26 Jun
2000
26 Jun
'00
2:31 p.m.
Hello Paul
On 25-Jun-00, you wrote:
Regards
--
Gary Hildebrand --- Vintage Hammond collector!
ghldbrd(a)ccp.com
<snippage about Wendy Carlos>
Well to a lot of people used to Lawrence Welk, synth music has been likened
to 'crap' . . . .
There is a lot of good synth music out there if you look for it, and don't
try to compare it to symphonic scores. Morton Subotnick and Tomita were the
early leaders, among others. Quite a few of them were on the Nonesuch
record label. Back in my vinyl accumulation days, I amasssed quite a
selection.
My interests there stem from over 40 years' association with Laurens
Hammond's invention back in the 30's. which by definition is the one of the
earliest known 'synthesizers' with a very user-friendly interface. Too bad
they are so danged heavy. I have three of them: B3, M3 and X77.
One last note: Wendy used 'Walter' to enter a men's world in music back
then. Women still don't enjoy parity with men in the music industry, unless
they are a country singer.
She is one of many talents that took electronics and
rather than make Rover howl, did achieve serious music.
Allison
You are absolutely correct on that one, Allison. I read an interview
with Bob Moog where he was discussing the early days of synths.
After "S-OB" was released and just exploded, everybody and their
brother had to have a Moog. Problem was, most of what was
produced on them was total crap, probably sounding like what I
would do if I couldn't sequence the hell out of something. (Ever hear
George Harrison's "Electronic Music"? 'Nuff said.......)(And yes, I
know that wasn't George. It was really just the synth salesman
noodling and demoing the machine, and George released it under
his name. If you have an original copy, you can see the other guy's
name before George made the record company print over his name
on the jacket......)
Bob's comment was that it became very apparent that what made
"S-OB" the huge hit that it was wasn't his synth, it was Wendy....
It's even more amazing to listen to that album now and think about
the technology that didn't exist back then for sequencing and
midi...what she did manually was astounding. She and Larry Fast
have always been heroes of mine.
Paul Braun WD9GCO
Cygnus Productions
nerdware_nospam(a)laidbak.com