THE 1960S: A SYNTH START

How the synth – in electronic form – started | The 60s As we begin our sojourn through 60 Years of the Synth, we go back to the 1960s to consider where it all started, laying praise at the door of the synth forerunners and revealing the first ‘proper’ synth from 1962…

Talk to any musical historian about the 60s, and you can firmly predict the bands and artists mentioned. This was, after all, the musical decade of love and peace, as a post-war world rediscovered some of the finer things in life. As a musical decade it mostly revolved around the electric guitar; Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys, all secured their place in history in the 60s. But beyond the guitar-based format, there were inventors creating new and exciting sounds which, once heard by many of the aforementioned artists, would go on to play a part in some of their finest work.

Of course none of this would have been possible without developments in electrical circuits, which provided the foundation for electronic musical instruments to come of age. Electronic instruments had been around for many years prior to this, with some offering greater success than others. The ill-fated Telharmonium was an example from the end of the previous century; as an instrument that relied on telephony-style circuitry and amplification, it not only made an incredible racket due to its vast numbers of electrical motors, but also weighed hundreds of tons. Not an instrument that you could pop under your arm and head down the local club to do a gig with.

There was however a contingent of more successful instruments emanating from France; one of the most successful was the Ondes Martenot, a unique instrument developed in the 1920s. Equipped with a keyboard which was accompanied by a ribbon, which could be regarded as a precursor to the modern day pitch and mod-wheel, the Martenot produced a number of tones through different types of loudspeaker, to create a brilliant crossover between the acoustic and electronic domain.