How do the keyboards on synths work?

[Seten]

How do they transmit information from the keyboard to the synth module? I know most modern synths use MIDI, but what about the ones built before MIDI was invented? Is that CV? How does that work?

[aen]

Yep it's CV and gate.
The CV is sent to the oscillators to determine the pitch. The GATE is an on/off electrical impulse that (usually) tells the envelope generator to generate an envelope, which is usually applied to the filter or amplifier. Amplifier being a bit misleading in modern synthesis, because the raw waves are loud as fuck, so usually the Voltage Controlled Amplifier is being used to shush the oscillator up.

I just uploaded a video series talking about some of these concepts:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Ibl2oCvMGI
It's module by module, but for your question I would check out the "control methods" "VCA" and "Envelope" episodes.

[Seten]

Yep it's CV and gate.
The CV is sent to the oscillators to determine the pitch. The GATE is an on/off electrical impulse that (usually) tells the envelope generator to generate an envelope, which is usually applied to the filter or amplifier. Amplifier being a bit misleading in modern synthesis, because the raw waves are loud as fuck, so usually the Voltage Controlled Amplifier is being used to shush the oscillator up.

I just uploaded a video series talking about some of these concepts:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Ibl2oCvMGI
It's module by module, but for your question I would check out the "control methods" "VCA" and "Envelope" episodes.

Thanks!

[oscillateur]

Some simple keyboards also just function as variable resistors.