How they work, who built them, and who played them. Start by playing the one on this page.
Single oscillator
Sound starts on your first key press. Headphones help you hear the filter.
Different ways of building a sound. Start with subtractive; almost every classic analog synth works that way.
Start with a bright wave and carve it down with a filter.
Build a tone by stacking many pure sine waves.
Sound made by voltages moving through real circuits.
Sound calculated as numbers, from FM to wavetables.
Separate modules you wire together with patch cables.
FM, wavetable, sampling, and the rest of the list.
The Ensoniq Mirage is a digital synthesizer and sampler introduced in 1984 by the Pennsylvania-based company Ensoniq. The Mirage was one of the first affordable digital synthesizers on the market and quickly gained popularity among professional and amateur musicians.
The Korg Prologue is a polyphonic analog synthesizer that was first released by Korg in 2016. The Prologue was designed as a modern take on classic analog synthesizers, and it features a number of advanced features that set it apart from other analog synths on the market.
The Moog Grandmother is a semi-modular analog synthesizer that was first released in 2018 by Moog Music Inc. The Grandmother is part of Moog's "Mother-32" family of synthesizers, which also includes the Mother-32 and Subharmonicon.
The Akai Miniak is a compact, portable synthesizer that was first released in 2007. It is a virtual analog synthesizer that emulates the sound and functionality of classic analog synthesizers. The Miniak is part of Akai's line of "Mini" synthesizers, including the Miniak-M and the MINI.
The Akai Timbre Wolf is a compact, four-voice analog synthesizer that was first released in 2013. It features a 32-step sequencer, MIDI In and Out/Thru, and a variety of controls for creating and shaping sounds.
The Buchla 100 is a modular synthesizer developed and designed by electronic instrument pioneer Don Buchla in the 1960s. The Buchla 100…
Pick an artist to see the instruments they used. The number shows how many synths on this site they're linked to.
Instruments covered on this site, in the order they arrived. Scroll sideways to follow it.
Voltage-controlled modules that set the vocabulary synths still use.
A portable, pre-wired synth that took synthesis onto the stage.
Moog's first polyphonic instrument.
An affordable two-oscillator monosynth.
A failed bass machine that became the sound of acid house.
FM synthesis goes mainstream the same year as MIDI.
Short samples layered with synthesized tones.
The sampler and sequencer that shaped hip-hop production.