How Wendy Carlos Changed Music • Hacker News Board

Re: How Wendy Carlos Changed Music

#41

Post by HelloNurse » Sun, Jan 07, 2018, 5:30 PM UTC

bananaboy wrote: post #37

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you know synths it’s pretty easy to reverse engineer the sounds on SoB. They’re unfamiliar by modern pop standards, because there’s a lot of layering and paralleling with simultaneous envelopes and multiple filter sweeps that (boringly...) isn’t done much today. But they’re not opaque. I have no idea how to copy some the sounds Tomita got from his Moogs, and I’m fairly sure no one else does either. Some are easy,…

Yeah I totally agree! I love SoB but the arrangements and patches are way more traditional and straightforward. Tomita really explored and extended the canvas of the synthesiser as a musical instrument in its own right. JMJ too.

It can be argued that SoB, along with early Kraftwerk records, defined the tradition of synth patches. Tomita came a little later.

Re: How Wendy Carlos Changed Music

#42

Post by tjr225 » Sun, Jan 07, 2018, 6:29 PM UTC

jnbiche wrote: post #21

Oh man, listening to Switched on Bach now. First music I loved as a kid; it still evokes an emotional response. Life has been hard recently, living through a serious illness with lots of pain, feels good to kick back and listen to this. BTW, archive.org has the best quality recordings I've found of Switched on Bach. It's not got a very full sound, but there are less pops and crackles than other sources online such as…

For all fans of Switched on Bach, Claude Debussy, and synth dorks I highly reccomend "Snowflakes are Dancing" by Isao Tomita. You can find the full album on youtube easily :)

Re: How Wendy Carlos Changed Music

#43

Post by fmoralesc » Sun, Jan 07, 2018, 7:32 PM UTC

SOB is great and all, but Beauty in the Beast is absolutely phenomenal. She really pushed the boundaries there, creating a musical universe all of her own.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2j1gy2

Re: How Wendy Carlos Changed Music

#44

Post by cicero » Sun, Jan 07, 2018, 9:02 PM UTC

fmoralesc wrote: post #43

SOB is great and all, but Beauty in the Beast is absolutely phenomenal. She really pushed the boundaries there, creating a musical universe all of her own. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2j1gy2

When I read about the 35-note octave, I was not expecting something positive. I had never heard anything done with non-traditional scales that I liked. However, I went ahead and listened to the Beauty in the Beast track and I was enchanted. I will check out the rest of that album. I think Carlos has a sense of beauty that may be missing from other experimental music artists I've listened to.

Re: How Wendy Carlos Changed Music

#45

Post by TheOtherHobbes » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 2:03 AM UTC

HelloNurse wrote: post #40

multi_tude wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tomita's Pictures at an Exhibition is arguably a more distinguished execution of synthesized orchestration than Switched on Bach.

Unsurprising, as the most complex orchestrations in SoB and its sequels are the small-ensemble Brandenburg Concerts; parts are already written, creative orchestration is limited to designing four or five instruments to play them. On the other hand Pictures at an Exhibition is a piano solo piece. If it has a fancy "synthesized orchestration" Tomita, like others before him, developed a fairly arbitrary adaptation.

It’s a solo piano piece orchestrated by Ravel, who was a master orchestrator.

That’s the point about Tomita - there’s nothing “arbitrary” about the orchestrations. They’re an updated and exotic take created by someone who is rooted in that lush late tonal school of orchestration, but is using a completely new instrument to make original sounds.

Snowflakes Are Dancing sounds a lot more pianistic. The later Tomita albums sound more like attempts to reinvent symphonic music, with some quirky additions. He’s very consciously shaping the music like a conductor would, while painting with evocative sounds - very much not arbitrary at all.

Re: How Wendy Carlos Changed Music

#46

Post by 8bitsrule » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 3:00 AM UTC

fmoralesc wrote: post #43

SOB is great and all, but Beauty in the Beast is absolutely phenomenal. She really pushed the boundaries there, creating a musical universe all of her own. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2j1gy2

Really. I'd heard most of Carlos' early works up until the 80s many times, but never BitB (release 30 years ago). A close listen to Just Imaginings last night was mind-blowing ... even more than 'Seasonings' was way back when it released.

I've seldom heard anything using scales with dozens of notes in an octave that was particularly musical. JI is very musical ... and yet with enough mastery of timbres and rhythms to keep it just edgy enough. Wow.

Re: How Wendy Carlos Changed Music

#47

Post by iainmerrick » Mon, Jan 08, 2018, 10:27 AM UTC

jancsika wrote: post #22

1_2__4 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You made me really happy with this comment. Tron was a big movie for me in my youth and a big reason why I was drawn to computers and ultimately programming. I also came to love synth and electronic music (Art of Noise etc.) around the same time and have always thought the Tron soundtrack to be amazing, especially the credits track. But I know nothing about music theory, I'm just glad it's good music. Thanks. I heard…

That's interesting about the London Phil part of the score. It's amazing how many compelling pieces of music have fortuitous back stories like that.

There's some more fascinating backstory on Carlos' own website: http://www.wendycarlos.com/+tron.html

I love the whole score, especially the pipe organ solo. It's interesting that the theme was in 7/8 right from the start -- you'd have thought a power of two would be more appropriate for computers! But somehow it works. The rhythm and harmony both feel like they're pushing towards the future.