I’m the kind of person that gets really excited just from being in the same room as a true-blue 1970s analog synth. If I can get close enough to touch it then I’m in heaven.
If I get to to play it, then you won’t be hearing from me for a few hours. I’ll be busy tweaking knobs and pushing levers.
The inability of manufacturers to make cheap-sounding digital keyboards made certain that nearly ever synth that came out of the seventies was fat and bold. Analog sound waves are the epitome of real, and nothing can recreate its essence.
Although synths had started to make their presence known by the late ’60s, the 1970s is when they really started to grow and mature. Synthesizer technology made an unbelievable amount of progress and evolution during the decade. Most synth enthusiasts agree it was a golden age.
1970s synthesizers came in all shapes and sizes. They were often gracefully housed in wooded cabinets. Some had keyboards, others did not. For external control many synths used CV (controlled voltage) technology — a precursor to MIDI.
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Many synths were not capable of saving presets. If you spent 30 minutes getting the perfect sound, then later one of your buddies twists a couple knobs, you couldn’t easily reload the sound. You had to have the knowledge to turn the knobs back to the way they were.
They were also somewhat noisy and hiss-y. Probably the biggest reason artists don’t use ’70s synths today is because the signal to noise ratio isn’t that good. That and they are so expensive that they are basically collector’s items at this point.
Also, have you ever tried to get someone to repair your broken analog synth? Good luck finding that person.
All that aside, 1970s synths are still my favorite. All those knobs you see give the player unlimited sound shaping control. The analog oscillators that generate the original sound wave were amazing. The filters were sharp and the effects were effective. The have unmistakable character and to top it all off — they look extremely cool.
Click on a specific year below to view the list of synths that were released that year. Or you can skip that and go straight to the pictures by scrolling down further.
1970 Synths
1971 Synths
1972 Synths
1973 Synths
1974 Synths
1975 Synths
1976 Synths
1977 Synths
1978 Synths
1979 Synths
Pictures of 1970s Synths
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