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Oberheim
Oberheim is an American synthesizer manufacturer founded in 1969 by Tom Oberheim. Beginning in 1975, Oberheim developed some of the first commercially available polyphonic synthesizers and was a prominent synthesizer and drum machine manufacturer through the mid-1980s. In 1988, the company changed ownership and was eventually purchased by Gibson Guitar Corporation, which developed new Oberheim products and licensed the trademark to other companies that produced Oberheim products, but development of Oberheim products ceased after 2000. In 2009, Tom Oberheim began developing instruments through his own company, and in 2019, Gibson returned the Oberheim trademark to Tom Oberheim, whose company rebranded as Oberheim. History and products Beginnings and first polyphonic synthesizers Tom Oberheim founded the company in 1969, originally as a designer and contract manufacturer of electronic effects devices for Chicago Musical Instruments under their Maestro brand, including the PS-1A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tom Oberheim
Thomas Elroy Oberheim (born July 7, 1936), known as Tom Oberheim, is an American audio engineer and electronics engineer best known for designing effects processors, analog synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines. He has been the founder of four audio electronics companies, most notably Oberheim Electronics. He was also a key figure in the development and adoption of the MIDI standard. He is also a trained physicist. Early life and education Oberheim was born and raised in Manhattan, Kansas, also the home of Kansas State University. Beginning in junior high school, he put his interest in electronics into practice by building hi-fi components and amplifiers for friends. A fan of jazz music, Oberheim decided to move to Los Angeles after seeing an ad on the back of '' Downbeat Magazine'' about free jazz performances at a club there. He arrived in Los Angeles in July 1956 at the age of 20 with $10 in his pocket. He worked as a draftsman trainee at NCR Corporation where he w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer
The Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer is a series of analog music synthesizers that was produced from 1975 to 1979 by Oberheim Electronics. Developed by Tom Oberheim, they were the first production synthesizers capable of playing chords. Background After Oberheim introduced the DS-2 digital music sequencer, Tom Oberheim recognized that customers wanted to play one synthesizer while the DS-2 played a sequence on another, or layer the sound of one synthesizer with another. To address this need, he introduced the Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM), a semi-modular analog synthesizer module, in 1974. The SEM featured two VCOs and a two-pole voltage-controlled filter that could operate as a low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, or band-reject filter, giving it a different sound than the Moog and ARP four-pole low-pass ladder filters popular at the time. Specification In late 1975, after Norlin canceled several large Maestro orders, Oberheim developed a series of polyphonic synthesiz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oberheim SEM
The Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer is a series of analog music synthesizers that was produced from 1975 to 1979 by Oberheim Electronics. Developed by Tom Oberheim, they were the first production synthesizers capable of playing chords. Background After Oberheim introduced the DS-2 digital music sequencer, Tom Oberheim recognized that customers wanted to play one synthesizer while the DS-2 played a sequence on another, or layer the sound of one synthesizer with another. To address this need, he introduced the Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM), a semi-modular analog synthesizer module, in 1974. The SEM featured two VCOs and a two-pole voltage-controlled filter that could operate as a low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, or band-reject filter, giving it a different sound than the Moog and ARP four-pole low-pass ladder filters popular at the time. Specification In late 1975, after Norlin canceled several large Maestro orders, Oberheim developed a series of polyphonic synthesizers b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oberheim Two Voice
The Oberheim Two Voice (TVS) is an analogue synthesizer produced by Oberheim Electronics from 1975 to 1979. It can be operated in either polyphonic or monophonic mode, and includes an onboard 8-step sequencer. The Two Voice was the first of Oberheim's Polyphonic Synthesizer series, and one of the first commercially-available polyphonic synthesizers. Development At the start of 1975, Oberheim did not consider itself a synthesizer manufacturer. At the time, the company's business consisted of contract manufacturing Maestro-branded effects units, as well its own products, the DS-2 digital music sequencer and Synthesizer Expansion Module, which were intended as add-ons for Minimoog and ARP 2600 owners. When Norlin canceled several large Maestro orders, the company was forced to develop new products to replace those lost sales. By combining multiple SEM synthesizer modules with a digitally-scanned keyboard developed by Dave Rossum and a two-channel sequencer, Oberheim created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyphonic Synthesizer
Polyphony is a property of musical instruments that means that they can play multiple independent melody lines simultaneously. Instruments featuring polyphony are said to be polyphonic. Instruments that are not capable of polyphony are monophonic or paraphonic. An intuitively understandable example for a polyphonic instrument is a (classical) piano, on which the player plays different melody lines with the left and the right hand - depending on music style and composition, these may be musically tightly interrelated or may even be totally unrelated to each other, like in parts of Jazz music. An example for monophonic instruments is a trumpet which can generate only one tone (frequency) at a time, except when played by extraordinary musicians. Synthesizer Monophonic A monophonic synthesizer or ''monosynth'' is a synthesizer that produces only one note at a time, making it smaller and cheaper than a polyphonic synthesizer which can play multiple notes at once. This does not n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dave Rossum
David P. Rossum (born 1948) is an American electronics engineer and inventor best known as the co-founder of synthesizer and sampler manufacturer E-mu Systems. Education and early career Rossum grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and attended the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), earning a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 1970. Later that year while pursuing graduate studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Rossum's advisor, Harry Noller, invited him to join him in the music department where students were unpacking the university's new Moog Model 12 modular synthesizer. Rossum discovered an affinity for synthesis and invited his Caltech friends Steve Gabriel and Jim Ketcham to come see the Model 12. Together, they were inspired to start designing a synthesizer. In 1971 Ketcham heard there was a request for bid from the San Diego School District for music synthesizers to add to their high school music program, and Rossum and his friends decided t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Sequencer
A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling Musical note, note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Control, and possibly audio signal, audio and automation data for digital audio workstations (DAWs) and Audio plugin, plug-ins. Overview Modern sequencers The advent of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) in the 1980s gave programmers the opportunity to design software that could more easily record and play back sequences of notes played or programmed by a musician. As the technology matured, sequencers gained more features, such as the ability to record multitrack audio. Sequencers used for audio recording are called digital audio workstations (DAWs). Many modern sequencers can be used to control Software synthesizer, virtual instruments implemented as software Audio plug-in, plug-ins. This allows musicians to repl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ring Modulation
In electronics, ring modulation is a signal processing function, an implementation of frequency mixing, in which two signals are combined to yield an output signal. One signal, called the carrier, is typically a sine wave or another simple waveform; the other signal is typically more complicated and is called the input or the modulator signal. The ring modulator takes its name from the original implementation in which the analog circuit of diodes takes the shape of a ring, a diode ring. The circuit is similar to a bridge rectifier, except that all four diodes are polarized in the same direction. Ring modulation is similar to amplitude modulation, with the difference that in the latter the modulator is shifted to be positive before being multiplied with the carrier, while in the former the unshifted modulator signal is multiplied with the carrier. This has the effect that ring modulation of two sine waves having frequencies of 1,500 Hz and 400 Hz produce an output signal th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drum Machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A drum machine often has pre-programmed beats and patterns for popular genres and styles, such as pop music, rock music, and dance music. Most modern drum machines made in the 2010s and 2020s also allow users to program their own rhythms and beats. Drum machines may create sounds using Analog synthesizer, analog synthesis or play prerecorded Sampling (music), samples. While a distinction is generally made between drum machines (which can play back pre-programmed or user-programmed beats or patterns) and electronic drums (which have pads that can be struck and played like an acoustic drum kit), there are some drum machines that have buttons or pads that allow the performer to play drum sounds "live", either on top of a programmed drum beat or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyle Mays
Lyle David Mays (November 27, 1953 – February 10, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awards. Biography While growing up in rural Wisconsin, Mays had a lot of curiosity but had to learn many things all by himself due to a lack of available resources and information. He had four main interests: chess, mathematics, architecture, and music. His mother Doris played piano and organ, and his father Cecil, a truck driver, taught himself to play guitar by ear. His teacher allowed him to practice improvisation after the structured elements of the lesson were completed. At the age of nine, he played the organ at a family member's wedding, and at fourteen he began to play in church. During his senior year of high school, at summer national stage band camp in Normal, Illinois, he was introduced to jazz pianist Marian McPartland. ''Bill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
