That is not even close to being 'one of the first synthesizers'. It's probably the first digital piano anyone took seriously, in addition to introducing sampling keyboards into the world, but synths had been around for more-or-less thirty years by 1983.
Re:Stevie Wonder’s “classic period”
by brandall10 on Wednesday December 21, 2016 @12:37PM
(#13230945)
Stevie had used the Moog extensively during his golden period and was very familiar with the capabilities of synthesizers of the day. I believe his complaint was essentially boiled down to: while they provided new sonic vistas, they did a terrible job of reproducing the sounds of real instruments. Samples were poor and lacked dynamics.
What he wanted from Kurzweil was a synth to mimic an actual piano. He wanted to play a 'piano' on stage without the heft and burden of an actual piano. Further down in that wiki:
"The Kurzweil K250 is generally recognized as the first electronic instrument to faithfully reproduce the sounds of an acoustic grand piano."
I first thought of the Abbey Road usage of the Moog (in 1969), and that certainly couldn't have been the first synth use (although probably one of the more popularizations of it). (maybe my def of 'synth' is a bit loose though)
Wendy Carlos "Switched On Bach" released in 1968 probably launched synthesizers into the mainstream consciousness.
yea you are right. I confused synths with 'new generation of music synthesizers capable of accurately duplicating the sounds of real instruments. ' [1]
Re:Stevie Wonder’s “classic period”
by ArkyBeagle on Wednesday December 21, 2016 @06:18PM
(#13233512)
The 250 is a ROMpler. Synths right before that were usually, mostly FM. Then there were analog synths ( Moog, Oberheim, the other suspects ).
A ROMpler has samples built in ( in ROM, although that doesn't mean masked/permanent ROM - probably FLASH ).
I'd compare it to when PCs had soundcards with FM MIDI vs. Soundfonts. The quality in sound went up immensely.
"In 1982 Stevie Wonder invited Raymond Kurzweil to his new studio in Los Angeles, and asked if "we could use the extraordinarily flexible computer control methods on the beautiful sounds of acoustic instruments?"[2] In response to this query, Raymond Kurzweil founded Kurzweil Music Systems, with Stevie Wonder as musical advisor.[1] A prototype of the Kurzweil K250 was manufactured for Stevie Wonder in 1983." [1]
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurzweil_K250