Steiner-Parker Synthacon

The Synthacon was first released in 1975 as a more affordable competitor to the Minimoog and ARP Odyssey. It uses the same circuitry as Steiner-Parker's modular synthesizer of the same period, the SynthaSystem. The Synthacon's filter was designed by company co-founder Nyle Steiner. ==Synthesis model==

The Synthacon is a monophonic analog synthesizer. It uses three voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) as sound sources. One oscillator could generate sine or sawtooth waves, and the other two could each generate either sawtooth, pulse, or triangle waves. The filter for the Synthacon, designed by Nyle Steiner, is a 12db/octave multimode filter capable of functioning as a resonant low-pass filter, a high-pass filter, or a band-pass filter. Like the contemporary Minimoog filter, the Steiner-Parker filter is capable of self-oscillation. Because the filter uses positive feedback, increasing the resonance does not cause the audio output to lose amplitude, as it does in the Minimoog and other analog synthesizers. Several types of modulation are available on the Synthacon. Each oscillator can be modulated against the second attack, decay, sustain and release (ADSR) envelope, another VCO, the keyboard, the noise generator, or the sample-and-hold effect. The voltage controlled filter (VCF) can also be modulated by the second ADSR envelope, the keyboard, one of the VCOs, or the sample-and-hold. The VCA is modulated by the first ADSR envelope. ==Sales==

According to designer Nyle Steiner, "several hundred Synthacons were made and sold". The Synthacon is considered to be relatively rare. ==Legacy==

The Synthacon's filter circuit, often referred to as a Steiner-Parker filter, can be found in contemporary modular synthesizer designs due to its low cost and relative ease of construction. The Arturia MiniBrute uses a 12db/octave multimode filter, designed by Yves Usson under guidance from Nyle Steiner, based on the Steiner-Parker Synthacon filter. of the original design. ==See also==