A Very Brief History of Synthesis

While the modern era of synthesis goes back little more than 40 years, instruments that generate their sound purely through electro-mechanical or electronic means have been around since the late 1800s. Many of the software instruments included with Logic can trace their roots directly to real instruments that were developed in the early- to mid-20th century. In particular, the Hammond Organ Company is responsible for developing the first practical electronic synthesizers. You may be familiar with the Hammond organ, which Logic emulates with the exceptional EVB3 software instrument, which is covered in Chapter 11, “EVB3.” The Hammond organ was the first common example of an additive synthesizer. Additive synthesis, which will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 11, uses partials, waveforms derived from the harmonic series. These partials are “added” together, or increased in varying combinations, from zero volume to their maximum volumes.