Template talk:Infobox synthesizer

Syntax Guide
Many features of synths (synthesis types, oscillators, filters, etc.) can be analog or digital. Please specify when describing (i.e. digital low-pass)


 * Synthesis Types
 * What type(s) of synthesis are used?
 * Additive (Casio FZ-1)
 * Digital Frequency modulation
 * Phase distortion (Casio CZ series)
 * Phase modulation (Yamaha DX synths, mistakenly called FM)
 * Physical modelling (Yamaha VL-1)
 * Digital Sample-based Subtractive (Samplers and ROMplers)
 * Analog Subtractive (Moogs, etc)
 * Wavetable (CS1x, etc)


 * Polyphony
 * How many voices does it have? (If one, please use the word Monophonic. If two, use Duophonic.)


 * Timbrality
 * How many different timbres can it play simultaneously? (If one, please use the word Monotimbral.)


 * Oscillators
 * How many and what kind of oscillators are used?
 * VCO
 * DCO
 * White noise


 * Filters
 * How many and what kind of filters are used?
 * VCF
 * Digital
 * Low-pass
 * High-pass
 * Band-pass
 * Notch


 * Attenuator
 * How many and what kind of amplitude envelope generators are used?
 * ADSR envelope generator


 * LFO
 * How many and what kind of LFOs are used? What waveshapes can be used?
 * Sine
 * Sawtooth
 * Square
 * Triangle


 * Keyboard
 * How many keys does the keyboard have?
 * Are the keys velocity or aftertouch sensitive?
 * Can the keyboard be split into 2 or more parts? If multitimbrality is 1 then answer is probably no.


 * Left hand control
 * What kind of left hand controls does it have?
 * Mod wheel
 * Pitch bend
 * Ribbon controller


 * External control
 * What kinds of external controls are supported?
 * CV
 * MIDI


 * Memory
 * How many preset (read-only) and user (writable) patches? How many per cartridge, floppy disk, etc?
 * xx presets
 * xx user


 * Onboard effects
 * What kinds of effects are included?
 * Chorus
 * Distortion
 * EQ
 * Flange
 * Phaser
 * Reverb


 * Date produced
 * What years was the unit originally produced from, or what decade?


 * Original price
 * What was the original list price when the machine was launched?

Memory
The current description of memory, above, pertains to patch storage. Samplers have a different dimension: the size of RAM available for samples. ROM-based sample playback synths also have ROM. Some (such as Emu samplers, Roland Fantom, Yamaha Motif, and Korg Triton) may support both ROM and RAM samples. To further complicate things, many ROM-based synths use data compression, and only express the size in terms of its "linear equivalent" - i.e., the size when expanded to uncompressed data. It seems like it might make sense to separate these three items clearly, as in:

Patch memory: 4 banks of 128 Programs each, 128 Multis

ROM sample memory: 128MB (compressed data; stated size is linear equivalent)

RAM sample memory: 2MB stock, expandable to 32MB

Daniel Alan Phillips 19:10, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

VCF and VCA
Filter is currently defined as filter type, while attenuator is defined as amplitude envelope type. These two terms both refer to audio-path components (filter and amp, respectively), and so should be parallel items; currently, filter refers to an audio component, and attenuator refers to a control component. I'm not sure how best to approach this without disrupting existing articles. Some suggestions:

LFOs currently have their own line item. So should envelopes.

I'm not as certain about this next item:

Attenuator could be retained in its current state to refer to the ability to control amplitude in analog synths, and for modular synths to indicate the actual number of VCAs provided (since some may have multiple modulatable amplitude components; the MS-20, for instance, has two). For instance, some synths have a dedicated ADSR; some allow a switch between an envelope and the note gate; etc. This might be a good way to preserve existing articles.

Daniel Alan Phillips 18:49, 7 March 2007 (UTC) (Since updated by Zoeb as I've done some things he's recommended)

Column width?
I don't know much about editing templates, but can something be done so that this info about Minimoog doesn't fill up the whole page:

-- Krash 14:40, 18 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Sure, just use breaks to put info on the next line.fataltourist 15:54, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

This is a line break:


 * Hi, I come here from the X-Station article with the same problem. Can't we solve this by making the box a fixed width that automatically enforces a page break if a line becomes to long? Because adding all those page breaks manually throws us all back to the time before we had word processors :-) Thanks, Peter S. 01:56, 10 June 2007 (UTC)

Picky stuff
Is there a long-but-not-very-tall lipsum image that could be substituted for No_image.png so there's not all that pesky white space when we don't have a real pic?

Oddly enough, I had been thinking about a Moog info box and I, yesterday, stumbled across this one quite by chance. I've been trying to come up with what parameters might be included so it was interesting to get to compare with someone else's good idea. I thought manufacturer, dates produced, and original price were important, so I added them. But before this template gets dropped into too many more articles, I got a couple more mods to consider.

I don't understand why "Keyboard" gets its own little section at the bottom. All info about the keyboard could easily cram into a single section. I was thinking about a "Left hand control" section as well. Some that I've considered but don't really seem like a good idea after extensive thought include inputs/outputs, special features (too similar to "Onboard effects"), quantity produced...I'm sure I'll keep thinking of them. Below is an example of what the modified template might look like. I think it's worth picking at this thing if it's going to go into a number of articles.-- Krash 00:20, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

I can whip up blank image with a short height.

Yeah, we can trash the Keyboard section. Will be easier, especially for synths with odd keyboards or rackmount stuff. Another thing I was thinking about was how some synths simply have envelope generators that can be assigned to anything (VCO,VCF,VCA). But I guess specific things like that should be in the article text. Routing and modulation would take up too much room in an infobox as well. fataltourist 19:58, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

New design
I've been working on a new infobox, inline with the majority of other WP infoboxes (it used Template:Infobox software as a style guide – the current one seems not to have (drastically) changed since about 2005). My design can be seen at User:Cycle~/Infobox synthesizer and an example at User:Cycle~/Infobox synthesizer. This diff shows what the infobox would look like on the Minimoog page – no changes (other than the template address) had to be made. What do people think? Cycle~ (talk) 18:00, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
 * I'm going to update it (briefly) to see how much more work needs to be done on it. Cycle~ (talk) 18:19, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
 * No comments? I'll leave it as it is for the time being then. Cycle~ (talk) 23:49, 29 January 2009 (UTC)

Wavetable
The distinguish between "wavetable synthesis" and "sample-based synthesis" seems required. As written on the article, the "wavetable synthesis" is a sound synthesis technique employing the array of single cycle waveform (i.e. table of waveforms) to change the timbre dynamically along with the time evolution, or by keyboard velocity, etc. And it may be probably categorized as a sub-category of "sample-based synthesis".

Although the most "sample-based synthesis" are based on waveform-table lookup technique (i.e. wavetable), however, most of these does not implement the exact "wavetable synthesis" which was developed by Wolfgang Palm and Michael Mcnabb in the late-1970s. For example, Yamaha CS1x seen on above is not the wavetable synthesis but the sample-based synthesis. The notation "wavetable" as an abbreviations of "sample-based synthesis" tend to cause many confusions.

Thus, the description on should be changed, as following:
 * Sample-based (Yamaha CS1x, Korg M1, Roland D-50, etc)
 * Wavetable (PPG Wave, etc)

best, --Clusternote (talk) 00:41, 20 February 2015 (UTC)

Add fields?
I suggest that this template be edited to include "Variants" (or "Similar"), "Developed from" and "Developed into" fields similar to Template:Infobox aircraft type to more clearly describe relationships between successive or related synths that use similar technology, such as the Roland JV/XV series, Yamaha DX/TX/SY, and so forth. I realize that the lines between generations are sometimes blurry but it would provide useful information in any case. Carguychris (talk) 17:25, 12 October 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 30 May 2024
I think the infobox link for timbrality should be changed to this page. I am familiar with timbre, but I have never heard of timbrality and the concept of having multiple "parts". When I clicked on the link though, it just took me to the page for timbre. Zackarhino (talk) 02:01, 30 May 2024 (UTC)


 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: You might want to gain consensus. Try opening a discussion in WP:MUSIC. ABG (Talk/Report any mistakes here) 06:07, 30 May 2024 (UTC)