The Ultimate Guide to Synthesis and Sound Design

Not only are synths able to create practically every sound the dance producer will ever need - from bass and leads to pads, drums and FX - they can also be used to process vocals and other real-world sounds.

The first devices that generated sounds using electric circuits can be dated back to the late 19th century. But it wasn't until the early 1960s that primitive synthesizers started to take off as instruments takes to the work of pioneers like Bob Moog and Don Buncha, who created the first commercially available synthesizers and laid the ground work for the countless other designers and manufacturers that followed.

What is synthesis? In simple terms, it's the process of creating a sound from scratch electronically. While acoustic instruments like guitars, pianos, and violins generate sound acoustically through a physical process of plucking, striking or bowing strings, synths are entirely electrical.

Nowadays, we can take our pick form thousands of synths - either analog or digital, hardware or software - but in the early years of synthesis, the options were invariably analog using a method known as subtractive synthesis. The same method dominates the synth world today.