The synthesizer is an instrument that can sound like any other — or like nothing ever heard before. The first commercial synthesizer, the Moog (Robert Moog, 1964), opened the era of electronic music: now a composer could “tailor” a timbre from scratch.
Synthesizers divide into analog (with tubes or transistors, the warm 70s sound of Pink Floyd and Kraftwerk), digital (from the 80s — Yamaha DX7, the synthetic “electronic” sound), and modular (sets of independent blocks connected by cables). In Ukraine the electronic scene is thriving: the electro-folk band Onuka blends synthesizers and electronic production with folk instruments such as the bandura and sopilka.
