Sinfonia is a musical instrument designed to emulate the sounds produced by individual instruments in an orchestra. Created by Realtime Music Solutions, who also developed the patented technology which allows for easy programming and very subtle and nuanced performances, Sinfonia is played by a musician who follows the conductor just like the other members of the orchestra. Sinfonia is becoming a natural addition to ensembles around the world, especially those in broadway style musicals, and has an integrated sound quality that matches that of the live instruments.

Studio Help Which Computer Read on... Compressors Read on... Compressor Settings Read on... CSound Read on... Granular Synthesis Read on... DSP Read on... Plug-in's Continue Reading

Additive synthesis is the most intuitive of synthesis methods: you make a sound by adding elementary sine signals which frequencies and amplitudes evolve. Beauchamp's additive synthesizer was able to generate six harmonics each with their own amplitude envelop. Furthermore, the phase-shift of the second harmonic was voltage controlled. As every part of this synthesizer was voltage controlled, it was possible to use it with other modules to achieve a composite synthesis method (additive, subtractive and modulation synthesis).

While getting his doctorate in physics in 1963, Robert Moog made money by selling do-it-yourself transistorized theremins. One of Moog's transistorized thereminists was Herbert Deutsch, a composer. Moog and Deutsch met in 1963 at a conference. This led to conversation about the need for new electronic instruments. Moog had his very first prototype built in August 1964. The principle of his prototype was the use of voltage controlled generators and filters. This allows the performer to create their own sounds by connecting modules with electric wires and by turning knobs. In 1968 a recordi...

The Hammond organ was designed in the thirties, and from a technological point of view it is a miniature version of the Telharmonium, although it weighs 200 kg instead of 200 tons. Its sound generators are known as phonic wheels which comprise of a cog wheel rotated in front of an electromagnet. As the metallic cogs in front of the electromagnet varies, it generates an electric current in the wire. This signal is then amplified by triode lamps. Thanks to its weight it was and is still used by musicians on tour. Jazz and Rock musicians still use this instrument extensively. The commer...

The Theremin is the invention of the Russian scientist Leon Theremin. This instrument was first built in Russia in 1920 but it actually gained audience around 1928. The technical principle of the theremin is a phenomenon known as heterodyning: when you mix two signals with two slightly different frequencies the resulting signal has a frequency equal to the difference of the two frequencies. The great idea of Leon Theremin consists in using a reference high frequency oscillator and a variable high frequency oscillator: the resulting low frequency varies as the variable high frequency ...

By the year 1900, in London, streetlights generated light using an electric arc which produced an annoying whining sound. Physicist William Duddell was trying to devise a way to eliminate this sound and found a way to control its frequency! He attached a keyboard to his first voltage-controlled device and took the instrument on tour. The "Singing Arc" became a novelty by the turn of the century.

Thaddeus Cahill is considered the inventor of the first serious musical electronic instrument. His 1896 patent described a device with electrical tone generating devices, dynamics-controlling devices for building tones, a keyboard for activating the tone-generating circuitry, and a loud-speaker. Cahill was able to use the telharmonium to imitate common orchestral instruments like the oboe, cello or violin. The first large telharmonium was gigantic, it occupied the better part of the factory it was located in. The entire instrument weighed about 200 tons.