Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025 08:59 pm

Synth Glossary

Envelope:: An envelope generator generates a signal that changes through the length of a sound, normally to control the loudness of that sound. An example of its use is to control the volume of a piano sound. It creates a signal that goes from low to high very quickly (the loud bit when the key is pressed), then goes down slowly as the sounds gets quieter. They are also used to drive other parts of the synthesizer, for example the filter....

This is Moog Music's "synthesizer for everyman. [The] design approach for the Micromoog was to use a minimal number of functional building blocks and to configure the instrument for the greatest amount of performer control over these blocks. The Micromoog consists of the basic necessities: one voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), one voltage controlled amplifier (VCA), two contour generators, and one sample and hold. The 'open system' inputs and outputs make this Micromoog a basic musical building block which can be expanded to meet the performer's growth."

This was the synth that followed the Minimoog. Having only one oscillator and using less expensive materials, this became the cheap alternative to the Minimoog. It was also one of the few and possibly the first of the early synths to use the pitch ribbon controller instead of the more popular pitch wheel found on the Minimoog.