History of Electronic Sound Modification

The history of electronic sound modification is as old as the history of electronic musical instruments and electronic sound transmission, recording, and reproduction . Means for modifying electrically generated sound have been known. since the late 19th century, when Thaddeus Cahill created his Telharmonium . With the advent of the electronic age, spurred first by the invention of the electron tube, and the more recent development of solid-state devices, an astounding variety of sound modifiers have been created for filtering, distorting, equalizing, amplitude and frequency modulating, Doppler effect and ring modulating, compressing, reverberating, repeating, flanging, phasing, pitch changing, chorusing, frequency shifting, analyzing, and resynthesizing natural and artificial sound. In this paper some highlights of historical development are reviewed, covering the time from 1896 to the present .