Synthesizer

:The term "synthesizer" is also used to mean frequency synthesizer, an electronic system found in communications. This article is about the musical instrument.

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A synthesizer (spelling var. synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument designed to produce artificially generated sound, using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM, physical modelling synthesis, or phase distortion.

Related Topics:
Electronic musical instrument - Additive - Subtractive - FM - Physical modelling - Synthesis - Phase distortion

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Synthesizers create sounds through direct manipulation of electrical currents (as in analog synthesizers), mathematical manipulation of discrete values using computers (as in software synthesizers), or by a combination of both methods. In the final stage of the synthesizer, electrical currents are used to cause vibrations in the diaphragms of loudspeakers, headphones, etc. This synthesized sound is contrasted with recording of natural sound, where the mechanical energy of a sound wave is transformed into a signal which will then be converted back to mechanical energy on playback (though sampling significantly blurs this distinction).

Related Topics:
Analog - Software synthesizer - Loudspeaker - Headphones - Sampling

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The term "speech synthesizer" is also used in electronic speech processing, often in connection with vocoders.

Related Topics:
Speech synthesizer - Speech processing - Vocoders

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