Synth Glossary

Analog Synthesis:: This term is normally used to refer to the tradional synthesis model used by analog synthesizers in the 1970s. It is also known as subtractive synthesis. It involves oscillators, the outputs of which are mixed together and fed into a filter (where certain frequencies are subtracted) after which they are fed through an amplifier. The amplifier and filter are normally also driven by envelope generators....

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The Electrocomp 500 is a 2-VCO, monophonic, analog synthesizer with a 3 1/2-octave, 44-note (F-C) keyboard. It was designed to compete with the Minimoog and the ARP Odyssey. The 500 is more of a keyboard instrument, as opposed to its predesessor, the semi-modular 101, using switches and sliders as opposed to knobs and patch cords. Its voice structure is basically a simplified 101 design, with VCO1 outputting only a sawtooth or square wave. The 500 features a resonant multimode VCF (switchable between low-pass, band-pass, and high-pass) a single ADS envelope generator, sample-and-hold, ring modulation, a mic preamp, noise, and an LFO (with six available waveforms). The back panel featured both hi and low outputs, as well as a headphone jack, a pitch selector (switching between one octave above or one octave below normal), sustain pedal input, and interface connections (S1 and S2 sockets).