The New Sound Of Music 1979 (part 2)

The New Sound of Music is a fascinating BBC historical documentary from the year 1979. It charts the development of recorded music from the first barrel organs, pianolas, the phonograph, the magnetic tape recorder and onto the concepts of musique concrete and electronic music development with voltage-controlled oscillators making up the analogue synthesizers of the day. EMS Synthesizers and equipment are a heavily featured technology resource in this film, with the show's host, Michael Rodd, demonstrating the EMS VCS3 synthesizer and it's waveform output. Other EMS products include the incredible Synthi 100 modular console system, the EMS AKS, the Poly Synthi and the EMS Vocoder. Most of the location shots are filmed within the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop studios as they were in 1979. Malcolm Clarke demonstrates the Synthi 100, also known as the "Delaware", Michael Rodd demonstrates musique concrete by tape splicing and manipulation and Paddy Kingsland demonstrates tape recorder delay techniques (also known as "Frippertronics"). The Yamaha CS-80 analogue synthesizer is demonstrated by both Peter Howell and Roger Limb. The EMS Vocoder is also expertly put to use by Peter Howell on his classic "Greenwich Chorus" for the television series "The Body in Question". Dick Mills works on sound effects for Doctor Who using a VCS3 unit, and Elizabeth Parker uses bubble sounds to create music for an academic film on particle physics. Peter Zinovieff is featured using his computer music studio and DEC PDP8 computer to produce electronic variations on classic vintage scores. David Vorhaus is featured using his invention, the MANIAC (Multiphasic ANalog Inter-Active Chromataphonic (sequencer)), and playing his other invention, the Kaleidophon -- which uses lengths of magnetic tape as velocity-sensitive ribbon controllers. The New Sound of Music is a fascinating insight into the birth of the world of recorded and electronic music and features some very classic British analogue synthesizers creating the electronic sounds in this film. The prime location for these demonstrations is the BBC Radiophonic Workshop where much creativity and invention took place during the period the workshop was in operation in the latter part of the twentieth century. Electronic music today is used everywhere, and many musicians gain inspiration from the past, as well as delving into the realms of sonic structures and theories made possible by the widespread use of computers to manipulate sounds for the creation of all kinds of musical forms.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• BBC
• Radiophonic
• Workshop
• EMS
• VCS3
• synthesizer
• sequencer
• analog
• analogue
• digital
• AKS
• Synthi
• 100
• Delaware
• vocoder
• DEC
• PDP
• computer
• music
• musique
• concrete
• tape
• recorder
• electronic
• experimental
• splice
• loop
• Michael
• Rodd
• Malcolm
• Clarke
• Paddy
• Kingsland
• Peter
• Howell
• Roger
• Limb
• Dick
• Mills
• Elizabeth
• Parker
• Zinovieff
• David
• Vorhaus
• Yamaha
• CS-80
• piano
• keyboards
• Doctor
• Who
• studio
• sound
• effects
• manipulation
• process
• multitrack
• mixer
• electronics
• waveforms
• recording
• documentary
• history

[Kohntarkosz]

I'm sure everyone knows this by now, but it's interesting that the presenter doesn't tell you abou the Doctor Who theme bassline was actually played by striking piano strings with a mallet. Only the upper melody line was playing with oscillators, and as I understand it, Delia had to record each note individually, then cut the tape together to get the piece as we know it.

[Kohntarkosz]

@sonicalsonics Well, actually, there's no such thing as a "MIDI pickup". What you're talking about is the hex pickup, which is used to give each guitar string it's own signal, which then allows the guitarist to play synths with more than one string at a time. It looks like Paddy is using an ARP Avatar guitar synth (which oddly, is monophonic, though it still requires the hex pickup). All a "MIDI pickup" does is take the hexaphonic outputs and converts them to MIDI.

[noizy4]

05:05 "sound on sound"

[JHFillmoreEast]

hmm :P possible that hendrix used some pf these techniques (castle made of sand etc)

[JHFillmoreEast]

reminds me of dubstep

[rockbandmidi]

mellowtron was a key instrument based on tape loops.. Guitar guy basicly playing through what might as well be an echoplex.

[lordoid]

@sonicalsonics No this is just some sort of piezo pickup. (I wonder why - cause he uses an E-Guitar but maybee to plug directly into the tape recorders) Besides that it's just a clever way to do what modern day Loop-Pedals do. Btw: There was a way to play Synthesizers from a Guitar before Midi. Many of these old analog Maschines had a Trigger Input. So you could plug your Guitar in to trigger the Synth tones. Of course single Notes work better than chords ;)

[sonicalsonics]

@ultimatenerd22 I thought as much..Im guessing its just a Piezo pickup of some kind then.

[ultimatenerd22]

@sonicalsonics that would be too early, midi protocol was defined in 1982.

[sonicalsonics]

That can't be a MIDI pickup on that guitar can it? Something is telling me that 1979 was way too early for that?