Synthesizers 1896 - 2024: A Dataset and Exploratory Insights

[@sonicstate]

Incredible insight, thanks for sharing. Posted on Sonicstate today!

[@iftah_fow]

thanks so much for the kind words friends! and nice to see you here ✨

[@LuisTorres-qz5kr]

Thanks for sharing, much appreciated! Amazing sets of data of all these synths.

[@LagoLhn]

As a data scientist with a legion of synths I congratulate you on this analysis. A great deal of data science is rooted in validating intuition to reinforce our perception of truth. The painstaking work of data collection and feature selection is where the real work lies. I’d be happy to contribute.

[@iftah_fow]

thanks so much for these kind words, contributions are highly appreciated

[@RandomRabOfficial]

This is super interesting and I'm thoroughly impressed with how nerdy and cool this is. Thanks for making this dataset and I'm sure many synth companies are also taking notes.

[@ss-iy9wr]

this is so cool, i was looking at your repo and was blown away! I'm sharing this and your notebook with every music head i know!

[@freezerman5871]

Fascinating data, great job!

[@syrupcore]

Thank you for the dataset and really great job on the analysis (+video editing). Fun and interesting watch.

[@DmitryPuffin]

Quite interesting to see trends in different architectures and sales. Amazing work!

[@AlessandroMastroianni]

Wow this was VERY well made.

[@JuniprMusik]

Hadn't seen your videos before the KZbin algo served me this today, really excellent work collating and presenting all of this. Super interesting stuff, thanks for your effort!

[@iftah_fow]

thanks so much!

[@LittleMrTree]

Synth data analysis with R. A nerd‘s dream comes true. ❤

[@pmishraofficial]

This is really well documented work! Will add it to my audio tech blog shortly.

[@Tharsis879]

Amazing work indeed!

[@kidkodama]

great project, statistics are awesome.

[@JonandLibby]

I'm Jon and I'm an information junkie. This video is sooooo satisfying! ❤

[@meownoid]

Great analysis, thanks for the video!

[@UrbanTarantulas]

very interesting... thanks for this.

[@TryptychUK]

Fascinating research. As a follower of the technology from the early 70's onwards, it's interesting to see the changes. I'm surprised no mention of the Crumar GDS or Synergy for early digitals.

[@iftah_fow]

thank you very much for the kind words, i think that both the GDS and the synergy were released at the early 80s, and in the notebook i specifically look for digital synths released before the 80s, amazing synths none the less, especially the synergy, which i would love to experience irl

[@TryptychUK]

@@iftah_fow The GDS was first launched in 1979. The Synergy a year later. Both were commercial developments based on the Bell Labs Alice system developed in the mid-70's. There was also the EMS Computer Synthi, and three prototypes were made around 1975, but it was never commercially released.

[@bpauten]

Truly amazing, thank you for this resource! You say in the video that you did this in a month? If so you ARE the Man-Machine!

[@iftah_fow]

thank you! *months :)

[@mthomas1091]

Cool idea 👏👏👏

[@JoshSemans]

What a cool video! Just a note - quite a few more than 60 ondes Martenot were made. While we don’t know exactly how many were made, serial numbers suggest that over 300 were made across the various versions of the instrument.

[@iftah_fow]

thanks! someone else mentioned it in the comments already, some sources (predominantly a BBC article) claims 60 units but it seems that indeed there several sources that claims around 300

[@tjn0110]

Fascinating! 👏👍

[@johanboberg686]

Waldorf Wave (and Microwave) were hybrid synthesizers. They have analog filters and VCA's.

[@FuZZbaLLbee]

Florian of Bad gear will love you for this 😀

[@Moogulator]

Just thank you for this! (I made a synth database, I KNOW about the work it creates) and all of your final conclusions.

[@iftah_fow]

hey thank you so much for the kind words, and thats great! is the set somewhere online to check?

[@SequencerTalk]

@@iftah_fow I tried to answer, well - it is Sequencer but with a de Ending - there is a Vintage Synth A-Z button but internally I already have something to ask for multiple things in the works but needs to re-organize / maintain the data, I could show you that 1:1 somewhere if you like. Moogulator (in disguise of my other account)

[@CarbonBasedPerson]

Love this

[@guyf9028]

I'll tell Rick Coupland he made your list. One of his prototypes is at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.

[@iftah_fow]

really hope to see it irl one day, the design is so nice

[@DeeDeeCHAUNCEY]

I really like your song at the beginning.

[@DeeDeeCHAUNCEY]

Is the Nymphes creating the high part?

[@iftah_fow]

thank you, yes its nymphes only

[@spotlight-kyd]

Does the data include the Yamaha Montage (2016) and Montage M (2023)? The latter has 256+128+16 (AWM+FM+VA) voices of polyphony. The former 128+128 (AWM+FM).

[@gautrstafr]

Seems you're missinigg the Waldorf Blofeld, it''s been in production since 2007!

[@iftah_fow]

right! thanks for pointing this out :) will update

[@markushorn]

Very interesting. Is there a list of the instruments in the database? I am especially interested in the 45 instruments built before 1970.

[@iftah_fow]

Hi, yes, the Dataset is available on Github (a csv file you can also open with any sheet editing program) and is arranged by release year per default so it should be easy to see the 45 instruments released prior to 1970

[@FuZZbaLLbee]

Not having the tr-909 in the top of the famous synths list surprises me.

[@dandykaufman2]

Crazy no analogue synths were produced in 1993

[@Moogulator]

No Curtis, No SSM chips were available at that time and digital and samplers were the main instruments in most sets (Emax, S1000, EPS, etc. until about 2000 when computers came to take over the sampling work). When Curtis Clones came back, a lot more analog synths came back. it was simply too complicated to make a real analog synth until then - the exception might be the Andromeda (with own ASICs) and later Korg tried to make it but very close to that Curtis Clones came back, now there are more than just one manufaturers making them.

[@iftah_fow]

@@Moogulator excellent info, thanks!

[@actorjohanmatsfredkarlsson2293]

I'm surpriced the 909 didn't make the top 10 famous list!?

[@daniel-anez]

You say at 6:59 that only 60 units were made, but that is not true. It is closer to 300. Check out Jean Laurendeau's book about Maurice Martenot. I have seen the serial number unit 256, which dates from 1967, and there are still many constructed after that one.

[@iftah_fow]

interesting, several sources online including a BBC article quote 60 units, but i indeed see other sources that quote around 270. i wonder where this discrepancy comes from, anyways thanks for the info

[@daniel-anez]

@@iftah_fow I tried looking fast in Laurendeau's book before answering to you, but I couldn't find the data. If I find a reliable source, I'll make sure to leave a comment here again. Montreal Conseratoire's teacher bought the last two units. I'll ask for their serial number.

[@jukkauh]

How can the Juno 60 be more "famous" than the Juno 106, while the Jupiter-8 does not even appear on the top ten list? As to hybrids: how is it that the OSCAR is more famous than the Microwave I? You might want to revisit your weighting parameters for fame. A very interesting analysis otherwise.

[@anthonycotham4346]

It’s pronounced moog.

[@rhkavli]

At last someone who can pronounce it correctly! Well done!

[@utubebroadcastme]

I'm very surprised that the 909 didn't make it to the top 10 most famous synths ... although arguably there's some tough competition up there