This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

by Daniel J. Levitin

This new technique became known as frequency modulation synthesis, or FM synthesis, and became embedded first in the Yamaha DX9 and DX7 line of synthesizers, which revolutionized the music industry from the moment of their introduction in 1983. FM synthesis democratized music synthesis. Before FM, synthesizers were expensive, clunky, and hard to control. Creating new sounds took a great deal of time, experimentation, and know-how. But with FM, any musician could obtain a convincing instrumental sound at the touch of a button. Songwriters and composers who could not afford to hire a horn section or an orchestra could now play around with these textures and sounds. Composers and orchestrators could test out arrangements before taking the time of an entire orchestra to see what worked and what didn’t. New Wave bands like the Cars and the Pretenders, as well as mainstream artists like Stevie Wonder, Hall and Oates, and Phil Collins, started to use FM synthesis widely in their recordings. A lot of what we think of as “the eighties sound” in popular music owes its distinctiveness to the particular sound of FM synthesis.