[SeanLuke]

So I presume your complaint is that by synthesis you mean taking two things, smashing them together, and producing a new thing. In which case, sure, subtractive synthesis isn't synthesis unless:

- Two oscillators undergoing detune, sync, ring or amplitude modulation, or fm prior to getting fed into the filter?

- An LFO combined with an oscillator?

- An envelope (controlling the filter or amplifier) combined with an oscillator?

Perhaps these things might be considered combinations? I agree this is weak. You can blame the RCA Mark I and II for calling subtractive synthesizers "synthesizers".

[shwaj]

By their definition, an amplitude envelope would probably also be a transformation.