Synth manufacturers have pursued the perfection of electronic music for more than half a century, but in so doing they have arguably sidelined the hitherto wild-west nature of electronic instruments. Since the invention of the modern synthesizer, the majority of manufacturers have followed the basic design principle set by Robert Moog in the early 1960s – several oscillators controlled by a piano-style keyboard and modified with filters, LFOs and envelope generators.

Prior to this, however, there were a large variety of instruments that used all manner of unconventional control mechanisms and sound generation methods, from optical sensing of images to algorithmic generation to novel tuning systems. These arguably led to more experimental electronic music, and by forgetting about these inventions, modern electronic music may have also lost something in the process.