Synthesizers

Paul de Benedictis recalls the day he was working along side software designer Dave Oppenheim when a series of commands were created to allow a drum machine to sync to Dave's MIDIMAC Sequencer through MIDI. In the early MIDI days of the synthesizer and computers this was an exciting moment and one...
David Cockerell designed one of the earliest synthesizers produced in the United Kingdom. The Synthi was introduced in the late 1960s by EMS Ltd. The unit, which came in a case with a KS keyboard, used patch cords to root reverb and ring modes. David also included two oscillators both with shape...
Marcus Ryle began his career in the industry as an engineer for Oberheim while he was still a teenager. In those pre MIDI days, Marcus designed a series of sound controllers as well as providing several modifications to the company’s synthesizers. He later co-founded Fast Forward in 1985 with...
Don Griffin is the founder and president of West LA Music in Los Angeles, CA. Don’s background in music and customer service made his store the ideal stop for many of the rock and studio musicians in southern California. Don was one of the very first music retailers to break into the pro audio and...
Max Mathews was working as an engineer at the famed Bell Laboratory in 1954 when he was asked to determine if the computer Bell was designing could create music. The landmark Music 2 and later Music 4 projects put the two concepts together as early as 1957-–the computer and music had a future and...
Tom Kowalczyk served a long post as the artist relations director at Kurzweil Music. Tom had begun his career in music retail in the 1970s and became an expert on electronic keyboards as a salesman and musician. Ray Kurzweil, the company founder and instrument innovator, hired Tom to assist with...
Dave Rossum and Scott Wedge attended college together and soon developed a few clever ways of combining their engineering training with their passion for music. They began creating sound controllers for the boom of synthesizers hitting the market in the 1970s. While supplying a growing number of...
Scott Wedge and Dave Rossum attended college together and soon developed a few clever ways of combining their engineering training with their passion for music. They began creating sound controllers for the boom of synthesizers hitting the market in the 1970s. While supplying a growing number of...
Pat Downes combined his engineering background with his passion for music to create the electronic air drums.  Forming the company Palm Tree Instruments, Pat became an inventor in the world of electronic mechanical devices that produce sounds.  The air drums are among his most noted products, which...
Evan Brooks became interested in electronic musical instruments during the early days of synthesizer development. He worked on MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controllers for E-MU and other San Francisco Bay Area companies. Soon thereafter, Evan started designing his own technologies...

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