Synthesizer
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Synthesizer as used in music, is a term derived from a Greek word syntithetai < synthesis (συντίθεται < σύνθεσις) and is being used to describe a device capable of generating and/or manipulating electronic signals for use in music creation, recording and performance. A synthesizer is capable of generating and manipulating audio tones such as musical notes. Synthesizers can create electrical signals needed to drive and play audio amplifiers. The tone is generated by electrical circuits which may have adjustable parameters (as in analog synthesizers), and can perform mathematical manipulation of signal using a microprocessor and digital signal processing (as in digital synthesizers), or by a combination of both methods. Synthesized sounds may sometimes contrast with recordings of natural sounds , though sampling synthesizers significantly blur this distinction.
Music synthesizers sometimes include a keyboard, which makes them reminiscent of certain traditional musical instruments, like a piano or an organ. Various alternative or additional pitch controllers, such as "fingerboards" and "ribbons", have been employed as well. (See sound module.)
The term "speech synthesizer" is also used in electronic speech processing, often in connection with vocoders.
