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Though Bob Moog was obviously a genius of electronic instrument design, he is often credited with being the first to develop the voltage-controlled oscillator and voltage controlled filter. Actually the credit should go to Dr. Freidrich Adolf Trautwein and his Trautonium, a vacuum tube behemoth constructed in Germany in 1930. The VCOs were thyratron tubes (similar to solid state SCRs) that were used as relaxation oscillators, which were tuned by applying a negative voltage to their control grids. There are schematics available for similar tube synth circuits available at Metasonix, which also has tube synth modules for sale.

Hehe, Moog, that's a sweet name!

Since the site's dead, here's some cool info about him: www.obsolete.com/120_years/machines/moog

Invented by Russian physicist Leon Theremin in the 1920's, the Theremin is not only the predecessor of the synthesizer, it's one of the earliest electronic musical instruments and produces music in relation to the musician's hands in the air! The sound of the Theremin is as eerie as it's beautiful.

Some audio clips: Star Trek Intro, Sinners, Space Cruiser Yamato/Star Blazers, Heterodyne (Commodore64 style!), Rotors of Raga (entire archive)

You too can build your own Theremin. For the less tech savvy, you can always buy a Theremin kit. The Theremin is one of many unusual instruments for you to discover.

I'm sure the guys/gals over at obsolete.com really appreciate somebody posting a link on /. that isn't even an integral part of the main story. Now their servers "couldn't sound any spookier if they added a Theremin".

i hate it when people say "XXXXXX was the first" without even looking it up, 0.75 seconds on a quick google search says

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120 Years Of Electronic Music

Origins:

The origins of electronic music can be traced back to the audio analytical work of Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (1821-1894) the German physicist, mathematician and author of the seminal work "SENSATIONS OF TONE: Psychological Basis for Theory of Music" (c1860). Helmholtz built an electronically controlled instrument to analyse combinations of tones the "Helmholtz Resonator", using electromagnetically vibrating metal tines and glass or metal resonating spheres the machine could be used for analysing the constituent tones that create complex natural sounds. Helmholtz was concerned solely with the scientific analysis of sound and had no interest in direct musical applications, the theoretical musical ideas were provided by Ferruccio Busoni, the Italian composer and pianists who's influential essay "Sketch of a New Aesthetic of Music" was inspired by accounts of Thaddeus Cahill's 'Telharmonium'.
1870-1915: Early Experiments

The first electronic instruments built from 1870 to 1915 used a variety of techniques to generate sound: the tone wheel (used in the Telharmonium and the Chorelcello)- a rotating metal disk in a magnetic field causing variations in an electrical signal, an electronic spark causing direct fluctuations in the air (used uniquely in William Duddell's "Singing Arc' in 1899) and Elisha Grey's self vibrating electromagnetic circuit in the 'Electronic Telegraph', a spin-off from telephone technology. The tone wheel was to survive until the 1950's in the Hammond Organ but the experiments with self oscillating circuits and electric arcs were discontinued with the development of vacuum tube technology.
1915-1960: The Vacuum Tube Era.

The engineer and prolific US inventor Lee De Forest patented the first Vacuum tube or triode in 1906, a refinement of John A. Fleming's electronic valve. The Vacuum tube's main use was in radio technology but De Forest discovered that it was possible to produce audible sounds from the tubes by a process known as heterodyning. twentieth century by radio engineers experimenting with radio vacuum tubes. Heterodyning effect is created by two high radio frequency sound waves of similar but varying frequency combining and creating a lower audible frequency, equal to the difference between the two radio frequencies (approximately 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz). De Forest was one amongst several engineers to realise the musical potential of the heterodyning effect and in 1915 created a musical instrument, the "Audion Piano" . Other instruments to first exploit the vacuum tube were the 'Theremin' (1917) 'Ondes Martenot' (1928), the 'Sphäraphon' (1921) the 'Pianorad' (1926). The Vacuum tube was to remain the primary type of audio synthesis until the invention of the integrated circuit in the 1960's.
1960-1980: Integrated Circuits.

Integrated Circuits came into widespread use in the early 1960's. Inspired by the writings of the German instrument designer Harald Bode, Robert Moog, Donald Buchla and others created a new generation of easy to use, reliable and popular electronic instruments.
1980-present: Digital.

The next and current generation of electronic instruments were the digital synthesisers of the 1980s. These synthesisers were software controlled offering complex control over various forms of synthesis previously only available on extremely expensive studio synthesisers. Early models of this generation included the Yamaha DX range and the Casio CZ synthesisers.

http://www.obsolete.com/120_years/intro.html

while Moog was a pioneer and respecty is due, he was not even close to the "first"

but dont take my word for it, go look it up

synthesisers have been around for 120 years !

try way before what the articles or even some answer here suggest...

I thought the Ondes-Martenot was the first but the therimin is earlier. Even it is not the earliest though.

(I still think the Ondes-Martenot is one of the coolest early electronic instruments. )

Hm. I think the article was just attempting to highlight some often-overlooked contributions by the Barrons. I mean, I've never even heard of them, so I found it quite interesting.
The submitter is the one who seems to have goofed here, by presenting this short blurb as "The Birth of Electronic Music". The article itself makes no such claims; its focus is simply the Barrons.
If you do have an interest, there are plenty of great resources out there for one to peruse. Yes, Theremin was way ahead of his time, as was Cage, Schaeffer, and on and on.
For computer music in specific, look at Lejaren Hiller and Max Mathews. I had the great honor of meeting Max Mathews and man is he interesting. He was speaking to a class I was taking and he said "digital computer". Every time instead of saying computer, he said "digital computer". This confused me at first, but I thought about that and realized that he has a bit more perspective and history on these things and began working on analog computers.

...the first electronic music experiment was done by Lev Sergeivitch Termen and his famus Theremin.

Also not true - the link you point to lists electronic instruments going back to 1876, forty years before the theremin. The Telharmonium (1897) was a pretty sophisticated instrument, but it weighed 200 tons, and vacuum-tube amplifiers hadn't been invented yet, so it wasn't very practical.

...the first electronic music experiment was done by Lev Sergeivitch Termen and his famus Theremin.

Also not true - the link you point to lists electronic instruments going back to 1876, forty years before the theremin. The Telharmonium (1897) was a pretty sophisticated instrument, but it weighed 200 tons, and vacuum-tube amplifiers hadn't been invented yet, so it wasn't very practical.

When people first used electronics to make noises they certainly made some fucked up ones (Electronic Musical Instrument 1870 - 1990)

I bet they'd be pissed to learn that the fruit of their endeavors would be making backing tracks for "pop stars" (though I reckon they'd be stoked about SquarePusher)

Thaddeus Cahill's Telharmonium of 1897 was an organ that generated sounds eletronically, yet predated the vacuum tube amplifier.

The basic components of electronics were in place by the end of the 19th century; resistance, capacitance, inductance, voltage and current sources. Remember that Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb and the power distribution system in that century. Marconi had the telegraph. Bell had the telephone. All of these used the same components used today, the only difference is the reduced scale of the electronics and the invention of the vacuum tube and transistor. Building an amplifier with either device still required the basic components devised from the 19th century.

i'm sure they're must be other bands out there doing new stuff with strange old equipment... reply if you know any good ones!

Modern Electronic music frequently features the 'acid' sound which was originally introduced to the Chicago House scene when some producers dicovered the Roland TB 303 automated bass synthesiser and sequencer. It was a pretty cheap piece of equipment and it never sold well. Most of them ended up discarded or in garage sales..... they only sold 20,000 over the 18 months that it was available. It didn't sound anything like that bass guitar it was supposed to be replacing. However, the pioneering house music producers discovered that if the resonance and accent controls were turned up higher than any sane user had tried before then it produced a distinctive sound. Add some simple sequencing to som knob twiddling, lay it over a drum beat and *bang* that's where acid house came from. The page does have a link which has a photo of the tiny machine, but you should check out this page for a more detailed history of this accident in electronic music evolution.

If they can cover up through 2004, probably one of the most important developments is software-based synthesizers...

They do have software synthesizers on there, starting with Music I, which was developed in the 50's. Sure, it's a breakthrough that it is now possible to do this in realtime. There are also new software synthesis algorithms being developed all the time, as you mentioned. But the idea of software synthesis itself is not new.

would Doctor Who, and bad Sci-fi movies have been without Where one of these for the sound effects?

Frank Zappa (the man himself) said "anything can be music, but it doesn't become music until somebody wills it to be music, and the audience listening to it decides to perceive it as music."

As formidable a composer as Zappa was, Zappa used every tool at his disposal to will his compositions into reality, and he was a big proponent of electronic tools where appropriate. He loved that the Synclavier could allow him to finally hear his compositions without having to book an expensive orchestra to hear it. Of course, his use of the tools was predicated on his fundamental understanding of music.

I agree that one should learn the rules first, THEN and ONLY THEN can you break them at will. For validation of this, visit any guitar store that sells various effects pedals, and listen to the caterwauling of newly minted guitarists who haven't developed the skill to play, but are not deterred from using the various effects in horrible sacriligious combinations.

The effects available are amazing tools to an experienced player, but can be a huge impediment to learning the instrument, because they encourage a shortcut to killer tone (and there isn't one). Just try teaching a kid to hear/understand the basic difference between a major chord and a minor one when he's got a new MetalZone pedal at home, cranked to 11, so distorted you can't hear the fundamentals of any chord. For that matter, forget intervals, try teaching him just to tune his guitar by ear.

By the way, I love Fruity Loops, I use it often to lay down "scratch" drums for expressing my ideas to my real drummer (I multitrack the guitar/bass/keys/noises/vox on top, and play the scratch track for the "real" band so they get the jist of the song). It's also great for stuff that a human can't play (64th notes at 180bpm kinda shit), and electronica (the FruityLoops TS404 with automation is worth the $99 all by itself).

How about a nice glass of "STFU"?

Sugar Hill did not "sample" the riff which is spoken of, A session band replayed the riff. Meaning live instruments were used, not a sampler.

from a funkguitar.org blurb about Niles Rogers who played the riff on "Good Times":

Nile Rodgers was prominent in disco/funk, and helped launch hip-hop. Listen to the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", (by the way, that's a session-band replicating that groove, not Chic) now try "Monster Jam" by Spoonie Gee/Sequence. Then check out "Subway Theme" by Fab Five Freddy from Wildstyle. Notice a pattern here? All those songs sample, cover, or take direct inspiration from Nile's brilliant guitar riff from the classic Chic song "Good Times" -- which is inescapable as the most sampled guitar song in rap's early days. Nile is more known as a producer than a funky guitarist, but we love 'em for that sweet, compressed, Fender® Stratocaster® sound.

Thanks for playing!

Oh yeah and BTW in case you were wondering the Fairlight CMI was the first commercially available digital sampler, released in 1978. I doubt that Sugar Hill records would have had the resources to obtain a digital sampler in 1979.

I saw a program a few years ago on this guy. He apparently had a prototype colour television up and running way before anyone else, but was kidnapped by the NKVD (forerunners of the KGB). Has nyone got any more info than that? A quick search on Goole doesn't come up with much, and they always talk about the Theremin and brush past the colour telly.

Brief history here

If you mean unique as in "it's a teddy bear", then you're correct afaik, but using gestures to control instruments is not a unique idea.

The article does not mention the real innovator of electronic instruments, the man who invented the oscillator, a basic component of most synths. Just as he the confusion arose surrounding the invention of the telephone (as well as long court battles), so we see that Elisha Gray is once again losing credit for his inventions. The first electronic instrument created was not the theremin or the telharmonium, but rather Gray's Musical Telegraph, created in the 1870's. He tried to make it work over telephone lines. Read more here.

Welcome to the real world. Innovators are rarely popularizers. Bowie is no pioneer, I agree 100%. But there's more to him than that.

There is an interesting quote by the 20th Century "classical" composer, Igor Stravinsky:

The merely good composer borrows; the great composer steals.

I think he's done both. Some of his stuff is merely derivative, posed in a sort of trendier-than-thou way. Yet he has the knack of taking genres that have become moribund (e.g., the Psychedelica that underpinned the Ziggy Stardust era) and injecting life into them by combining them with other genres in creative ways.

Your summary of electronic music history understates just how old electronic music technology is by about 20 years. Here is an excellent timeline with a lot of background info (though be warned that inventors are rarely the best practitioners in this realm-- Raymond Scott was a bit of an exception).