Mr. Charlie

Look at those valves. Just look at them.

Mr. Charlie

Anyone with a tube amplifier will know what I mean. Valves sound sweet.

Lord Larehip

I have a Hartke HA-2000 bass amp that has both transistorized and tube outputs. I can use one or the other or I can blend them to any degree I want. I usually have it set at about 85% tube and 15% solid state--throbbing warmth with a hint of mid-range crispness for a little extra presence. Then I run it through the built-in compressor (set about 4:1) for fast attack and decay so that it thumps heavily without sustaining and it's the bass sound from hell especially with active pickups but my P-bass sounds great too.

Lord Larehip

In the wake of the musique concrète revolution, two technicians from RCA, Harry Olson and Herbert Belar, completed their Mark II Electronic Music Synthesizer at the Sarnoff Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey in 1957. The electronic basis of the synthesizer was vacuum tubes which were controlled by paper tape with holes punched in it. The Rockefeller Foundation purchased it in 1959 and had it installed at the newly built Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center where it quickly became the centerpiece of the various composers there including Milton Babbitt, Otto Luening, Alice Shields, Mario Davidovsky, Bulent Arel, Vladimir Ussachevsky and others who wanted to get back to electronically generated sound.

The Mark II, like its Teleharmonium predecessor four decades earlier, was no small operation. It took up four rooms. Its oscillators had a tendency to drift after only a couple of seconds and were impossible to keep tuned. Consequently, conventional music could not be composed on it. The Mark II was inherently in the domain of avant-garde. The composition would be punched into paper tape with a typewriter keyboard. When the tape was run back, the Mark II would play it back. It also spit out a copy onto a vinyl disc that could be kept for reference or played elsewhere.


Ussachevsky at CPEMC adjusting the Mark II.


Milton Babbitt at the typewriter keyboard that punches the paper tape. Babbitt has never composed on any other synthesizer.

Babbitt’s “Ensembles for Synthesizer”:

Babbitt- Ensembles for Synthesizer (1/2) - YouTube


In this setting, there is little difference between a composer, a researcher or a technician. Ussachevsky stands at the right.


A good look at the keyboard and paper tape.


(Seated) Ussachevsky, clockwise around him are Babbitt, Arel, Pril Smiley, Davidovsky, Shields and Luening.


Nor was electronic music strictly the domain of eccentric, old white guys. There are a number of females whose pioneering work is legendary including Alice Shields, Pauline Oliveros, Laurie Spiegel, Pril Smiley, and Maryanne Amacher. Clara Rockmore is considered the foremost skilled performer with the theremin which she began mastering as a teen when she was already famous as a concert violinist.

Lord Larehip

Raymond Scott was a jazz bandleader (his band did the music for the Bugs Bunny cartoons) and was famous for adapting classical pieces into jazz format. Scott, however, was also an audio engineer who founded his own company in 1946—Manhattan Research. He patented various electronic devices. Above is the electronium which he patented in 1959. It has no keyboard but was designed to be an “instantaneous composition/performance machine.” This machine so impressed Berry Gordy that he hired Scott as director of electronic research and development at Motown. The electronium is not functional these days but it was bought by Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo who hopes to get it working again.


The Clavivox which Scott patented in 1956. This device is also heard on “Cindy Electronium.” One of Scott’s assistants in the 50s was a young Bob Moog who was overwhelmed by Scott’s collection of electronic gadgetry for making music. “When I first worked for Raymond,” Moog recalled, “he had a large laboratory in the basement of his mansion. The room was filled with rack upon rack of relays, motors, steppers and electronic circuits. He would set it going, then go around and adjust various things to change the patterns that were being produced. I’d never seen anything like it.” That’s because there wasn’t anything else like it. Scott’s electronic instruments were unique, made and designed by him.


The Subharchord, invented in East Germany in 1962 by Ernst Schreiber, it was basically a keyboard version of West Germany’s Mixtur-Trautonium in that it played subharmonics rather than harmonics (hence its name). The Subharchord was more versatile than the Trautonium.


The keyboard of the Subharchord. This instrument was nearly lost to us until it was rediscovered by a Berlin musician named Manfred Miersch who publicized his find which generated interest. The Subharchord was restored to service.

In the early 60s, there were artists performing with oscillators and tape. One of the foremost of these was Tod Dockstader who did the sound FX for Tom & Jerry. He was combining musique concrète with electronically generated sounds to come up with very compelling pieces. His 1961 piece, Apocalypse II, is a good example. Dockstader takes the sound of a creaky-hinged door and turns it into something completely mind-warping (you should hear it through surround sound speakers).


Tod Dockstader - Apocalypse Part II.wmv - YouTube

Lord Larehip

But there was more in the air in the early 60s. Don Buchla in California was interested in electronic music and founded Buchla & Associates in Berkeley in 1963. Two synth artists, Ramon Sender and Morton Subotnick at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, commissioned him to come up with a full synth geared to performance. In 1963, Buchla produced the 100 series, the first modular synthesizer which set a standard in synth production. The 100 line was sold to CBS which promptly discontinued it. Then Buchla released the 200 series Electronic Music Box in 1970 and continued to build them until 1985. Buchla synths were keyboardless. One simply turned switches to activate the oscillator to produce a control-voltage signal that one then sent around through various internal circuits. Some models had touch plates to generate signals. Although one would think the Buchla synths would be very difficult to use in performance, they are actually quite easy once one understands how they work. Buchla made his synths for performance.

In 1971, Buchla released the 500 series, the first digitally controlled analog synth. Shortly after this, the company released the Buchla 300 which combined the 200 with microprocessors. The Music Easel was released in 1972, a complete synth that was portable. The Buchla 400 was released in 1982 and then the Buchla 700 in 1987.

Buchla 200 Modular Synth demonstration that shows how just small changes in parameters make a big difference in the sound:


Buchla 200 Modular Synth - YouTube


(Above and below) Buchla 100 series models.



Buchla 200 series Electronic Music box.


The Music Easel.


The Buchla 200e, a 1990s revamp of the old 200 series line. At the bottom are touch-sensitive plates. Buchla reintroduced this souped up model when synthesists bored with purely digital computerized synths with presets (what are called “soft synths”) began to experiment with analogs and expressed the desire to have new analog synths instead of hunting down old, beaten-up analogs. Don Buchla chose to revamp the 200 series because it was his personal favorite Buchla synth.


Buchla 400, which came with a monitor. Note the different type of touch plates.


Suzanne Ciani with her Buchla. Aside from being a recording artist in her own right (she is a classically trained pianist), Ciani’s work is heard in hundreds of commercials, movies, TV shows and electronic games. The old Coke commercial in the 70s where one heard the cap being pried from the bottle and then the coke pouring into a glass fizzing and then the sound of coke bubbles bursting to the jingle of “Things go better with Coke” was the work of Ciani, who is considered the foremost expert on the Buchla. Ironically, she was fired by Don Buchla for whom she once worked at his synth shop on the assembly line for talking which was forbidden but she loves the synths she once built for a living. Her pervasiveness in the field of electronic music and entertainment is enormous. You’ve heard her more times than you can ever count.


The Buchla 700, although less daunting in appearance than the older models, is even more powerful due to the microtechnology that allows for the size and weight reduction.

Lord Larehip

Moog synthesizers were the second of the modular synths to be marketed to the public. The company was founded by Raymond Scott’s former assistant, Robert Moog, an electronics genius who built and sold theremins in the 50s. The company was first called R.A. Moog Co. which later became Moog Music. The first Moogs—the 900 series—were marketed in 1967 after a former student of Ussachevsky named Walter Carlos (now Wendy Carlos) began buying up Moog modules to use on his own system and made suggestions to Bob Moog on how to improve on them. Moog deserves credit for standardizing much of the synthesizer industry. The first Moogs were huge and heavy and the oscillators went out of tune when hot. One could spend hours retuning them or trying to program a new sound. Consequently, Moogs found a residence in classrooms, labs and studios but few homes other than professional musicians. Carlos bought the first. The second was bought by—believe it or not—Buck Owens for the 1971 Capitol album Switched-On Buck consisting of Owens’ songs played on the Moog by his friend and collaborator Jeff Haskell. Mickey Dolenz bought the third one. In fact, the Monkees were the second band to feature a Moog just after the Doors, both in 1967. The Byrds and Simon & Garfunkel recorded with one in 1968. The Beatles used one on Abbey Road in 1969. The most popular Moogs turned out to be the minimoog and the polymoog (other Moogs were monophonic). Moog Music declared bankruptcy in 1986 but Bob Moog’s company, Big Briar, renamed itself Moog Music in 2001 due to the rising demand for analog synths.


Dr. Robert Moog and synthesist/keyboardist extraordinaire Keith Emerson who popularized the Moog even more than Wendy Carlos had done. Emerson even took his huge Moog system on grueling tour schedules—the first musician ever to do so. It weighed several hundred pounds and required a separate road crew to break it down and set it up.


A typical Moog setup of the 70s. Each module was a separate signal generator/processor. The patch cords simply routed the signal through the various modules. Contrary to what some might believe, synths as this were not computers. The Moog simply produced a sine wave generated by an oscillator and ran it through various band filters to remove high, low or medium frequencies to create totally different wave forms. This is called subtractive synthesis. Additive synthesis, where harmonic waves are added to a basic sine wave to reshape the timbre, was a bit more complicated and so most synths of that period were subtractive.


The recording that brought the Moog synthesizer into the public mind, Walter Carlos’s 1968 release Switched-On Bach in collaboration with Rachel Elkind who produced it. Modern versions of this recording now say Wendy Carlos. Carlos also did an updated version of this recording with MIDI called Switched-On Bach 2000.


silver apples on the moon - YouTube
Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon was another early composition that ushered the Moog into the public mind. This is perhaps the coolest clip on the internet.


The minimoog, a portable Moog synth. Although severely restricted by its size, it was still versatile and was used by Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Manfred Mann, Gary Wright, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, The Captain and Tenille and many others.


The polymoog, the first polyphonic Moog synth. Many bands swore by it. Gary Numan made it his band’s primary instrument and raved about it in interviews. It provides all the keyboard sounds including the electronic percussion beat heard in his hit “Cars.” Because both hands could now occupy the keyboard simultaneously, many of the adjustable settings were moved to a foot-operated unit. Kraftwerk used one as did Wendy Carlos, Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks (Genesis), John Foxx and the polymoog sound is heard on every Blondie album. It was quickly outclassed, however, by later polyphonic synths and became somewhat of a joke to many keyboardists but it was quite revolutionary for its time.


Gary Numan - A Dream of Siam - YouTube


Yellow Magic Orchestra of Japan were avid Moog users who crafted pop and disco numbers electronically in the 70s and found a large following both in and outside of Japan. They are today recognized as pioneers in the field of electronic popular music. They also used the minimoog and the polymoog extensively.


Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) - Computer Games - YouTube
There is little doubt that "Computer Games" is YMO's signature song--a huge disco house party favorite in the US which even got them on "Soul Train." This band contained Ryuichi Sakamoto who went onto have a successful solo career. Sakamoto played the camp commandant in the movie "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence" which he also wrote the score for (excellent score, btw). David Bowie also appeared in the movie and both he and Sakamoto have recorded together. Sakamoto was a part-time member of the British band, Japan, and wrote the music for "Taking Islands in Africa" as well as playing all the music tracks (all synthesized) which David Sylvian sang over.

Lord Larehip

In 1969, an electronics engineer who had been interested in electronic music since 1948, Alan Robert Pearlman, founded ARP Instruments, Inc. for $100,000 and began releasing a new type of modular synthesizer to the public. These synths became the main competitor of Moog.


The ARP 2500. Although subtractive like the Moog, the ARPs did away with the need for a jungle of patch cords. ARP’s unique resolution was to put a patchbay matrix on the modules. This patchbay represented the various components in the module. One merely put a pin in that hole and routed the control-voltage through the modules via the placing of the pins. The matrices are visible as a rectangular group of holes and the pins are the little colored pegs. The ARP 2500 was used to generate the special tones on Close Encounters as well as the musical dialogue between the ship and earth computers.


The ARP 2600 came inside a carrying case and was extremely versatile. The number of musicians that used one is impressive. These include Pete Townshend (heard on Who’s Next), Brian Eno, David Bowie, Tangerine Dream, Arthur Brown, Vince Clarke (Yaz), Depeche Mode, Cat Stevens, Herbie Hancock, Nine Inch Nails, Kraftwerk, John Lennon, Mike Oldfield, Nitzer Ebb, Roger Glover, John Medeski, Joe Zawinul, Kool and the Gang, Stevie Wonder, etc. This was the synth that did the FX on Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” as well as providing the voice for R2D2 in Star Wars. The one pictured here belongs to Tony Banks of Genesis.


To rival the minimoog, ARP offered this portable beauty called the Odyssey. I played one once and found it to be a thing of beauty. As little as I knew of working a synth back then I found myself able to come up with some neat stuff in just a few minutes of messing around. Very user friendly.


ARP decided to make a guitar synthesizer by converting the Odyssey from a keyboard to a device with a guitar interface and called it the Avatar. Even compared to today’s MIDI guitar applications, this was a shockingly good device. One guitarist could be a whole band. Unfortunately, few guitarists bought them. The $3000 price tag probably had a lot to do with that. ARP had staked its very future on the Avatar by investing $4 million into the first year model in 1977 and when that failed to pan, ARP could not recoup the losses and ARP Instruments went belly up in 1981.

Lord Larehip

The invention of the drum machine (a.k.a. the rhythm box or beat box) was a gigantic step forward in electronic music especially pop. Without it, disco, techno, rap and hip-hop would not have been possible and that includes all the offshoots from ambient and dub-step to trance and bass. The drum machine is pivotal to all those subgenres. The first drum machine was built by Leon Theremin in 1932 and called the Rhythmicon which now sits in the Smithsonian (yea, really):



The Rhythmicon, however, was not a true beat box. Rather, one played the keys which produced various drum sounds. The first true beat box was invented by Harry Chamberlain in 1957 and called the Chamberlain Rhythmate. The Rhythmate played a bank of pre-recorded tape loops of jazzy sounding drumbeats with adjustable tempos and volume. It had a jack for electric guitar, microphone or organ. Chamberlain later invented a keyboard that played tape loops of various instrumental sounds and this was the forerunner of the Mellotron (sometimes erroneously referred to as a Chamberlain).



Wurlitzer produced the first commercially used drum machine in 1959 called the Sideman. It produced 12 drum patterns using vacuum tubes and was rather versatile producing a variety of patterns from jazz to foxtrot to waltzes. Raymond Scott invented the Rhythm Synthesizer in 1960 and another in 1963 called Bandito the Bongo Artist. The following year saw the first transistorized drum machine made by Seeburg/Gulbransen called the Rhythm Prince (not fully solid state) and then the Select-A-Rhythm machine (usually simply called the SAR1).


The SAR1, the first fully transistorized drum machine.

The drum machine that really changed things, however, was the FR-1 Rhythm Ace in 1967 made by Ace Electronics of Japan whose founder, Ikutaro Kakehashi, would go onto found the Roland Corporation. It used 16 pre-set sounds with four selectable percussion voices. The true revolutionary development was that the FR-1 allowed the player to push more than one pre-set in any combination desired to cascade them together with resulted in over 100 different patterns that could be manipulated in a large variety of ways. The Hammond Organ Company took out a license to install the FR-1 in its organs which was the start of built-in drum and rhythm patterns installed on electric organs. In the U.S., Peter Sorkin Music marketed the FR-1 as the Multivox. In the U.K., it was marketed as the Bentley Rhythm Ace (and, yes, that’s where the band took its name). The sounds of the FR-1 went onto became the basis of those used by Roland which would revolutionize drum machines by producing the first MIDI model (the TR-909).

The first pop single to feature the rhythm box prominently was Robin Gibb’s 1969 hit, “Saved By the Bell.” In the early 70s, Sly & the Family Stone, Can and Pink Floyd would also use them. The Japanese psychedelic band, Benzaiten, started using drum machines in 1974. Bassist Harry Hosono came out of Benzaiten to co-found Yellow Magic Orchestra three years later. In fact, YMO was the first band to use the Roland TR-808, the non-MIDI precursor of the TR-909. Marvin Gaye (“Sexual Healing") and Afrika Bambaata followed suit and the TR drum machines became the very basis of house music. Rap utilized the TR models to provide the bass lines as much as the beats. In fact, the TR models have been used on more hit recordings than any other drum machine. Kanye West’s album, 808s and Heartbreak, was named after the TR-808 which is STILL used in the various hip-hop, house and techno subgenres because the sound is so iconic.

However, the 808 was not the only drum machine used in disco and early house music of the 70s. There were several others that were extremely influential including Eko’s ComputeRhythm, the FR-15 of Ace Tone, the Programmable Drum Set of PAiA and Roland’s CR-78.

When the 80s rolled around, so did Linn’s LM-1 Drum Computer. This was followed by the LinnDrum. This became the drum machine of choice for bands as Human League, Prince and Morris Day & the Time.

When the MIDI revolution hit in 1983, MIDI drum machines were all the rage. Artists as Phil Collins, the Police, Eurythmics and New Order preferred to use the Oberheim DMX which not only had incredibly real drums sounds but you could play a pattern and use the swing function to make it sound more human—indistinguishable. At that time, no other drum machine offered that.



One particularly nice MIDI machine was released in 1991 by Alesis—the SR-16. A very small box packed with power is how I would describe it. When I bought one, I put my 808 aside. Although there are much better and more extensive drum machines available today, I still use the SR-16 exclusively. It does everything I need a drum machine to do. It’s completely programmable and features everything from congas to cowbells to blocks to various snares and toms to kicks to ride and crash cymbals to hand claps to car door slams. You can manipulate the various envelopes of each sound to your heart’s content and make them sound any way you want. The preset patterns are kick-ass but you can also import the sounds into MIDI pads and play your own patterns and then import the patterns into the SR-16 and store them! In fact, the SR-16 is a highly popular drum machine today:

Lord Larehip

I stand corrected. In my last post, I called the ARP 2600 a Putney. Something about that was bugging me but I didn't look it up and then it hit me today that I don't believe the Putney had a keyboard and then I realized it was the VCS3 that was the Putney and I started wondering if the VCS3 was even made by ARP and finally I looked it up.

No, the VCS3 was not made by ARP but by a British company called EMS and that this was indeed the Putney not the ARP 2600. Many apologies. But, anyway, that's the Putney or VCS3 shown above. THAT is the synth that Brian Eno used so much and then started using the ARP later. Pete Townsend used the Putney a lot too as well as the ARP 2600 and maybe that's what made me confuse them.

Anyway, there was no excuse. I should have checked it out before I posted but it was one of those things where you think you're right and then it hits you later that you're wrong and I was certainly wrong. Sorry for any confusion.