3 increasingly weird ways to program a TR-606 module (but keep it satisfying)

video upload by mylarmelodies

"This is a blend of: A 606 clone eurorack module demo (the LPZW/Tubbutec 6m0d6), and a tutorial - laced with tips and tricks - exploring three increasingly weird ways to trigger and modulate (drum) modules in general - using Gate & CV, Trigger Riot, and sneaky tricks in Ableton Live & MIDI. The overall theme is: Keeping the results 'musical' and satisfying.

We'll also make a generative sequencer with the Mutable instruments stages and use it to control the excellent Doepfer A-111-6. We'll drive it with the Music Thing Mini Drive. We'll turn the Tiptop Audio Trigger Riot into a modulation sequencer. We'll then use Ableton Live and we'll absolutely smash this thing to bits with some simple but very interesting methods to get completely wild patterns, that would take a LOT of modules to do in analog-land.

Happy days."

00:00 Today we shall...
01:07 I made a tiny groovebox
02:03 6m0d6 sound / basics
02:51 Generative sequencer recipe
03:47 Modulating Decay Time / Accent is Life
05:37 The 1U 6quencer
06:51 Now let's DRIVE it.
08:27 Urgh.
09:05 Sub Tom = A bonus bassdrum
10:46 Speeding up, breakbeats
11:05 Creating a two kick 'roll'
12:55 Trigger Riot
16:59 A weird way to make modulation
21:25 More odd triggering ideas
23:04 Why did this work?
24:43 Ableton Madness
26:36 Dummy modulation clips
29:14 Note Echo Madness
31:22 asd's Arpeggiator Insanity

HOW TO MAKE A MINI MODULAR DRUM MACHINE

video upload by Lido Pigeon

"Making a mini modular drum machine with the @EricaSynths @MoritzKlein0 EDU Kick and Hats, @2hpmodular913 snare, @tonalaxis LK delay, @busycircuits Pam's Pro, Mutable Grids and Music Thing Twin Drive@tonalaxis"

Waldorf Introduces Iridium Core - Smaller Quantum / Iridium Based Desktop Synthesizer

video upload by WaldorfMusicChannel

"Iridium Core" introduced by Panic Girl

video upload by WaldorfMusicChannel

JakoJako about integrating the new "Iridium Core" into her modular setup

video upload by WaldorfMusicChannel

Iridium Core - Sound Demo

video upload by WaldorfMusicChannel







The Core

Iridium Core provides the core synthesis engine of the Quantum / Iridium platform. It is the heart of Waldorf's most advanced hardware-based synthesis. The essence of forward-looking sound. The Core.

Sonic Explorer

Iridium Core contains 5 synthesis engines: Wavetable, Multi- & Granular-Sampling, Waveform, Kernel FM and Resonator. Combined with a broad selection of digital filter and processing options Iridium Core lets you explore a huge sonic universe of electronic sound. Iridium Core's intuitive and easy graphical interface helps you to keep your flow of creativity.

Wave Traveller

The compact form factor makes Iridium Core an ideal companion to travel with you to all your sonic explorations and performances. It fits well into laptop size bags and in carry on-baggage it leaves enough space to all your other devices you need for your performances.

Driven by Inspiration

Iridium Core comes with a huge collection of more than 1700 factory presets and samples to drive your sonic Wanderlust. Get inspired what the broad and diverse array of sound designers have created to fuel your musical endeavours.

Team Player

Iridium Core integrates into various live performance and studio setups. Its connects with your modular synths, drum machines, sequencers and computers. The compact form factor fits well into your tabletop or space limited setups.

Family Member

Iridium Core shares the same software platform like Quantum, Iridium Desktop & Iridium Keyboard. All instruments are powered by the Waldorf synthesiser OS and will receive joint updates. Thus, the whole family participates from future enhancements and developments.


Press Release follows:

Waldorf genuinely gets right to the heart of its Iridium synthesizer product line by introducing Iridium Core as small form factor variant

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10+ ways to use & abuse distortion in Eurorack // London, Twin & Mini Drive from Music Thing Modular

video upload by DivKid

"Here’s the new London Drive and Twin Drive Eurorack modules from Music Thing Modular alongside the original Mini Drive. They are simple, small, affordable and beginner friendly DIY kits that all provide a range of tones from more subtle to more aggressive distortion. The Mini Drive and Twin Drive are based on the external input stage of the classic Minimoog Model D where as the London Drive is based on the input stage of the EMS VCS3 and Synthi AKS.

This video goes through 10+ ways to get creative using and abusing distortion from adding weight and warmth, dynamic thickening to more aggressive fuzziness and feedback patching. There’s also CV tricks such as mixing AC and DC to make PWM like FX in the clipping itself - which sounds fantastic with these. Try out the patches and let me know which patch is your favourite.

Here’s the routing graphic from the final patch // https://bit.ly/DK-MTM-GRAPHIC

All 3 Drive modules can be found here from Thonk
Mini Drive // https://bit.ly/MTM-MiniDrive
London Drive // https://bit.ly/MTM-LondonDrive
Twin Drive // https://bit.ly/MTM-TwinDrive"

🧚 Fairy Fountain | The Legend of Zelda | Modular Synthesizer

video upload by Sworn64

"🧚 This is a classic video game song from The Legend of Zelda series with tons of nostalgia. Please enjoy this modular synthesizer version of the song.

I initially made this as a way to learn more about working with chords on the Audiophile Circuits League Sinfonion module. This song has lots of chord changes, so I thought it was a great choice.

Patch Notes:
✨Main Synth Voice: Mutable Instruments Plaits - Ripples - Beads - AJH Synth Next Phase
✨Secondary Synth Voice: Black Corporation Deckard’s Voice
✨Bass Synth Voice: Noise Engineering BIA & Moog Subharmonicon - Music Thing Modular Mini Drive
✨Lead Synth Voice: Noise Engineering Manis Iteritas - System 80 860 & QuBit Surface
✨Chord Voice: QuBit Chord - Intellijel Polaris Controlled by ACL Sinfonion
✨Drums: System 80 880 & Moog DFAM
✨Water Samples: 4MS Stereo Triggered Sampler : WMD Overseer
✨Granular FX: Instruo Arbhar processing Deckard’s Voice
✨White Noise FX: Steady State Fate Quantum Rainbow - Make Noise Q-Pas
✨Performance Controls: Polyend Preset, Doepfer A-174-4 3D Joystick, Emblematic Systems Catalyst Flow, Michigan Synth Works F8R
✨Performance Effects: Strymon Magneto, Happy Nerding FX Aid XL, WMD Overseer
✨Sequencer: Winter Modular Eloquencer
✨Mixed through the WMD Performance Mixer with Halls of Valhalla Reverb on the Tiptip Audio Z-DSP & Make Noise Mimeophon."

Music Thing Modular - Mini Drive - How to patch it!

video upload by Thonk Synth DIY

Buy Mini Drive HERE - https://www.thonk.co.uk/mini-drive

Additional Mini Drive posts

Music Thing Modular Mini Drive | Ambient Modular Synthesizer | Sworn64

video upload by Sworn64

"Having a little jam with the Music Thing Modular Mini Drive module from Thonk designed by Tom Whitwell.

The Mini Drive is a 4hp incandescent lamp based Overdrive/Distortion module inspired by the classic Moog Minimoog input gain. If you’re looking to get into DIY, this is very quick and easy kit to build.

Main voice is a Mutable Instruments Plaits through a Mutable Instruments Ripples, through the Mini Drive. Sequenced by the Make Noise Rene 2, clocked by the Korg SQ-1. Mutable Instruments Clouds provides the granular delay effects while the Happy Nerding FX Aid XL provides the Reverb. WMD AXYS crossfader controls the reverb send amount which is modulated by a Steady State Fate RND STP random sample and hold voltage to give the voice random splashes of reverb. The droning voice is the Acid Rain Technology Chainsaw through the System 80 Jove and 860 filters slowly modulated by an LFO. This voice is also sent through the TipTop Audio Z-Verb."

https://www.thonk.co.uk/product-category/mtfk/?=m

Music Thing Modular - Mini Drive - Demo - Midiverse - TV

video by Midiverse - TV

"What's up everybody? Welcome to Midiverse - TV! Today we're checking out a DIY synthesizer module that we recently finished building, the Mini Drive from Music Thing Modular. Let's have a look!"

Music Thing Modular Mini Drive!

video by Synth Diy Guy

"A cool incandescent lamp based overdrive from Music Thing Modular! Super easy kit to build and sounds awesome :) Get your at Thonk!: https://www.thonk.co.uk/​

My Website: https://www.quincasmoreira.com/​
My Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/quincas​

Stay Noisy!"

Synth Demos by Lost Clouds

If ou are viewing this post from the front page you will see a more link directly below. Click it before you start to get to the list of videos plus descriptions for each. You can use the controls at the bottom of the player to skip around. You can find Lost Clouds music at https://lostcl0uds.bandcamp.com

CLICK FOR MORE »

NYZ - NTE GDN => Behind the scenes with the Yamaha FB-01

Photo Credit: Calum Gunn * all other pix by NYZ *

"The new NYZ - NTE GDN tape on Conditional is just out [limited edition of 50 copies]! Matrix heard on the synth grapevine that it heavily featured the Yamaha FB-01 operating in a secret sysex mode, so he asked me if I'd write a little about how it was used. You can check the album out on the Conditional Bandcamp page here, release date July 6th =>

and have a listen while reading. Its also available from Boomkat [with track previews] =>

Boomkat review => "Blinding new batch of synth and computer music chaos from Dave Burraston’s cultishly regarded NYZ. With such a wild variation to his purist approach it’s perhaps silly to draw comparisons or contrasts, but these are patently some of NYZ’s sweeter treats, such as the curdled harmonics of ‘ARTOFNYZbitcompander’ and the funky lil’ vamps of ‘RLD syncs’ for more insatiable and curious listeners. In other words it’s fucking ace!"

and Norman Records =>

Norman Records review => "9/10 Conditional unleash this beautifully wild and playful tape from David Burraston aka NYZ. Here he harnesses the spectrum splitting potential of John Chowning’s FM synthesis to birth and animate ludicrously cute and cuddly synthetic creatures that come to life before our very ears. What even are these little mutant alien lifeforms? Where is this strange place in which they dwell?

The overall experience of imbibing these sounds is a lot like an experience I once had watching Teletubbies on acid, where I thought the little blighters were actually communicating directly to me. This world NYZ has created and its inhabitants are clearly fantasy, but it’s so brilliantly, vividly realised and skillfully executed that if you just let go of the shackles of reality and submit yourself, it can be an authentic place where these things live and breathe, eat and sleep and go through their life cycle. We get to hang out with them as they speak, sing, laugh and cry. I’d much rather hang out with these chirpy little fellows because humans are the absolute worst. For music to get a miserable, misanthropic, curmudgeon bastard like me to grin like a child holding a cookie the size of its head is quite an achievement.

This tape is just so much fun - it's like a little utopia for the most part, but there are occasional darker moments - at times it feels like the big bad wolf or some kind of predator is lurking with intent to gobble up our little friends. Burraston’s custom-built MANIAC Cellular Automata Sequencer is instrumental in giving life to these sounds - a tool that gives this work a unique voice and an unpredictable energy that seems to organically flow through his machines. This music is most certainly unconventional even by avant-garde standards, and although on the surface is definitely weird and kinda eccentric, it taps into something deeper. Like Victor Frankenstein’s unorthodox scientific experiment in Mary Shelley's novel where scientist becomes an architect of life. This place, it's lifeforms and their language seems bewilderingly genuine - a sonic virtual reality -- a hybrid analogue/digital world where what is “real” and synthetic is blurred."


So why am I interested in the strange and esoteric Yamaha FB-01, and what are these secret sysex codes? Well, first up its a nice little 8 voice FM synth, and I'm well known for being a bit obsessed with FM [see the NYZ - DRN4 Declassified article]. Secondly, its a kind of in-between synth, arriving after the first 4 operator synths, such the DX21, but before the TX81Z which featured a full microtonal tuning table. Its this inbetweeness that really interested me, and its really the only first gen sine wave only 4op that can be micro-tuned, albeit in a very roundabout way via some secret sysex codes.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Details on the Upcoming anAmoNo X Synthesizer From Gotharman

You've seen the videos, we now have full details on the upcoming anAmoNo X synth in directly from Gotharman. You'll find the full details on a new anAmoNo X site here, and captured below for the archives. Take a look at the specs. This is going to be one powerful synth, complete with swappable filters and more.

"Modular synthesizer with memory, swappable analog filters, sampler and granular effects.

Please notice: anAmoNo X does NOT work with the expansion box series. Instead it has replacable analog filters.

The most flexible Gotharman synthesizer ever!

I was really happy with the flexibility of my Eurorack system, but since I spend most of my time running Gotharman's, and do not have very much time for playing music, I was not really happy with the lack of preset storage on this. I always ended up spending a huge lot of time tweaking knobs and rearranging cables, and not really getting any tracks composed (inportant or not :-)). This actually became a bigger and bigger annoyance to me, and in my Christmas holidays 2015, I decided to do something about it.

At first I started to design a module with 32 audio inputs, 32 CV inputs, 32 audio outputs, 32 CV outputs, 64 knobs, a display and memory. The idea was to connect everything of all my eurorack modules to this (hmmm...actually I am not sure if this module would have had enough connections...), connect the modules via an internal cross-bay, and adjust all the CV and audio levels on the 64 knobs. It did though, pretty soon, become clear to me, that this module would be huge and really expensive to produce. On top of that, not all parameters are CV controllable on all modules, so it would require quite a bit of soldering to get this connected to everything.

So I took a few days of brainstorming with myself, and came up with a new idea: The most important sound shaping thing (to my opinion), is the filter. So if I just could scramble things a bit down, and make a box with oscillators, VCA's, modulation sources, and maybe some effect modules, and just made the filters replacable, it would theoretically give almost the same possibilities as my eurorack system, but with added patch storage. And if I one day got tired of its sound, I would just have to replace one or both of its filters, and then I would get new sounds, without having to design or purchase a completely new synth. The design of anAmoNo X began...

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The PPG 1003 "Sonic Carrier" - World's First Programmable Synth?

via Wolfgang Palm on Facebook
Be sure to see the video below.

"This was the first programmable synthesizer (1977)."

Programmable as in patch memory. The 1003 was a programmable monophonic synth with two oscillators, digitally controlled keyboard, and it was duophonic.

But was it the first?

Excerpts via Part 4 of the PPG Story:

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Rare 1984 Casio KX-101 boombox keyboard

YouTube via Fingermush — May 05, 2010 —

"This is a very short demo, of a rare Casio boombox. My camera doesn't do this thing justice. The drums & some of the tones are really cool."


via this auction

"main features:
* 37 mini keys
* 12 key buttons + 11 select buttons for direct selectable single finger chords
* 2 detachable 2-way loudspeaker boxes (with some bass, tweeter is slightly hissy)
* main voice polyphony 4 notes (only 1 in unison mode)
* 9 preset sounds {piano 1..3, harpsichord, organ, clarinet, flute, horn, mellow}
* 12 preset rhythms {waltz, ballad, swing, enka, 16beat, rock-1..3, disco-1..2, bossa nova, samba}
* preset sounds, rhythms & sequencer note lengths selected through keyboard keys
* cipher buttons {'0'..'9', 'set', 'c'} (only used by tape deck?)
* main volume slider
* treble & stereo balance sliders
* separate volume sliders for poly (keyboard main voice), mono, chord, arpeggio, rhythm, mixing microphone
* stereo/ mono switch
* tempo +/- buttons (57 steps, most are slow)
* transpose +/- buttons (13 semitone steps)
* arpeggio
* detuned chorus mode (called "unison", monophonic)
* 3 rhythm fill-in buttons
* complex sequencer (473 steps, polyphonic with edit features, saves music files on audio cassette)
* 2 "one key play" buttons (to play or edit sequencer contents note by note)
* semi- analogue sound generator similar like Casio VL-1; the digital envelopes (with audible zipper noise) are linear and thus sounds unrealistic because they fade silent too soon. Unlike the latter it is 4 note polyphonic and alternatingly assigns notes to both stereo channels. Chord voice is 4 note polyphonic with fixed timbre like Casio PT-30 but has an optional arpeggio voice. Analogue percussion corresponds to PT-30.
* very complex multi- chip hardware:
o CPU1= "NEC D1868G 006, 8348XK, Japan" (80 pin SMD)
o CPU2= "NEC D1879G 002, 8343XK, Japan" (80 pin SMD)
o 2x SRAM= "HD C, 61914, 4F, 23" (44 pin SMD)
o tape drive CPU?= "Toshiba TC4514BP, 8418H, Japan" (24 pin DIL)
o IC "LB1405, 4A3" (16 pin DIL)
o tuner IC "441, A04" (16(?) pin DIL)
o big hybrid "K4F25S, 46311"
* radio tuner:
o FM stereo, MW, LW
o analogue scale with tuning knob
o telescope & ferrite antenna
o nice sound
* digital controlled cassette deck:
o "computer play" drive control buttons {space search, rec return, repeat, single, program, shuffle, intro, JP}
o direct title select through cipher buttons
o tape sorts switch {normal, CrO2, metal}
o tape counter (mechanical)
o record mute button (records a pause)
o datasette function to save & load sequencer data
o 2 integrated microphones
o has no dolby, sounds bassless
o fails by hardening rubber parts
* level meter (7 LED row with only 5 steps, mono)
* timer switch (to be used with an external mains timer to play or record)
* RAM-Pack slot (for optional Casio RA-10 module that expands sequencer memory to 985 steps)
* tuning trimmer (+/- 30cent)
* auto- power off (in keyboard mode)
* jacks for mains cable, speakers, line out, phones, line in, microphones, mixing microphone"

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Acxel II

Remember the Technos Acxel Resynthesizer (pictured)? I just read this post on Music Thing. Apparently the creator of the Acxel, Pierre Guilmette, is working on a new version. Check out Music Thing for a letter from Pierre.

You can find his website, iDarca Audio here. You'll find a bit of info on resynthesis and some audio samples.

Update some more info on the Acxel:

"Don Garbutt writes: Freaky, obsure, expensive, unique, weighs a lot, robust construction (lots of VLSI chips inside). This machine is impossible to find, although I have one. Lucky me!!! Graphical interface is totally intuitive, and tell me if you know of any other machines that are resynthesis- based, as this is , if you care to use it in this fashion. Digital filter emulation (oscillator # filter) is unequaled.

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The First Synth to....

Update: The new home for this list is now here. You can add to the list there or comment here and I will update both lists. Note that the complete list however will be there as I do not plan on updating this list with updates made there. That would be too much work and would compete with me being able to put up new posts here. Can't let that happen. : ) Related but separate from that list also see https://120years.net. That said...

If you are going to add to the list in the comments, use the same format.

Year - Manufacturer - Model - First at
1837 - C.G. Page (Salem. Mass) - first to produce electronically generated sound (not necessarily associated with a musical instrument). After inventing the Volta in 1800 (an early battery), in 1837 Page was doing experiments with coils and realized when certain coils were attached to a batter they omitted a ringing sound. While he initially thought the ring came from the electrical current was interrupted (battery disconnected), what was actually taking place was the induction through the coils was causing them to vibrate. via Peter Grenader
1885 - Person and Ernst Lorenz -'Elektrisches Musikinstrument' - the first musical instrument designed to produce electrically generated sound. It used electronic vibrations to drive an electromagnet that were connected to resonating boards, which translated these vibrations to sound. via Peter Grenader
1897 - Taddaeus Cahills - Telharmonium - electromechanical instrument.
1936 - Oskar Sala - Mixturtrautonium - first synth using Subharmonic synthesis
1939 - Homer Dudley invents the Parallel Bandpass Vocoder (VODER) - A manually key operated speech synthesizer
1940 - Homer Dudley invents the The Voder speech synthesizer - A device which used the human voice and an artificial voice to produce a composite
Both were researched as a way to transmit speech over copper wires (id est, telephone lines)
1948 - Hugh LeCaine - Electronic Sackbut - First voltage-controlled synthesizer
1948 - Dr. Raymond Scott - Wall of Sound - First polyphonic Sequencing Worstation (electromechanical) and the Electronum - first sequencer.
1950 - CSIR - Mk 1 - The first known use of a digital computer for the purpose playing music
1956 - Louie and Bebe Barron - Produced the first all-electronic musical score for a major motion picture - MGM's 'Forbidden Planet'
1957 - Max V. Mathews at Bell Labs - MUSIC - the first digital synthesizer. Technically, it was a computer program, though it set the stage for every digital synthesizer that proceeded it. See Laurie Spiegel with one here.
1963/64 - Buchla - model 100 modular - 1st "modern" modular synth
1967 - Moog - Moog modular synthesizer I, II & III - 1st commercial modular synth.
1969 - EMS - Synthi VCS-3 - first non-modular mini-synth
1970 - MOOG - Minimoog - 1st Mono Synth with keys (non-modular)
1971 - Tonus/Arp - Soloist - 1st preset mono synth
1971 - John Chowning - developed FM synthesis using the MUSIC-IV language (source), a direct descendent of Mathew's MUSIC program. FM synthesis was later licensed by Yamaha, and used in popular synths such as the DX-7.
1972 - Triadex Muse - first digital synth
""is the first digital musical instrument and was produced in 1972. It was
designed by Edward Fredkin and Marvin Minsky at MIT. It is an algorithmic
music generator: it uses digital logic circuits to produce a sequence of
notes based on the settings of various parameters. It has four small sliders
in that control Volume, Tempo, Pitch, and Fine Pitch. It is not known how
many were made, but they are considered extremely rare.
The Muse is the subject of U. S. Patent 3610801"
1973 - Coupland Digital Music Synthesizer - First Digital (Triadex beat it?) Update via Peter Grenader: "No time to read through all these posts to see if it's come up yet, but the Coupland was vaporwear...it never existed. I met Mark Vail, who's now a friend, by writing him a letter informing him that his story about the Coupland in his Vintage Synthesizers book (GREAT book) which mentioned it's only recorded showing was at the AES show in LA in 1978 was a farce. I was there - at their booth and their suite in the Hilton where the instrument was said to be. I was there on the first day, I was there on the last day. The only thing they had was a small model - about six inches across, sitting on a table. The booth was amazing - this radial orb multiple people could sit in, with a cover that came over each person which played what I remembered was a very impressive demo which swirled around four speakers inside the box. I, and everyone else, were blown away. They kept saying...'it will be here tomorrow, it'll be here tomorrow'...so I showed up the last day just to see it, figuring by the then it would have arrived...it didn't. I did see the frst Synthclavier at that show however. Their suite was across the hall from the Coupland folk. That completely kicked the crap out of everything else shown that year."
1973 - Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer - NED - Synclavier prototype - first digital synth
1974 - Roland - SH-3A - first commercial additive synth
1974 - RMI - Harmonic Synthesizer - first commercial additive synth
1975 - Buchla 502 - six voice polyphonic with minicomputer and ability to save patches to tape drive. Development on the 500 series began in 1969.
1975 - Oberheim FVS - four voice polyphonic with Polyphonic Synthesizer Programmer. Not sure if the Buchla 502 or FVS was released first.
1976 - PPG - PPG 1003 sonic carrier - 1st programmable mono/duo synth with patch memory (this, along with the model 1020, might have been the 1st synths to use DCO's as well)
1977 - Yamaha - CS50/CS60/CS80 - first single enclosure polyphonic keyboard synthesizers with the CS80 to be the first synth with poly aftertouch
1977 (late) - Oberheim - OB-1 - 1st commercial programmable mono synth with patch memory
1978 (late) - PPG - Wavecomputer 360 - 1st wavetable synth
1978 - Sequential Circuits - microprocessor control the SCI prophet 10 (briefly) and the P-5 --- again based on existing E-mu tech stuff
1979 - NED - Synclavier - First FM
1979 - Fairlight CMI - First Sampler, First Workstation
1980 - Performance Music Systems - Syntar - First self contained keytar
1982 - Sequential Circuits - Prophet 600 / First Midi Synthesizer (though some argue the Prophet 5 rev 3.2 is pre-MIDI MIDI)
1983 - Yamaha - DX7 - Digital takes over, FM goes mainstream
1983 - OSC - OSCar - First real-time additive with analog filters
1984 - Sequential Circuits - SixTrak - first multitimbral
1985 - Casio - CZ-101 - First battery-powered all digital mini-synth
1987 - Kawai K5 and Technos Axcel - first additive synths
1989 - E-Mu Systems - Proteus - First dedicated ROMpler
1992 - Seer Systems - first host-based software synthesizer in 1992
1994 - Yamaha - VL1 - first physical modelling synth
1995 - Clavia - Nord Lead - 1st Virtual Analog
1996 - Rubberduck - still not the first softsynth but came before Seer Systems Reality.
1996 - Steinberg - VST - Ok not a synth but enabled a lot to be written as plug-ins and used simultaneously
1997 - Seer Systems - Reality - First Modular Soft Synth
2002 - Hartmann Neuron - first neuronal synth
2912 - KalQuestoTron - the first genetically engineered synth. Each cell is an oscillator, filter, and neural sequencer. Can be delivered via injection to always play 'hold music' in your head.

I thought it might be fun to have a "first synth to..." post. There's been a lot of buzz over Sonic State's Top 20 Synths of All Time with good reason. What exactly is a "top synth?" Is it it's influence on the music scene? It's rarity and lust appeal? The number of synths sold? According to Sonic State their list was the result of Sonic State reader's voting for their favorite synths. Blame the voters if you don't like what you see. Based on what has come up on the list so far, the E-Mu Proteus and Roland JV-1080 for example as well as the Roland Jupiter 8 not even making the top ten, I'm guessing a bit of it has to do with the vote and... possibly the most influential/ground breaking synths for their time. The JV1080 and Proteus? Not super sexy in this day and age, but what they offered in their time? Who knows. It's obviously subjective. But there is something that isn't. The most influential synths of all time not because they were super sexy or utilitarian, but because they offered something that was not previously available.

I thought what might be interesting to create a list of the first synths to feature a particular technology or feature. For example what was the fist synth to bring FM to the table? Was it the DX7 or a predecessor? What was the first digital synth and when? The first additive synth? I have a good idea and could probably look it all up, but that wouldn't be any fun, so.... You tell me. I am going to make this an open post that will live over time. You get to participate by putting an entry in the comments. I will update the list and when I do I will change the time stamp of the post to keep it current. That said, for the archives, this post went up with a time stamp of 4/11/07 7:20 PM PST. I'll start the list (btw, do correct me on the MOOG, what model should we be talking about here? The A, B, C or D or all of them?).

Year - Manufacturer - Model - First at
1970 - MOOG - Minimoog - 1st Mono Synth with keys (non-modular)
1978 - Sequential Circuits - Prophet 5 - 1st Programmable Polyphonic Analog
... List continues above.

Update 3/34/12: Also see the first synthesizers to offer patch storage here.