I am most acquainted with digital synthesizers so far. I took the same class twice in college (by mistake) and it was mainly focused around digital. The teacher told us to go look up analogue stuff on our own, so here I am a year later.
I should know a lot of this by now, but there is of course a lot I need to note because I don't really understand it all.
"In 1975, the Japanese company Yamaha licensed the algorithms for frequency modulation synthesis (FM synthesis) from John Chowning, who had experimented with it at Stanford University since 1971." - Wikipedia
What is FM? When audio waves are changed through frequency. Tone waves are called timbre (square, triangle, saw-tooth).
Oscillation is repetitive variation in time.
What is PM? Phase modulation is a patterned wave. Looking it up there are math equations tied to it. I feel overwhelmed, might need to go back to this later.
Back to FM. John Chowning invented FM synthesizers in 1971, and Yamaha took on the idea. I read an interview and discovered Turenas, a piece he worked on for years using FM
Totally improvisational sounding, but actually took a long time to compose. The sounds are natural droplets and something I would like to figure out how to acquire with today's systems.
Interview:
http://www.o-art.org/history/LongDur/Chowning.html
O-Art has a lost of other interesting articles in the experimental sound realm.
The main thing to know is digital is using processes and software that is way more visual, while analog focuses on circuits and modulators.
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