synthesizer

A late-1990s and early-2000s scene that fused 1980s electro, synth-pop and new wave with punk attitude, deadpan vocals and a taste for fashion and performance. It grew around labels such as International DeeJay Gigolo in Munich and clubs in New York, Berlin and Paris.

The music that followed punk from the late 1970s: still tense and stripped-down, but more experimental, with prominent bass, angular guitars, cold synthesizers and detached vocals. Its dark branches, gothic rock and darkwave, have been revived again and again since.

A chord played one note at a time instead of all at once, rising, falling or cycling in a steady rhythm. Synthesizers and sequencers can play arpeggios automatically, and the pulsing synth arpeggio became a signature of electronic disco and much dance music since the 1970s.

The lowest melodic part of a track. In dance music it often carries the hook as much as the vocal does, and its rhythm against the kick drum defines the groove.

A synthesizer whose sound is made by analog circuits rather than computation. Their slight instability gives a warmth many producers seek, even emulated in software.

An electronic instrument that plays programmed drum patterns. Its machine-steady time and synthetic sounds became the foundation of hip-hop, house, techno and synth-pop.

A device or program that records and plays back musical events in time, so a producer can program parts that repeat exactly.

A device that imposes the shape of a voice onto a synthesizer's sound, producing the robotic singing heard from Kraftwerk to Daft Punk.

Deliberately overdriving a signal so that it clips and gains harmonics: grit on a guitar, a bass or a vocal. It adds aggression and presence.

Gradually opening or closing a filter so that a sound goes from muffled to bright or back. Filter sweeps create build-ups and are a signature of French house.