There’s some debate on another thread about how to define a synthesizer. I feel the definition is pretty broad, while others have a much narrower definition. I’m curious as to peoples’ thoughts on the matter.
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I’ve always defined synthesizer by the ability to edit the sounds. There are Casio/Yamaha-keyboards that have only preset PCM-sounds with no possibility of editing the sounds and then there are all kinds of gear that allow the user to change the sounds in many different ways. There are some instruments that are in the grey area in that they might have completely boring preset sounds but then there’s an analog filter or a simple ADSR -envelope (for example the Casio HT-3000). Those are tougher to define.
like I posted in the other thread.
Something with the ability to generate the initial waveforms, either through analogue electronics, calculations or rom samples is a synth.
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That’s a sound source.
When I think synthesizer I think synthesis.
noun
1.
the combination of ideas to form a theory or system.
So wouldn’t a synthesizer have a combination of elements? Isn’t a synthesizer a device that uses various elements to produce a sound not possible without the combination of those elements?
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Here’s my quick try at a definition of “synthesizer:” A device which uses electricity to generate data (control voltages, midi or other Digital data, or audio wave forms) which can be manipulated to control and create (original?) sounds coming from the device. The surprisingly hard thing about defining this is trying to not include things like record players, tape players, iPods, etc. I mean, in a sense, an iPhone with a music app is a sampler, right?
I would define an electric guitar patched through effects pedals as a form of synthesizer. The guitar generates the tone, the pedals shape the tone.
The pedal would be a synth in its own right, and so would an electric guitar, which requires at least an amplifier to be useful.
That would include a tone-wheel organ wouldn’t it ?
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Not sure what a tone wheel organ is. But maybe. My son bought me many years ago a little electric organ that pushes air through some kinds of different holes inside to generate different pitches. Really cool, actually. I had an old girlfriend that had a larger version of this, except you used a foot pedal to generate the air. So, my lame definition would apply to my little organ (uses electricity) but not my girlfriends, which seems like a meaningless distinction. This is an interesting question for sure.
A device used to make bleeps and bloops by a person who everyone else thinks is weird. 
“Who is that?”
“Oh that’s Gary making bleep and bloops, he’s weird”
“What is that box thing he is stroking”
“That’s his synthesizer”
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Using your definition, my mouth is a synthesizer.
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Like a Hammond B3. Waveforms defined mechanically by the serrated edge of a rotating ‘wheel’.
EDIT: Thinking about it, a definition of a synthesizer that excluded a Hammond B3 would be a bit icky … you would almost have to explicitly exclude either the B3 or exclude waveforms that were mechanical in origin.
It’s something I can point at and say “that’s a synthesizer”
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Musical device that creates sound based on synthesis methods.
Broad? Yes, because it is 
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Beep and a boop
Anything that generates sound by means of semiconductor circuitry.
This includes samplers, which I consider to be a form of synthesis.
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JS Bach was a synth nerd. But they called them “organs” back then.
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But then again:
Not saying either one is right, but including “semiconductor” in the definition does seem a little bit arbitrary to me.
Any instrument that generates tones electrically without any physical movement.