Discovering Electronic Music Part 1

[electro257]

yes i know all that stuff... it just makes me laugh.... the potential for everything and anything, so they play classical... or Romantic,.. or Impressionism... etc... its cool but just funny.

[73niki73]

Every science & tech documentary from this era starts off with that super-creepy doomsday music...what is up with that??

[moogboy010]

A Rare Modular Moog,with flip-switch's instead of slide-switch's.They only made a few like that!totally Groovy,Baby! ; )

[dbeatk]

Its amazing how technology advances with music. It is just- amazing.

We should go back and show them a synthesizer like Nord G series or Z3TA+ lol

[donegalali]

and we think we know it all when we use a piece of software these dayz bollocks to that, these people lived for what they done.upmost respect.

[rbrooks2007]

Bach was one of the earliest to arrange a vast array of technically difficult pieces for various instruments and orchestral arrangements. If you're first in, your name is assured.

@Electro257, people and the record companies probably got sick of the synthesizer and so Boulez, Birtwhisle et al carried on with using traditional instruments. Remember that the synthesizer came in on the coat tails of the looped edited tape (Delia Derbyshire anyone?) andrecordings of dustbin crashes?

[alexandrize1]

awesome

[23Henrich]

I never tire of even the basics or fundamentals of electronic music. It's an addiction.

[electro257]

yes i have... thats not my point... the synthesizer wasnt exactley designed for Bach,.. it was designed for a new sound esthetic, in the words of Debussy 'the age of the aeroplane, ocean liner and machines needs a new music' etc... it isnt a critisism, i just dont see why Bach is Always used to demonstrate the synth,... ever since wendy Carlos its been the norm???

[electro257]

but you can do that on the instrument designed for Baroque / classical style,. period music is of a period and for a instrument... .. a modular is not about that type of music as it is not relevant to the period.. the period of the modular.. if the only point of reference is 'classical' then why have one..

[rbrooks2007]

@electro257 No different to many users of VSTi synths these days who end up just playing trance which I think involves setting a sound and sticking one key down, then walking away from the computer to read a book. I'm not that much into Bach but have you ever tried sitting down and playing it?

[takenae]

@rbrooks2007 ... i dont know why Bach ... but ... if you see

[Kohntarkosz]

I think my head would have exploded if I had seen this back when it was made. I was 11 at the time, and just discovering these things called synthesizers. Amazing.

[TheSilverDubber]

Smashing! :-)

[fritagogo1]

1922 THEREMINE RUSSIA

[fritagogo1]

ACOUSMATIC, ELECTRO ACOUSTIC, ELECTRONIC MUSIC, since 1910 ...

Martignat.L

[macjohan]

What is the name of that song he is playing at 7:45?? Its in a Amiga game called Skychase. I just want to know the name of it :)

[doom705]

lol i'd kill for a Moog modular ^_^

[DudasMiska]

Omg so glad I dont have to go through all that to produce...and listen to those cheesy chords and strings...but for the time it must of been amazing.

[doom705]

@DudasMiska they sound better then small hardwired synth though. and its a Moog modular synthesizer, they're known to have the fattest and best sound quality. IT RULES!! :P lol

[DudasMiska]

@doom705 yea I know what you mean but you can just use a few outboard processors to master the track now, instead of going through all that miserable gear :P

[doom705]

@DudasMiska ye good call :P

[lukewyo]

Reall quite cool. They found some pretty neat equipment (considering the time) and it was pretty informative. What's most fascinating is seeing how far we've come. Makes you wonder where some of those people are now.

Also, rather good video editing on this. The split screen effects were pretty cool, again considering the early date.

Thanks for sharing.

[TheRealCritique]

what a fuckload of work people did to get us where we are today. That said, it's not always an equal battle between electronic music and organic music. The Who used a synth well on Baba O'RIley and FLoyd used synths well, but both were still backed by guys who could play the fuck out of conventional instruments.

[waheex]

This is such a good doc, many thanks

[ThechosenDemon]

SOOO MANY GOOD SAMPLES

[edgeeffect]

This would be quite good if the narrator wasn't treating us as though we were morons.

[mattgetssit]

ELECTRONIC JAZZ!

[sacredgeometry]

does anyone else find the electronic jazz at the beginning dire or is it just me?

its horrible!

that said this whole video is hilarious.

peace

Brian

[electro257]

having said all that it is good to see this and ALL the other synth stuff on youtube... where would we be without it? a reminder of a bygone age i think...

[electro257]

8.10 to 8.38 is funny... why do people play like that on a modular???

[takenae]

... well i think playing bach or some kind of baroque music on analog equipment is just a sort of "cliché", of course that cliche is after Wendy Carlos, not before. On the other side, is an exercise, nothing more...

[noisyneil]

@takenae free country innit.

[Rhythmicons]

Wendy Carlos played classical music to show that this electronic instrument should be taken seriously as a viable instrument. At that time, noone really knew that it could do pitches or that these synths existed. Wendy brought it to the mainstream, paving the way for Kieth Emerson and people like him, which paved the way for the Minimoog which led to bands like Pfunk, which led to digital synths which led to software synths....the list goes on.

[electro257]

yes i know all that but.. even as early as 1900 composers where searching for a NEW sonic pallete, Debussy even said the age of the plane boat and machine needs a new sound.. the futurist movment springs to mind too, La Cobusier, Edgar Verese etc etc.. all of whom predate wendy carlos and others by many years.. synths needed to bought into the mainstream and not art music as stockhausen did that! i do understand what you are trying to say but it still begs the question WTF are they doing!

[Rhythmicons]

What is mainstream? Synths have come full circle, originally filling the Music Concrete need for new sounds (bleeps and bloops) as they grew to their biggest sizes (modular) then made pitched music (classical) which evolved to prog rock and later, synthpop/new age/techno (and all its subgenres), and now with the eurorack platforms, musicians have brought the synth full circle, omitting Oscs and filters for the making of bleeps and bloops and the "noize".

[Rhythmicons]

I think its pretty contemporary considering 1983, to show a black synthesist playing a cover of Wendy Carlos on a modular. Thats the first time I think ive ever seen a black synthesist. I think thats a rarity, as synthesis is a field dominated by white men, as most of these pre-synthesizer experimental musicians were all european, and all the major engineers building the synths are white.

And as good as the art was, the futurists were a crazy bunch.

[nuswolloh]

@Rhythmicons

Eh? You seem to be forgetting the likes of Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, George Duke and plenty of other black fellas who were doing magnificent things with synths back in the 70s albeit, admittedly, not Bach.

[Rhythmicons]

I think Wonder had his synths programmed for him for the most part (TONTO)..don't get me wrong, im not undermining their contributions, but there aren' t a lot of black synthesists out there. Besides those youve named, there are only a few more, Worrel and Troutman but they are immensely popular so it seems like there are alot.

Outside of those people who were doing that 40 years ago there are lots found in hiphop but clearly their numbers are small in comparison. THats all Im saying.

[scorcolo]

@electro257 cause he can, man.

[JingleJoe]

@electro257 because they think classical music is the best and BIG modular synths are the best and subsequently they get pretentious and arrogant and they they are somehow above playing lazer gun sound effects like the little synth chaps like me.

[Paska100]

Thank you, very inspiring to say the least!

[Sovul]

its finally back on youtube! thank you so much!

[MuzamProd]

Seeing this document is a dream from long ago come true. Thanks a lot!

[junkification]

Incredible, rare find!

[terrestial63]

Thank you!!!