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Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists
If you ever want to stir up controversy, just propose ranking the world’s top synthesists.
Synth and Software founding editor Geary Yelton and I tried to narrow our lineup of the greatest synthesists of all time down to just 10. To qualify, they had to be among the most influential, the most original, and the most skillful. Once we’d whittled our list down to 15 seminal semifinalists, we knew we needed help.
Geary contacted 20 of the magazine’s contributors—all authorities in electronic music—and we exchanged about a hundred emails with the group. Agreeing on the top 4 or 5 was easy, but settling on the others took some spirited haggling.
After much discussion, we took a vote and selected the players with the most votes. I’ve arranged them in alphabetical order by last name. I hope we didn’t miss your favorite, but with a limit of only 10, we had to leave some big names on the cutting room floor.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists
WENDY CARLOS: Released in 1968, Wendy’s album Switched On Bach was the breakthrough recording that catapulted synthesizers into mainstream consciousness. Her exquisite Moog modular timbres combined with extraordinary performances of well-known baroque music provided the perfect gateway for the masses to experience electronic music for the first time. Her impact on the world of synthesis simply can’t be overstated.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
KEITH EMERSON: If Wendy Carlos brought the synthesizer into the general mainstream, Keith hurled it across the world with the first Emerson, Lake & Palmer album in 1970. His synth work, and specifically the improvised Moog solo on the hit “Lucky Man,” was a trumpet blast announcing the coming of the modern synthesizer age. His massive Moog modular gave a face to the sound machine and inspired thousands of keyboardists to say, “I want to do that!”
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
BRIAN ENO: His EMS VCS3 timbres and treatments on the first two Roxy Music albums alone would probably cement Eno’s place on this list. His subsequent solo albums, especially the transformational Another Green World album in 1973, defined a whole new approach to synthetic treatments and ambient music. Add in his great Yamaha DX7 programming, and it’s all quite astounding for a once self-proclaimed non-musician.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
JEAN-MICHEL JARRE: Using a relatively small but powerful rig comprising the ARP 2600, VCS3, RMI Harmonic Synthesizer, Mellotron, Farfisa and Eminent organs, and an early drum machine called the Korg Mini Pops-7, Jarre became an early global star of electronic music. His albums Oxygene in 1976 and Equinoxe in 1978 combined elegant sequences, pastoral melodies, and floating sound effects to create a truly personal, Eurocentric electronic soundscape. His music has inspired synthesists worldwide, and he’s sold millions of albums since then.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
KRAFTWERK: Ralph Hutter and Florian Schneider created a new style of melodic, robotic, and completely synth-based sound that’s had a mammoth impact on contemporary music. In 1975, the album Autobahn was their commercial breakthrough, but the albums Trans Europe Express, Man Machine, and especially Computer World predicted a new electronic universe and set the stage for the techno revolution.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
MORTON SUBOTNICK: A founding father of electronic music, Mort developed a totally new, non-tonal synthesis style now known as the West Coast sound. In 1967, he used a Buchla 100 to create his groundbreaking Silver Apples of the Moon. Subsequent albums he created on a Buchla 200 system—Touch, Four Butterflies, Sidewinder, and Until Spring—further refined his singular approach and remain some of the most expressive and dynamic recordings of purely electronic music.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
TANGERINE DREAM: Though they had already recorded four improvised albums with limited electronics, it was 1974’s Phaedra, along with the albums Rubicon and Stratosfear, that thoroughly transformed the electronic music landscape and gave birth to a style called the Berlin School. Edgar Froese, Peter Baumann, and Chris Franke’s Moog modular sequences, VCS3 textures, and ethereal Mellotron melodies combined to create a unique atmospheric style that has influenced generations of synthesists.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
ISAO TOMITA: ;His 1974 album Snowflakes are Dancing immediately established Tomita as a world-class synthesist. His approach was both impressionistic and emulative, combining totally synthesized timbres with expressive re-creations of orchestral instruments from his enormous Moog modular. The composite sound was unlike anyone else. His realizations of other works such as Firebird Suite, The Planets, and Pictures at an Exhibition simply reinforced his stature as a master of the electronic music idiom.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
STEVIE WONDER: Stevie synthesized his way to hit after hit in the early 1970s and beyond. Starting with an ARP 2600, he collaborated with Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff (of T.O.N.T.O. fame) to develop a totally new, electronic-centered R&B, funk, and soul sound on albums such as Talking Book, Innervisions, and Music of My Mind. He’s remained a trendsetter, continually integrating new synthesis technologies into his amazing music.
Synth and Software’s Top 10 Synthesists – NEXT
JOE ZAWINUL: No player incorporated synthesizers into the jazz world quite as deftly as Joe did with the fusion band Weather Report. His dual ARP 2600 work on Mysterious Traveler was groundbreaking. His orchestrations with the Oberheim Four-Voice and Prophet-5 on Heavy Weather and Mr. Gone were just brilliant. He constantly explored emerging synthesis technologies to craft an electronic style that was uniquely his own.