An electronic musical instrument is a type of music-making device that produces or alters sounds electronically. It is distinct from other types of musical instruments, which generate sound by acoustic or mechanical means and are thus considered to be primarily non-electronic.
The first purely electronic musical instrument was the Telharmonium, which was built by Thaddeus Cahill in 1906 and used electric generators and tonewheels to produce different notes. The Hammond organ, which was designed by Laurens Hammond in 1929 and also employed spinning tonewheels to produce different sounds, is also considered to be an electronic musical instrument.
Another important milestone in the development of electronic instruments is the invention of tape recording, which enables musicians to record their own or other sounds on magnetic tape and then manipulate them to create new effects. These effects can include splicing together portions of several tape recordings to form a continuous sound-pattern; reverberating the recorded sound; combining various sounds in timbre and volume; or superimposing them on each other to achieve complex, multi-layered sound-patterns.
Some of the most famous instruments in the history of electronic music have been made possible by this technology. The 303 and 808 drum machines were the brainchild of Phuture and Juan Atkins, and have spawned a host of genres such as Acid and Trap, whilst the Prophet-10 synthesizer was the masterwork of Dave Smith and remains one of the most powerful synthesizers ever created.
Early instruments were relatively clunky and expensive, but as electronic technology improved in the late 1960s, new models were released by manufacturers such as Moog and Buchla. These new instruments were more convenient and practical to use in the performing of traditional and popular music. Moreover, the advent of MIDI enabled control devices to communicate with each other in real time and to be controlled remotely by a microcomputer.
Theremin and other synthesisers are among the most influential electronic instruments of all time, and they have influenced a large number of composers. Keith Emerson, Peter Gabriel, David Wakeman and Roger Dean all have recorded their compositions on synthesisers, and Jean-Michel Jarre has produced numerous works for synthesizers that would have been impossible without these machines.
Synthesisers are now available from a wide range of electronic-music companies, with many of them being affordable and easily accessible to both professionals and amateurs. Some are simple to operate, and others contain sophisticated digital processors capable of generating a variety of sounds from a single source.
During the 1980s, Sequential Circuits introduced the Emulator series, which included several models of sample-playback synthesizers that were used on many film scores and hit records. They were designed to enable home-producers to use their own or other samples in the production of songs.
The invention of MIDI technology allowed for remote control of these and other devices, and software was developed for computers that could perform algorithmic compositions. This allowed composers with a modest computer-programming background to have access to algorithms that could be used to produce the sounds of an entire song or orchestration in the blink of an eye, bringing sophisticated electronic instruments within the reach of virtually all musicians.
