Although you can trace many of the general principles behind them back hundreds of years, synthesizers in the sense that we usually refer to them – instruments that create sound electronically – have only been around since the mid-20th century. In that time, somewhere around 60 or 70 years depending on what you count as the first true synthesizer, the technology used has progressed in almost unimaginable leaps.
On one level, the evolution of synthesizer technology goes hand-in-hand with advances in the wider world of tech. Bob Moog’s first commercial synthesizers were launched into a world where computers were only just moving from vacuum tubes to integrated circuits, five years before the first moon landing.
