The first electronic sound synthesizer, an instrument of awesome dimensions, was developed by the American acoustical engineers Harry Olson and Herbert Belar in 1955 at the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) laboratories at Princeton, New Jersey. The information was fed to the synthesizer encoded on a punched paper tape. It was designed for research into the properties of sound and attracted composers seeking to extend the range of available sound or to achieve total control of their music. The Synthesizer is a machine that electronically generates and modifies sounds, frequently with the use of a digital computer. Synthesizers are used for the composition of electronic music and in live performance.