Synthesizers have been attempting to emulate real-world musical instruments for decades. Famous synthesist Wendy Carlos worked hard to understand (and document, in her Secrets of Synthesis album) how synthesizers could capture the intent of music initially written for physical instruments. Musicians came to understand, though, that if you wanted to capture the exact sound and feel of an instrument, you had to record it, and the Mellotron famously pioneered this idea with tape loops connected to a keyboard.
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