 Years of Electronic Music (http://www.120years.net/)
A chronology of computer and electronic music (including instruments) (http://www.doornbus
ch.net/chronology) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20170228004652/http://www.doorn
busch.net/chronology/) 2017-02-28 at the Wayback Machine
History of Electronic Music (http://sonhors.free.fr/) (French)
Tons of Tones !! : Site with technical data on Electronic Modelling of Musical Tones (http://ton
s-of-tone.tripod.com/index.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110831074000/htt
p://tons-of-tone.tripod.com/index.html) 2011-08-31 at the Wayback Machine

DIY
DIY Hardware and Software (http://electro-music.com/forum/forum-112.html) Discussion
forum at Electro-music.com
The Synth-DIY (https://synth-diy.org/) email list
Music From Outer Space (http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/) Archived (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20060111050127/http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/) 2006-01-11 at the
Wayback Machine Information and parts to self-build a synthesizer.
Synthesizer do it yourself (https://sdiy.info/wiki/Main_Page) a wiki about DIY electronic
musical instruments

Museums and collections

Horniman Museum's music gallery (https://www.horniman.ac.uk/visit/displays/music-gallery),
London, UK. Has one or two synths behind glass.
Moogseum (https://moogseum.org/), Asheville, North Carolina, US
Musical Museum (http://www.musicalmuseum.co.uk/), Brentford, London, UK. Mostly electro-
mechanical instruments.
Musical Instrument Museum (https://www.mim.org), Phoenix, Arizona, US
Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung (https://www.simpk.de/), Berlin, Germany
Swiss Museum & Center for Electronic Music Instruments (https://www.smemmusic.ch)
The National Music Centre Collection (https://www.studiobell.ca), Canada
 Vintage Synthesizer Museum (https://vintagesynthmuseum.squarespace.com/), California,
US
Washington And Lee University Synthesizer Museum (https://www.wlu.edu/music-departmen
t/about-the-department/facilities/synthesizer-museum) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/
20180815174654/https://www.wlu.edu/music-department/about-the-department/facilities/synt
hesizer-museum) 2018-08-15 at the Wayback Machine, Washington, US

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