From: jlc@atux01.att.com (Jim Collymore)
Subject: A CD (educational) by Wendy Carlos you should really listen to!
Followup-To: poster
Keywords: Synthesis, composing, arranging, educational, recording techniques,
	  acoustics, orchestration, digital vs. analog, performance
Organization: AT&T Corporate Education and Training
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 14:55:54 GMT


I Just bought a CD yesterday that I just had to tell EVERYONE about!  It is
by Wendy Carlos and it is called:  "SECRETS OF SYNTHESIS."

I'm only about halfway through it, but I have to tell you...this is by far the
most fascinating and educational recording that I have ever heard!
The great thing is is that she uses excerpts from many of her albums to let you
HEAR the point.  Even down to hearing the individual parts/tracks in some cases,
and then having you hear the finished work.  I found this even more interesting
since I have her albums: Switched on Bach (SOB), SOB II, The Well-Tempered
Synthesizer, and I have heard the soundtrack to "A Clockwork Orange" which she
did, too.

She also gives a lot of interesting history on how she developed things with
Bob Moog to make some of these albums.  The developments she talks about are
ones that almost every synthesist/keyboardist takes for granted today.  Things
such as velocity sensitive keyboards, and an improved vocoder.

The CD is organized as follows:

1)	Introduction
2)	Examples of Analog Timbres
3)	Choral tone, vibrato, articulation
4)	Vocal synthesis
5)	Performance values
6)	Simple Orchestration
7)	Electronic pointillism and hocketting
8)	For spatial motion
9)	Ensemble performace via click-track
10)	Imitative synthesis
11)	Musique Concrete plus synthesizer
12)	Orchestra with Synthesizer
13)	Digital synthesizer
14)	Digital vs. analog
15)	Hybrid timbres
16)	Alternative tunings - The Future

The total playing time is about 50 minutes, and I just finished listening to
section 7 this morning at breakfast.  I find myself going back over a section
several times to fully absorb her examples.

If you are a rocker, wedding band player, composer, an arranger, or you just
like music, you should DEFINETLY BUY THIS CD!!!!

I'm only halfway through it, and already I can't wait to run home tonight
and try fooling around with my keyboards and tape deck.  I find some of this
stuff especially interesting, because I "cut my teeth" on synthesizers back
in the early 1970's.  I originally studied with Walter Sear in Manhattan in
early 1971 when the big, modular Moogs were THE state-of-the-art machines.
By 1972, I helped put together the electronic music lab at the State University
of NY at Fredonia.  We had a Moog 55-A (2nd biggest Moog you could buy back
then, it lacked the eight unit sequential controller of the next higher model),
a (monophonic) keyboard controller, ribbon controller, and an X-Y controller
(i.e., "joystick").  A 100-watt McIntosh amp, four AR speakers, a TEAC 4-track
(reel-to-reel), an 8-line mixer, a stereo tape deck (reel-to-reel) for
mix-downs, a little Moog Sonic-Six "portable" synth (it looked like a large
trombone case, had about a 3-octave keyboard & weighed a "ton"!), and dozens
of PATCH CORDS!  I remember having to sit down with a splicing block, and
sometimes have to splice SINGLE NOTES from a tape, to put together a musical
passage for the final mix, when now I can do that type of tedious stuff on my
Mac's "Vision" sequencer.  I remember having to re-tune each of the 8
oscillators on the Moog every 15 minutes since as their circuits warmed, they
would ALWAYS drift out of tune or sync.  If they were out of tune, that was an
obvious problem, but if they were out of sync, then you'd get these annoying,
variable "beat patterns" that would make all the work from your 17th take go
right down the tubes!
Ah, the memories.

Anyway, the nostalgia aside, ANYONE who wants to get better ideas for what
you really can/should try with a modern day synth should buy this CD.  Or if
you want to know what goes into the making of an electronic piece of music
(especially converting the conventional classical repetoire to synhesizer).
If you need to order it, the info is:

"Wendy Carlos:  Secrets of Synthesis," CBS label, catalog number MK42333.

It retails for $17.  I think you'll find it a truly worthwhile investment.

Enjoy!

					Jim Collymore