synthesizer

UK/ˈsɪn.θəˌsaɪ.zə(ɹ)/US/ˈsɪn.θəˌsaɪ.zɚ/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,465 of 15,258mostly written

Other forms: synthesizers

A synthesizer is an electronic keyboard that can make any sound. A vintage synthesizer, play the synthesizer, a modular synthesizer.

It builds a sound from scratch rather than recording one, which is what separates it from a sampler. The controls that shape how a note starts and fades are the attack, decay, sustain and release, and those four settings do most of the work.

Definitions of synthesizer

1nounsynthesizerAn electronic keyboard that can make any sound.B2+
“The band's keyboard player used a synthesizer to create strange space-age sounds.”

synthesizer is an instrument.

Where it comes from

From synthesize + -er.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

synthesizer in the wild

In 1970, Moog released a more portable model, the Minimoog, described as the most famous and influential synthesizer in history.
Robert Moog
A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or hardware products.
Speech synthesis
The earliest computer operating system to have included a speech synthesizer was Unix in 1974, through the Unix speak utility.
Speech synthesis
Electronic musical synthesizers that could be used practically in a recording studio became available in the mid-1960s, and the mid-1970s saw the rise of electronic art musicians.
Synth-pop
Oakey and Wright assembled a new lineup with singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley, bassist/synthesizer player Ian Burden, and guitarist/synthesizer player Jo Callis.
The Human League

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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