Music Synthesizers in Popular Electronics 1972

Download a five-page article by David L. Heiserman on “Music Synthesizers And How They Work” from Popular Electronics magazine, February 1972.  Also included is a brief description and schematic for a ‘surf synthesizer’ project.

DOWNLOAD: SynthsPopElecFeb1972

Nice images of the Putney Synth and a Moog IIIc.  This article offers a very broad treatment of the subject, and it does not discuss music or music aesthetics very much; it is interesting though because it is intended for an audience with some technical savvy.  Everything in this piece can easily be applied to gaining a greater fluency with the software synths that we use today.

Naturally, any discussion of ‘music-synthesizers’ in Popular Electronics had to be followed by some sort of audio-synthesizer project; since this is 1972, the project is a Surf Synthesizer, aka a white-noise generator followed by a randomly-modulated low pass filter in sync with a VCA.  If you know what any of that means, you might could be interested in the schematic, which you can find after the link below.  I can imagine sitting at the kitchen table during the Nixon administration, carefully soldering this mood-enhancer while my wife macrames an Owl.

chris

View Comments

  • Hello, my name is george clauss from germany. i have a old receiver from allied knight Model: KN 350 with multiplex decoder for fm -stereo included. the receiver so ask my friend is the same for pilot 602 SA with twenty tubes. we want repair this receiver. can you help me? i want a service manual from this. i can by. please answer over my E-mail -adress: 01792303348@O2online.de. many thanks for jour answer. sorry my english is bad. George

Share
Published by
chris

Recent Posts

PSRadio October 2024: psych& pop-psych rarities 1968-1971

Starting this month I am scaling back the monthly WPKN FM radio show to one…

3 hours ago

PSR June 2024: Japanese rock, folk, psych, and soul 1968-1982

Im back from 2 weeks in Japan, time that I primarily spent hunting for records.…

4 months ago

New LP ‘Secular Music Group Vol 1’ + New Haven Live Date 6.30.24

Available now on LoveAllDay Records : the new LP "Secular Music Group Volume 1"- avail on vinyl…

4 months ago

Preservation Sound Radio May 2024

This month's Preservation Sound Radio program will air tonight Tuesday May 21 at 8:30 PM.…

5 months ago

9sides: Preservation Sound Radio March 2024

This month on Preservation Sound Radio: nine side-filling tracks from 1970 thru 1986, all from…

7 months ago

Preservation Sound Radio Feb 2024: best new (old) tracks

This month's show airs Tuesday 2.20.24 at 8:30PM -11:25PM EST on WPKN 89.5 FM in…

8 months ago