Q: Do monophonic synthesizers only have one oscillator?
A: You’re not alone if you think that all monophonic synthesizers have one oscillator (or more broadly, one tone generator). In general, the definition of “monophonic” is “one tone.” However, when discussing synthesizers, “monophonic” doesn’t refer to only having one tone generator, but to the musician only being able to play one note at a time. This means that a lot of great monophonic synthesizers, such as those from Dave Smith Instruments, Moog, Arturia, and many others, are monophonic keyboards or modules with multiple oscillators, giving them a thick, rich quality.