Evolution

Since these early days and the experimentation with tape, electronic music has come along in leaps and bounds, from multi-track recording techniques devised in part by Les Paul to synthesizer design as discussed earlier, to the modern Digital Audio Workstation such as Pro Tools, which today is being utilised by the likes of Jarre. Tomita comments on computers versus tape recording at the Red Bull Music Academy lecture-

“Well, now we have these computers, so yes, but before I used tape recorders. After repeated recordings, I’d have to deal with tape hiss. But the way I did so was I’d change the filters to some extent for the strings. And... how do I say it? I’d change the pitch, too. I added thickness to the sound by overdubbing it like that. With computers there’s no noise, so the thickness can’t be brought out at all. But those tapes that I used to record with, that tape hiss... I’d record a few times with the noise reduction off and get that hiss. When you play the violin, it generates a kind of hissing noise as well. It actually adds quite a bit of impact to the sound. I discovered that. So for the sound of strings, I’d use noise reduction only for the silent parts and leave it off for the rest. I crafted the sound by letting the tape hiss blend into the recording on purpose. “(Tomita)[1]

Electronic music performance has grown strongly since the Poeme Electronique, with such performances as Jarre’s Rendezvous Houston live concert of music, fireworks and laser light shows and Tomita’s Soundcloud performances. As we watch the advance of these technologies it is interesting to muse upon what will come next in the electronic world. Will we see performances from the Moon as Tomita suggested he would have been thrilled to do. It was at Jarre’s Houston concert that the saxophonist Ron McNair was meant to perform his Sax part from the space shuttle Challenger which tragically exploded on take-off killing all on board. How far back do these visions of performance go and what kind of mechanical devises have been dreamed up in the past, paving the way for our modern instruments and recording devices. Since the birth of the wax cylinder and the gramophone record to magnetic tape and digital recording devices. It seems Schaffer, Varese, Tomita, Jarre, Vangelis and others were around at just the right time to bring into life this remarkable period of music making. From makeshift devices like tape delay and reverb, echo and looping, to modern sampling with such technology as the Fairlight CMI sampling computer of the late 1970’s to Logic, Cubase and so on, we have seen technology burst forward in such a short space of time. A bit on the Fairlight CMI-

“The Fairlight CMI is a keyboard that most of us have probably never even seen, let alone played, yet it was one of the most prominent synths of the early‑ and mid‑'80s and set the agenda for the way 'ordinary' synths would later develop. Sampling, graphic sequencers, multitimbrality, software‑based synthesis and the concept of the 'workstation' can all be traced back to this instrument. Coming from Australia, a country not known for producing synthesizers, this was the keyboard that broke all the established rules, even down to its colour. Consisting of several large (cream‑coloured) parts plus loads of cables, it became the '80s digital equivalent of the large analogue modulars that were produced 10‑15 years earlier.”[2]

Fairlight CMI, circa 1980.

The Fairlight Computer Music Instrument was able to sample sounds using a microphone or one could draw a soundwave onto the computer screen using a light pen and play the sound back. This instrument came at a hefty price of over two thousand pounds back in the early 1980’s.

“The Fairlight CMI was designed by Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie and used a dual microprocessor architecture engineered by Tony Furse. Providing a full complement of sound-design features, it was equipped with its own dedicated computer, dual eight-inch disk drives, a six-octave touch-sensitive keyboard, and software for the creation and manipulation of sounds. Its most innovative feature was an analogue- to-digital converter for processing incoming audio signals from analogue sources. The Fairlight CMI was the first commercially available digital sampling instrument. It featured a sequencer, 400 preset sounds.” (Holmes, p265.)[3]

“Peter Gabriel was the first owner of a Fairlight Series I in the UK, with Boz Burrell of Bad Company purchasing the second, which Hans Zimmer hired for many recordings during the early part of his career. It was Peter Gabriel who introduced Kate Bush to the Fairlight. She first began to use the Fairlight on her album Never for Ever. By the time of the albums The Dreaming and Hounds of Love it had become her primary writing tool.”[4]

The Fairlight was not the only contender in computer-based music composition. The Synclavier was developed in the 1960’s and is known as one of the first in digital synthesis. “The first commercially available portable digital synthesizer was created at Dartmouth University, New Hampshire, and developed by the composer Jon Appleton and the engineers Sydney Alonso and Cameron Jones. Called the Synclavier, the instrument used FM synthesis, was performance-oriented, and included a means to store tracks of sound that could be used interactively with real-time keyboard performance. The Synclavier set the early standard for computer-based synthesizers. New England Digital Corp. was established to manufacture and sell the product. The average cost of a Synclavier ranged from $200,000 to $300,000. In the United States, Joel Chadabe purchased the first commercially available Synclavier but without its keyboard controller. Instead, he asked Robert Moog to develop Theremin-like gestural controllers for the synthesizer.”(Holmes p265.)[5]

Frank Zappa and the Synclavier, Mid 1980’s.

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[1] Red Bull Music Academy Lecture, Isoa Tomita, accessed on 26/10/2019

[2] Sound on Sound, Fairlight computer music instrument, accessed on 26/10/2019

[3] Holmes, T. 2008. Electronic and Experimental Music

[4] Kate Bush Encyclopaedia .com accessed on 26/10/2019

[5] Holmes, T. 2008. Electronic and Experimental Music

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