TAKE A WALK ON THE SYNTH SIDE
There was a time when state-of-the-art rock keyboards began with Fafisa and ended with Vox. These days, manufacturers like Yamaha, Roland, and Korg are unveiling microchip-based instruments on an almost hourly basis, with on-board capabilities stopping just short of being able to perform brain surgery and chew gum at the same time.
TAKE A WALK ON THE SYNTH SIDE
There was a time when state-of-the-art rock keyboards began with Fafisa and ended with Vox. These days, manufacturers like Yamaha, Roland, and Korg are unveiling microchip-based instruments on an almost hourly basis, with on-board capabilities stopping just short of being able to perform brain surgery and chew gum at the same time.
Keyboard players (or at least those who can afford the new technology) are in seventh heaven. Guitarists and drummers have been slower to rise to the bait, but are wising up fast. The electric guitar might well be flashier, the drums more muscular, but this is fast becoming a synthesizer world. Entire symphonies are being written on them. Films are being scored. Whole albums are being recorded using them, with nary a fretboard nor a hi-hat in sight.
The technology is changing even as you�re reading this. This week�s hot new synth will, six months from now, more than likely be a museum piece. What follows is a brief introductory overview of electronic synths, written with the total virgin in mind, for the all-thumbs chimpanzee that lurks in even the best of us.
SYNTHS IN GENERAL