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Amplifier: The part of the synthesizer that amplifies the sound that is generated by the oscillator. It has normally has a control input which can be driven by an envelope or an LFO
Arpeggiator: Most synths can only play one note at a time (they are monophonic). With the arpeggiator on, if more than one note is pressed at a time, the synth will alternate between the notes. They also often have a range control that allows the user to tell the synth to play additional octaves - so if the range is set to two octaves the synth will play the keys that are held down in the octave that they are played and then in the next octave up/down.
Band-pass: A type of filter. A band-pass filter filters out a selected band of frequencies in the middle of the frequency range. It is not used very much.
Control input: An input into part of the synthesizer that allows that bit to be modulated by another part of the synth. For example there is a control input in the amplifier. This control input controls the level of the noise. If a very slow sine wave is patched into this input then the noise will slowly get louder and quieter. If the LFO was patched into the control input of the oscillator instead, then the sound would go higher and lower in pitch.
Cross-modulation: This is the ability for parts of a synthesizer to be able to modulate other parts of the synthesizer. The synths with most cross-modulation abilities are modular synths, which actually use patch leads to plug different modules into each other, so any output can be plugged into any input.
DCA: Digitally Controlled Amplifier. See amplifier
DCF: Digitally Controlled Filter. See filter
DCO: Digitally Controlled Oscialltor. See oscillator
Envelope: An envelope generator generates a signal that changes through the length of a sound, normally to control the loudness of that sound. An example of its use is to control the volume of a piano sound. It creates a signal that goes from low to high very quickly (the loud bit when the key is pressed), then goes down slowly as the sounds gets quieter. They are also used to drive other parts of the synthesizer, for example the filter.
Filter: A filter filters out certain frequencies in the sound. There are three main types: a low-pass, high-pass and band-pass, which are covered elseware in the glossary. (there is also a type called a notch filter, but it is very rare and not covered here). Filters have two controls - the frequency control selects at which frequency the filter should start operating and the resonance control creates a peak just before the bit where it starts filtering out frequencies. This is used to create acid-type sounds.
Frequency Modulation (FM): Frequency modulation allows the output of one oscillator to drive the frequency of another oscillator. It can generate very complex sounds from very simple waveforms and is the basis of the Yamaha DX range of synthisizers and OPL range of synthesizer chips (used in Adlib and most other soundcards).
High-pass: A high-pass filter filters out lower frequencies from the sound.
LFO: A Low Frequency Oscillator. It is similar to a normal oscillator except that it is used as a control input into another part of the synth. Examples of its use are to create vibrato or tremolo effects.
Low-pass: A low-pass filter filters out higher frequencies from the sound.
Monophonic: If a synth is monophonic, it can only play one note at a time. Contrast with polyphonic.
Midi: An interface for connecting musical instruments together. It is used to connect musical keyboards to the PC and can also be used for connecting together music programs inside the PC (though it is far from ideal for this use - with problems especially in the area of synchronisation)
Note-priority: The note-priority determines which note is played when several are held down at once. The ideal is last-note priority which plays the note that was last played, but due to the design of early keyboards corners had to be cut and low or high note priority were sometimes used, which means that the lowest or highest note held down is played.
Oscillator: An oscillator produces a pure sound. The frequency and waveform of the sound can be selected.
Polyphonic: A polyphonic synth can play several notes at the same time.
Polyphony: The polyphony is the number of notes a synth can play at once.
Resonance: Most filters emphasize the frequencies just before those that are reduced in volume. Resonance is the degree of emphasis that occurs. It makes the filter much more audible - it would otherwise sound like just altering the equalisation - and is the foundation of the acid sound.
Ring Modulator: Takes two sounds as its input (e.g. from two oscillators) and combines them to create a new sound, normally metallic sounding.
Sequencer: Allows a sequence of notes to be put together to make songs. Sequencers vary in complexity from simple 16-note sequencers built into synthesizers, to 256-track audio sequencers on the PC or Mac such as Cubase or Cakewalk.
TB-303: A synthesizer created by Roland in the 1970s for accompanying guitarists, but which was discovered by the dance movement in the late '80s. It is the entire foundation of acid. Only about 20,000 were made so they are now very expensive.
VCA: Voltage Controlled Amplifier. See amplifier.
VCF: Voltage Controlled Filter. See filter.
VCO: Voltage Controlled Oscillator. See oscillator.
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