Equipment

Synthesizers : classic synthesizer designs

This is intended to be a list of classic instruments which marked a turning point in musical sound or style, potentially worth an article of their own. They are listed with the names of performers or styles associated with them.

• Moog modular synthesizer systems (Wendy Carlos, Tomita, Tonto's Expanding Headband, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, The Beatles)
• ARP 2600 (The Who, Stevie Wonder, Weather Report, Edgar Winter, Jean-Michel Jarre)
• ARP Odyssey (Styx, Herbie Hancock)
• Minimoog (Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Stereolab, Devo)
• EMS VCS3 (Roxy Music, Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, BBC Radiophonic Workshop)
• Fairlight CMI (Jean-Michel Jarre, Jan Hammer, Peter Gabriel, Pet Shop Boys)
• NED Synclavier (Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Laurie Anderson)
• Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 (Berlin, Phil Collins, The Cars, Steve Winwood)
• E-mu Emulator (The Residents, Depeche Mode, Deep Purple, Genesis)
• Roland Jupiter-8 (Duran Duran, OMD)
• PPG Wave (The Fixx, Thomas Dolby)
• Roland TB-303 (Techno, Acid House)
• Roland D-50 ((Jean-Michel Jarre, Enya)
• WaveFrame AudioFrame (Peter Gabriel, Stevie Wonder)
• Yamaha DX7 (Steve Reich, The Cure, Brian Eno)
• Yamaha VL-1
• Yamaha SHS-10 One of the first "keytars" from the 1980s
• Korg M1
• Roland JP-8000 (The synthesizer that defined modern trance music; the warm sawtooth lead sound heavily used in modern trance music originates from the JP-8000.)
• Clavia Nord Lead (The Prodigy, Jean Michel Jarre) The Nord Lead was the first modern analog modelling synthesizer using digital circuitry to emulate analog circuits
• Oberheim OB-Xa (Styx, Rush, Supertramp, Van Halen)
• Lyricon First mass-produced wind synthesizer. (Michael Brecker, Tom Scott, Chuck Greenberg, Wayne Shorter)
• Alesis Andromeda A synthesizer with modern digital control of fully analog sound producing circuitry

3345, the Vinyl Records Home.