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In essence, you can bend a sine wave until it becomes a sawtooth wave, a triangle wave,
a square wave, and so on. The synthesizer engine beyond the waveform generation in
general follows the standard subtractive method.
Phase distortion synthesis was commercially introduced in 1984’s Casio CZ series
synthesizers.
Granular Synthesis
The basic premise behind granular synthesis is that a sound can be broken down into
tiny particles, or grains. These sampled grains—usually no more than 10 to 50 ms
long—can then be reorganized, or combined with grains from other sounds, to create
new timbres.
In many respects, this is much like wavetable synthesis, but it works on a much finer scale.
As you might expect, this method is ideal for creating constantly evolving sounds and
truly unique tones.
The downside is that granular synthesis is extremely processor-intensive, and it wasn’t
possible to do it in real time until relatively recently. For this reason, it has remained
largely ignored by all but a few in academic institutions. Today’s computers, however,
have sufficient processing power to make this synthesis method a practicality, and there
are a number of commercial products now available.
A Brief History of the Synthesizer
This overview showcases a few of the most significant developments in synthesizer history.
Precursors to the Synthesizer
It may surprise you to learn that the earliest seeds of modern electronic synthesizers
began in the twilight years of the 19th century. In 1896/1897, an American inventor
named Thaddeus Cahill applied for a patent to protect the principle behind an instrument
known as the Telharmonium, or Dynamophone. Weighing in at a staggering 200 tons,
this mammoth electronic instrument was driven by 12 steam-powered electromagnetic
generators. This behemoth was played in real time using velocity-sensitive keys and,
amazingly, was able to generate several different sounds simultaneously. The
Telharmonium was presented to the public in a series of “concerts” held in 1906. Christened
“Telharmony,” this music was piped into the public telephone network, because no public
address systems were available at the time.
371Appendix Synthesizer Basics