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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?

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.

aen wrote: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!

Some simple keyboards also just function as variable resistors.