(Figure
A
).
Don Buchla blazed new trails in sound synthesis to co-
invent the voltage-controlled modular synthesizer.
Bob Moog and Herb Deutsch collaborated to create the
first Moog synthesizer in 1964.
The same building blocks of the earliest modular
synths are seen in today’s Doepfer A-111-6 module:
VCOs, VCAs, filters (VCF), ADSR envelope, and inputs
for CV and gate signals.
You slowly adjust a knob. The panel’s LEDs
flicker. You flip a switch and feel the low rumble
in your chest.
Although the machine before you looks like
something straight out of Kennedy Space Center,
you’re far from Cape Canaveral. Cables, sliders,
screens, and jacks all work together to shape
sound. The modular synthesizer before you holds
infinite possibilities.
While they may look like they require a degree
in rocket science to operate, we hope to demystify
how modular synths work, why you might be
interested in them, and what you need to launch.
Donald Buchla, one of the two co-inventors of
voltage-controlled modular synthesizers, actually
worked at NASA before his formative work for
the San Francisco Music Tape Center in the
early 1960s. Unbeknownst to Buchla, theremin
maker Robert Moog was simultaneously working
on something similar in New York. Both had
independently invented a voltage-controlled
modular synthesizer!
Let’s back up a bit.
WHAT IS A MODULAR
SYNTHESIZER?
A synthesizer is a musical instrument that
creates sound electronically. And in a modular
synthesizer (Figure
A
), the individual building
blocks of a synthesizer are broken out into
separate functions.
While many of these building blocks were not
new inventions, Moog and Buchla arrived at the
same components, which are still used today:
• Voltage controlled oscillators (VCOs) provide a
sound source
• Voltage controlled amplifiers (VCAs) allow the
sound to be loud or quiet, on or off
• Filters permit only specific frequencies of
sound to pass through
• Envelopes shape the audio signal over time
(attack, decay, sustain, release, or ADSR)
• Noise generators create random frequencies
of white or pink noise
• Mixers combine the signals.
Modularity was simply a byproduct of rapid
iteration and feedback; adding or changing
something without completely reworking it is
41
make.co
Joe Bauer, Bennett, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, Finnianhughes101, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, Nick Gaydos
A
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