BANDS USING DIGITAL SYNTHS
The new wave era of the 1980s
first brought the digital
synthesizer to the public ear.
Bands like Talking
Heads and Duran Duran used the
digitally made sounds on some of
their most popular albums. Other
more pop-inspired bands like Hall
& Oates began incorporating the
digital synthesizer into their
sound in the 1980s. Through
breakthroughs in technology in
the 1990s many modern
synthesizers use DSP.
DIGITAL
SYNTHESIS
Working in more or less the same
way, every digital synthesizer
appears similar to a computer. At
a steady sample rate, digital
synthesis produces a stream of
numbers. Sound from speakers is
then produced by a conversion to
analog form. Through signal
generation, voice and instrument-
level processing, a signal flow is
created and controlled either by
MIDI capabilities or voice and
instrument-level controls.