RIP Jean-Claude Risset

Shepard-Risset Glissando


Jean-Claude Risset, a pioneer of electronic music, passed away on November 21. Many of you will recognize his Risset Tones, or Shepard Tones above as they were based on the work of Roger Shepard as referenced in this post: "Risset Tones (Risset tones are based on the work of Roger Shepard in the 1960's and the further developments made later by Jean-Claude Risset, RissetTones is designed to create an acoustical illusion. Perhaps best explained as the aural equivalent of the barber pole, the product of the RissetTones is a gliding tone which seems always to be moving either up or down in pitch while staying in the same general position.)"

He, of course, was known for quite a bit more:

The image to the left is from forestpunk on Music From Computer: "an exquisite repackaging of influential works from early computer music Jean-Claude Risset, spanning the years 1968 – 1985. It illuminates a fascinating intersection between old-world classicism, musique concrete, and synthesis."

Wikipedia has the following:

"Risset was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, France. Arriving at Bell Labs, New Jersey in 1964, he used Max Mathews' MUSIC IV software to digitally recreate the sounds of brass instruments. He made digital recordings of trumpets and studied their timbral composition using 'pitch-synchronous' spectrum analysis tools, revealing that the amplitude and frequency of the harmonics (more correctly, partials) of these instruments would differ depending on frequency, duration and amplitude. He is also credited with performing the first experiments on a range of synthesis techniques including FM Synthesis and waveshaping."

Below are two additional compositions by Jean-Claude Risset. His work and influence go beyond anything that can be captured in a single post. His influence can be seen in various posts here on MATRIXSYNTH. This post, as all posts, is here only to let you know he was a significant influence on our world. Be sure to see the full wikipedia and forestpunk articles above and of course, always research more on your own. There is an incredible world of work to explore out there.

Jean-Claude Risset - Computer Suite From Little Boy (1968)

Published on Jul 9, 2012 Sebastian H. M. Murdock

"Composer Jean-Claude Risset was a pioneer in the field of computer music and recipient of a great many honors for this music and research (especially in the area of sound synthesis). After studying the sciences, in addition to composition and piano with teachers like André Jolivet (Le Jeune France co-founder), Risset went on to work at Bell Labs, with Max Matthews, for a few years in the late '60s, working on applications that would imitate instruments and others sounds. He brought sound synthesis to Orsay in the early '70s, and Marseille and Paris -- to the Institute for Acoustic Music Research and Creation, with Pierre Boulez -- in the mid-'70s. He became IRCAM's computer music director from 1975-1979, after which he served as Director of Research at facilities including CNRS; Risset received the CNRS Bronze Medal in 1971, the Silver Medal in 1987, and the Gold Medal in 1999, for his work and related writings, such as his computerized sound synthesis catalogue of 1969. His other awards include the Dartmouth Prize (1970), first place in the Bourges Digital Music competition (1980), Ars Electronica Austria (1987), Grand Prix National de la Musique (1990), Musica Nova Prague (1995), and an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the University of Edinburgh in the mid-'90s. His best work spans decades and includes 'Sud' (1985), 'Aventure de lignes, Profiles' (1981), 'Mirages' (1978), 'Inharmonique' (1977), 'Musique pour Little Boy' (1968), and 'Fantasie pour Orchestre' (1963)."

Jean-Claude Risset - Invisible (1)

Published on Jul 16, 2015

Happy New Year From MATRIXSYNTH! - A Quick Look Back at 2016

Happy New Year Everyone!

This post is a little late going up, but better late than never! :)

I'm going to keep this one a little shorter than usual as I am aware I have a tendency to get a little too wordy at times.

First of all, I want to thank you all for taking a little bit of your day out to visit the site. I want to thank those that contribute to the synthesizer scene and actually give me something to post! Finally, I want to give a HUGE THANK YOU to all the individual supporters of the site, and the sponsors you see on the right and above! Your support literally makes the site as it is possible!

---

And a look back at 2016...

Update: I forgot to mention, we had a total of 13,679 posts in 2016!
Update2: also, as always take a look back at the exclusive label for the most interesting bits of synth history.

First a look back at some of the people (and companions) we lost last in 2016.

2016 was rough. On the maker front we lost Don Buchla, who along with Bob Moog, was undoubtably the creator of the synthesizer as we know it today. We lost Ray Wilson of Music From Outer Space, arguably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, influencers in synth DIY. Many makers out there started with his projects.

On the musician front we lost some of synths' greats including Keith Emerson, Isao Tomita, Bernie Worrell and Jean-Jacques Perrey. We lost a couple of pioneers of electronic music as well, namely Jean-Claude Risset and Pauline Oliveros.

The following is the list:

David Bowie - January 10, 2016
Else Marie Pade - January 18, 2016
Stanley Lunetta - March 3, 2016
Keith Emerson - March 11, 2016
Isao Tomita - May 5, 2016
Bernie Worrell - June 24, 2016
Ray Wilson - July 21, 2016
Don Buchla - September 14, 2016
DJ Spank-Spank - September 21, 2016
Jean-Jacques Perrey - November 4, 2016
Jean-Claude Risset - November 21, 2016
Pauline Oliveros - November 24, 2016

And never to be excluded, a couple of the companions we lost:

nonlinear circuit's Bill - March, 2016
CatSynth's Luna - October 31, 2016

Note the above are only those I could tie in with synths. Two artists you might notice missing are Prince and George Michael. Both deserve a mention. Prince I could have tied in with an Oberheim connection. I still remember lusting after an OB-8 after seeing his videos in the 80s.

RIP posts are the hardest to write. Not only because you are mourning the loss of someone great, but because you know your post will never be good enough.


As for new gear in 2016, you might have noticed all of the "New in 2016" labels that have gone up in posts throughout the year. I created the labels back in 2015 as a means to keep track of all the new gear coming in. I also thought it would be a quick, easy, and interesting way to get total counts of everything at the end of the year. Here are the numbers (links will take you to posts for each):

New in 2016 (753)
New Cases in 2016 (18)
New Controllers in 2016 (38)
New DIY in 2016 (108)
New Makers in 2016 (101)
New Mobile Apps in 2016 (65)
New Modules in 2016 (299)
New Old in 2016 (21)
New Soft Synths in 2016 (55)
New Sound Machines in 2016 (34)
New Sound Packs in 2016 (24)
New Synth Effects in 2016 (9)
New Synths in 2016 (112)
New Tools in 2016 (51)

Note, as with anything, labels can be a little tricky. Sometimes there will be overlap, sometimes items will be announced one year, but released in another if at all, and of course, if I'm not made aware of an item it gets missed. You'll likely see a few items from 2015 in the 2016 list for that reason. I also found it can be difficult to categorize certain items. Drum machines for example get bucketed under synths, but I think for 2017 I will create a new label for them and just use both.

All that said, if you look at the numbers above we had 753 new products/items appear on the site last year. Always of notable interest were the items from vintage synth history that were never featured on the site before. Last year there were 21. An interesting side note is that matches the 21 we had the year prior in 2015. I won't go into any in detail as you can take a look at the label yourself and as I mentioned above I'm going to try and keep this post short. You can check out any of the categories above.  Also worth noting is there were 101 new makers to the site in 2016!  Check them out via the link above.

I was never one for top 10 lists, as although they can be fun, I'm a firm believer that all gear has something to offer. It's up to us to use the gear and find out. That said I do think it's worth mentioning some of the major synth releases this year. Not only does it gives us a quick look at what the major players released but it also lets us see when they were released in the year.  The following is a quick list:

1. Korg Minilogue - January 8
2. Yamaha Montage AWM2 & FM-X - January 11
3. Clavia Nord Piano 3 - January 18 & January 21
4. Roland A-01 - January 19
5. Korg Limited Edition Kronos Platinum
6. Make Noise 0-Coast - January 20
7. Artuia MatrixBrute - January 21
8. Dave Smith Instruments OB-6 - January 21
9. Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators - January 21
10. MFB Tanzamus & Tanzbar Lite - January 22
11. Mellotron Micro - January 22
12. Modal 008 Rack - January 25
13. Anyware Instruments Modulator - March 23
14. Nord Drum 3/3P - April 4
15. New Minimoog Model D - May 18
16. Moog Brother From Another Mother - May 18
17. Audiothingies Micromonster - May 27
18. Mini GRP A2 - May 28
19. DSI OB-6 Desktop - June 22 & June 23
20. Mode Machines ADX1 - June 28
21. New Black Oberheim TVS - June 28
22. Ninstrument SynthBoy+ July 2
23. Behringer Deepmind 12 - July 7
24. New Red & Blue Korg Electribes v2 - July 20
25. Yamaha FM Synth for iOS - July 21
26. Jomox Alpha Base - July 23
27. Korg Desktop Odysseys - August 28
28. Percussa Remote - August 29
29. KORG MicroKORG-S - August 31
30. Korg Volca Kick - August 31
31. KORG Odyssey Desktop Modules - August 31
32. Roland System-8 - September 3 and September 9
33. Roland TR-09 & TB-03 - September 3
34. Roland VP-03 - September 3
35. Synthstrom Audio Deluge - September 8
36. CMS 2607 - September 23
37. Dreadbox Murmox V2 - September 25
38. Arturia Drumbrute - October 7
39. Bastl Instruments Kastle - October 7
40. Korg Monologue - November 1
41. Full Size Korg Arp Odyssey Keboards - November 4
42. Cyclone Analogic TR-606 Clone - November 16
43. Tangible Waves AE Modular - November 16
44. Modal Electronics CRAFTSynth - November 18
45. Cyclone Analogic TT-78 - November 23
46. The White Schmidt Synthesizer - November 25
47. Plankton Electronics Ants! - December 9
48. Dreadbox NYX - December 15
49. Cyclone Analogic TT-303 MK2 - December 15

Note this is only 49 of the 112 items in the new synths in 2016 category. I'd recommend checking them all out.

What stood out for you in 2016? What are you looking forward to in 2017? Leave a comment or two below.

I want to end this with a humble thank you to everyone that makes this site what it is!

Thank you and Happy New Year!!!  On to 2017!

Celebration of Max Mathews and 50 Years of Computer Music

Image via wikipedia. Anyone catch the following? I found out a little late.

Update: check the comments for one more date on April 30 in San Francisco.

"Date: Wed, Apr 18 2007 1:46pm
From: "Computer History Museum"

CCRMA and CHM Present

A Celebration of Max Mathews and 50 Years of Computer Music

Fifty years ago, in 1957, at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Max Mathews demonstrated that the digital computer can be used as a fantastic new musical instrument. He created a revolutionary software platform destined to form the basis of all contemporary digital musical systems.

His audacious ideas were driven by the belief that any sound that the human ear can hear can be produced by a computer. Mathews' mastery of this new instrument revealed new musical horizons and sparked a burgeoning curiosity into the very nature of sound. His comprehension and elaboration made five decades of art and research ossible, laying the groundwork for generations of electronic musicians to synthesize, record, and play music. Today at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) as a Professor Emeritus he continues not only to educate students and colleagues, but also to guide and inspire with his constant inventiveness and pure musical pleasure.

Join us in honoring Max for an afternoon of sound, celebration and discovery of his ideas,works, music, and writings.

WHEN
SUNDAY, April 29, 2007
4 p.m. Pre-concert talk
Jon Appleton, John Chowning, Evelyne Gayou, Max Mathews, Jean-Claude Risset
5 p.m. ìInfluences: A Tribute Concertî
Jon Appleton, Gerald Bennett, Chris Chafe, Evelyne Gayou, Max Mathews,
Dexter Morrill, Jean-Claude Risset
6:00 p.m. Reception

WHERE
Computer History Museum
Hahn Auditorium
1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.
Mountain View, CA 94043
www.computerhistory.org/about/directions/

REGISTRATION
Free.
To register or for more information on the event, please visit the Museum's
Website at http://www.computerhistory.org/max_guest_04292007 or Call (650) 810-1005."

via loscha.

Sylicae EP Featuring Risset’s Harmonic Arpeggio Composed with ChucK

"Jean-Claude Risset’s harmonic arpeggio is a spectral composition technique that uses sine wave interference patterns. This technique allows you to create beautiful drone-like sound, over which occurs a downward cascading arpeggio of a specified subset of the harmonic series. The instrument’s timbre is similar to the sound produced by an overtone singer. Created by beating patterns that result from closely-spaced sinusoids (i.e. slightly detuned sine waves), Risset described the arpeggio gestures as 'spectral scans'"

You can find the code and additional details on Sample Me.

Inharmonique 1

"Risset's Arpeggios with inharmonic partials, programmed with chucK.
More info & code: jkant.blogspot.it/2014/05/inharmonique-1.html"

"I composed Inarmonique 1 as a first study on spectral composition using sine wave interference patterns, aka Jean-Claude Risset's harmonic arpeggio. I have written previously on this topic here.
The particular approach of the piece is to use "spectral scans", that involve the beating effect, of inharmonic partials.

To get the result I implemented the famous Risset instrument in chucK, wich, compared to csound, in my opinion allows for greater freedom of instrument design and parameter setting, given its OOP nature..."

Sanfrancisco Electronic Music Festival via Brian Comnes

Remember the SFEM? The following are Brian Comnes' notes on the last Friday of the event.

act 1 - Barbara Golden, a big Bay Area name in alternative music came out and read a piece of prose about getting lusty with some now dead poet, allegedly Lenoard Cohen's mentor, and there was a home slide show of her in the 70's with canned bouzuki music - a nice prose spoken word piece, but wierd for the SFEMF is you think about it

Act 2 was Steven Roden, his rig is in the picture I attached and as far as I can tell it is a few guitar delay boxes and some sound sources, harmonicas, slide guitar, and including the wooden peach crate which is apparently rooted in some electronica history , very nicely done piece but it put me to sleep, hardly synth porn..... here is another shot from the sfemf press photos site, hey he's playin a harmonica, not biting his nails.

Act 3 part 1 was a 12 minute set of Risset Tones (Risset tones are based on the work of Roger Shepard in the 1960's and the further developments made later by Jean-Claude Risset, RissetTones is designed to create an acoustical illusion. Perhaps best explained as the aural equivalent of the barber pole, the product of the RissetTones is a gliding tone which seems always to be moving either up or down in pitch while staying in the same general position.) Bottom line is that it was about 9 minutes too long, heck I could have done that with a copy of AudioMulch and 2 mouse clicks, a lot of people were looking at their watched at the 5 minute mark, to top it off I think it was from CD and not genrated live.

Act 3 part 2 piece by Toronto-based James Tenney whose piece which was played back from CD with a live percussion overlay by percussionist William Winant. He showed up with about 80 pieces of kit, including tuned Bundt cake pans, assorted pan lids in addition to a gong, tympani and other more traditional drum stuff but look at that other attched picture and you will see a door bell buzzer (!) in a box that was fileterd by opening and closing the lid, the canned track part seemed to be random synth burps and gee if I had 80 things to bang on I'd like to think I could keep it going, he had some great techniques though with the gong and tympany by rubbing on them with a mic'ed stick of some sort

the best of the evening was before the show .....a multimedia installation at Recombinant Media Labs by Semiconductor....the venue is superb, you are surrrouned by ten 15 foot wide by 8 foot high video screens in a 30X45 foot room and it has 16 channel surround, the video was NASA video and still shots of the sun using the solar energy patterns worked down to audible levels and added harmonics, i.e. the whiter the screen the louder the music, ...its a really cool way to experience solar flares to say the least

also I didn't see it but on Thursday night Brenda Hutchinson was playing this rig"

Discovering Electronic Music (1969-1983)

Discovering Electronic Music (1969-1983) video upload by Fran Blanche

Note this is new cleaned up, single video, version of Discovering Electronic Music first posted here back in 2009.

"This film by Bernard Wilets was originally produced around 1969-70, but this reel that I present is the updated version from 1983 which includes new added Fairlight sequences with Rory Kaplan. The original sections are VERY 1969 and the color of this print is still remarkable. Great footage of Moog modular synths right in their heyday and lots of screenshots of waveforms and such. Is it coincidental that so much Bach is being played on the Moog? Calling Wendy Carlos! The film features several people who went on to make their names in electronic music, including Rory Kaplan, Douglas Leedy, and Jean-Claude Risset. This reel was transferred from my own 16mm archive print using my Eiki Telecine. The Eiki has a 5 Blade Shutter that projects a 24fps print at 30 frames per second for a flickerless NTSC transfer. A special diffusion plate eliminates the 'hot spot' of the projector, and the sound is pulled right from the optical track. Enjoy!

Join Team FranLab!!!! Become a patron and help support my YouTube Channel on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/frantone
#Moog #Music #film

- Intro music by Fran Blanche -"

This one was sent my way via John L Rice.

Wersi EX20R Rare Additive Rack Synth

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated. Wersi EX20 demo (avant garde elektronische musik)

Uploaded on Nov 6, 2011 acreil·67 videos

Video spotted in this auction

- pics and details for that one captured below.

"Download here: http://acreil.bandcamp.com/album/misc...

I don't know what's wrong with the likes/dislikes on this video. Analytics shows 24 likes and 0 dislikes, while the video currently shows 3 likes and 29 dislikes. There seems to have been a glitch at some point.

Multitracked Wersi EX20 with Ibanez SDR-1000 reverb. This synth is capable of some highly unusual sounds when (in)correctly programmed, so I thought I'd showcase that side of it. It's sort of a half tribute and half parody of 70s computer music (i.e. Jean-Claude Risset, John Chowning, etc.). I find that sort of music tends to be sometimes brilliant and sometimes ponderously arbitrary (at least from the listener's perspective), so I tried to get a little of each in there.

Due to the bizarre user interface and poor/unavailable documentation, I think very few people have programmed these synths to this extent. At the time I think I only had the German user manual. I have the English manual now, but it omits much of the sound programming stuff.

Most of the interesting territory comes from doing strange things with the pitch and amplitude envelopes. Each stage of the envelope can be assigned a "module" that takes two parameters and does some function like noise modulation, increment, delay, linear or exponential rise or fall, loop, etc. It's even possible to make nested loops. These things don't necessarily behave the way you'd expect (are these undocumented features or bugs?), so it's basically a trial and error process, but the results can be very surprising. Recorded 2010?

Check the (NiCd) memory backup battery if you own one of these. They can leak and cause damage."

via this auction

"The Wersi is a very deep synth, even today, has an analog filter and uses beautiful additive synthesis, with lots of envelope modulations possible..."

Curious how deep these are. Wersi's are known for more preset auto-accompaniment type machines.  You can find some details in this previous post.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Discovering Electronic Music Part 1 - 3

Discovering Electronic Music (1969-1983) video upload by Fran Blanche

Update: cleaned up version in one video above uploaded in 2021. You'll find the original 3 posted back in 2009 further below.

"This film by Bernard Wilets was originally produced around 1969-70, but this reel that I present is the updated version from 1983 which includes new added Fairlight sequences with Rory Kaplan. The original sections are VERY 1969 and the color of this print is still remarkable. Great footage of Moog modular synths right in their heyday and lots of screenshots of waveforms and such. Is it coincidental that so much Bach is being played on the Moog? Calling Wendy Carlos! The film features several people who went on to make their names in electronic music, including Rory Kaplan, Douglas Leedy, and Jean-Claude Risset. This reel was transferred from my own 16mm archive print using my Eiki Telecine. The Eiki has a 5 Blade Shutter that projects a 24fps print at 30 frames per second for a flickerless NTSC transfer. A special diffusion plate eliminates the 'hot spot' of the projector, and the sound is pulled right from the optical track. Enjoy!

Join Team FranLab!!!! Become a patron and help support my YouTube Channel on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/frantone
#Moog #Music #film

- Intro music by Fran Blanche -"

Original 3 videos posted in 2009:


YouTube via takenae | February 12, 2009

"Discovering electronic music.
Director / Writer Bernard Wilets
Barr Films, Padadena, Calif - 1983"

Discovering Electronic Music Part 2

Moog

Discovering Electronic Music Part 3

Fairlight

Previously posted but not embedded back on April 15, 2006.

Introduction to Electro-Acoustic Music

I added another book to the list of Synth Books to the right. This one is via Barry Schroder, featured in these previous posts. The book is out of print, however you can find copies here.

Details pulled from here:
"This book presents a detailed panorama of electroacoustic music’s principal trends. His approach includes general ideas (terminology, role, listening experience), interviews with several important composers, instruments and devices, the principal historical and current techniques and the studios. Each element includes numerous examples of musical works.

Table of contents:

1. Introduction
2. Musique concrète and tape manipulation techniques
- Pierre Schaeffer and the Études of 1948
- Tape loops
- Cutting and splicing
- Speed change
- Direction change
- Tape delay
- Combined tape and manipulation techniques
3. Electronic music
- Electro-acoustic musical instruments
- Electronic music and optical sound tracks
- Classical studio electronic music: the Cologne studio and its precursors
- Classical studio electronic music: the development of classical studio
- Electronic music synthesizers
- Computer music
- Live/electronic music
4. The art of electro-acoustic Music: interviews with composers
- Interview with Luciano Berio (Thema: Omaggio a Joyce)
- Interview with Pauline Oliveros (I of IV)
- Interview with Morton Subotnick (Until Spring)
- Interview with Jean-Claude Risset (Mutations I)
- Interview with Gordon Mumma (Cybersonic Cantilevers)
5. Bibliography"

EMS Founder Peter Zinovieff Has Passed Away

Update: Image of Peter Zinovieff (previously in via Brian Kehew).

"Circa 1975: A photo from the Frankfurt Music Fair

Peter Zinovieff in the EMS synthesizer booth.

They are featuring the rare SYNTHI P model, just announced on the left side and stand. Underneath the board listing EMS musical artists is a SYNTHI HI-FLI effects unit is barely seen. Another unusual/prototype model is next to the Hi-Fli."


Peter Zinovieff and Electronic Music Studios video upload by JeffreyPlaide


Peter Zinovieff: Synth Pioneer video upload by Sound On Sound magazine Jul 21, 2016


Peter Zinovieff talks about modern musical interfaces video upload by Expressive E Jan 6, 2016


Peter Zinovieff feature uploaded by Erica Synths on Nov 23, 2020. This was the latest video to feature Peter Zinovieff that I am aware of.


Peter Zinovieff interview 2015 video upload by 香港電子音樂社 Hong Kong Electronic Music Society Jun 30, 2015


Dr Peter Zinovieff intro & performance excerpt - Deliaphonic 2017 video upload by Deliaphonic Aug 29, 2018

And a few perspectives from others:

Bright Sparks Behind The Scenes - The Brits video by GForce Software published Feb 16, 2021

Cosmic Tape Music Club Podcast hosted by The Galaxy Electric - E1 Peter Zinovieff

video by The Galaxy Electric published Jan 27, 2021

Peter Zinovieff Electronic Calendar

video by Mark Jenkins published Dec 9, 2019 - Electronic Calendar available through this post.

You can find a history of posts mentioning Peter Zinovieff here.

via The Guardian

"Peter Zinovieff, a hugely influential figure in British music whose early synthesisers helped to change the sound of pop, has died aged 88. He had suffered a fall at home earlier this month.

With its marketing slogan 'think of a sound – now make it', his company Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was one of the first to bring synthesisers out of studios and to the public. With products such as the portable VCS3 and Synthi A, EMS customers – including David Bowie, Kraftwerk, the Who, Tangerine Dream and Pink Floyd – were often taught to use the instruments by Zinovieff.

In 1967 he collaborated with Paul McCartney on Carnival of Light, a performance of a 14-minute avant garde composition created between Beatles sessions for Penny Lane that has never been released.

He was also a respected composer of his own work, including early experiments with AI composition and sampling – he claimed to have invented the latter technique." You can read the full post here.

via Wikipedia:

"Peter Zinovieff (26 January 1933 – 23 June 2021) was a British engineer and composer, whose EMS company made the VCS3 synthesizer in the late 1960s. The synthesizer was used by many early progressive rock bands such as Pink Floyd[3] and White Noise, and Krautrock groups[4] as well as more pop-oriented artists, including Todd Rundgren and David Bowie. In later life he worked primarily as a composer of electronic music.

Zinovieff was born on 26 January 1933;[5] his parents, Leo Zinovieff and Sofka, née Princess Sophia Dolgorouky, were both Russian aristocrats, who met in London after their families had emigrated to escape the Russian Revolution and soon divorced.[6] During World War II he and his brother Ian lived with their grandparents in Guildford and then with their father in Sussex. He attended Guildford Royal Grammar School, Gordonstoun School and Oxford University, where he earned a doctorate in geology.[7][8]

Zinovieff's work followed research at Bell Labs by Max Mathews and Jean-Claude Risset, and an MIT thesis (1963) by David Alan Luce.[9] In 1966–67, Zinovieff, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson ran Unit Delta Plus, an organisation to create and promote electronic music. It was based in the studio Zinovieff had built, in a shed at his house in Putney. (The house is near the Thames, and the studio was later partially destroyed by a flood).[10][11] EMS grew out of MUSYS, which was a performance controller operating as an analogue-digital hybrid.[12] It was a synthesiser system which Zinovieff developed with the help of David Cockerell and Peter Grogono, and used two DEC PDP-8 minicomputers and a piano keyboard.[13] Unit Delta Plus ran a concert of electronic music at the Watermill Theatre in 1966, with a light show. In early 1967 they performed in concerts at The Roundhouse, at which the Carnival of Light was also played; they split up later in 1967.[11] Paul McCartney had visited the studio, but Zinovieff had little interest in popular music.[14]

In 1968, part of the studio was recreated at Connaught Hall, for a performance of pieces by Justin Connolly and David Lumsdaine.[15] At the IFIP congress that year, the composition ZASP by Zinovieff with Alan Sutcliffe took second prize in a contest, behind a piece by Iannis Xenakis.[16]

In 1969, Zinovieff sought financing through an ad in The Times but received only one response, £50 on the mistaken premise it was the price of a synthesiser. Instead he formed EMS with Cockerell and Tristram Cary.[17] At the end of the 1960s, EMS Ltd. was one of four companies offering commercial synthesizers, the others being ARP, Buchla, and Moog.[18] In the 1970s Zinovieff became interested in the video synthesizer developed by Robert Monkhouse, and EMS produced it as the Spectron.[19]

Jon Lord of Deep Purple described Zinovieff as "a mad professor type": "I was ushered into his workshop and he was in there talking to a computer, trying to get it to answer back".[20] Trevor Pinch and Frank Trocco, in their history of the synthesizer revolution, see him rather as aristocratically averse to "trade".[21]

Zinovieff wrote the libretto for Harrison Birtwistle's opera The Mask of Orpheus,[22] and also the words for Nenia: The Death of Orpheus (1970).[23] The section Tristan's Folly in Tristan (1975) by Hans Werner Henze included a tape by Zinovieff."

Update:

Peter Zinovieff: A Tribute by CatSynth TV

video upload by CatSynth TV

"We look back at the life and work of Peter Zinovieff, who passed away last week at the age of 88. His work at Electronic Music Studios (EMS) was a major influence on musicians of the 1970s and beyond. At EMS, he co-created the well-known and coveted VCS3 and Synthi series. But he was also a composer in his own right, working on pioneering electronic music in the 1960s and returning to active composition in the 2010s with several collaborations with artists in other media and exploring massive sound spatialization.

Additional background music provided via the Arturia Synthi V as a tribute."

You can find additional posts featuring Peter Zinovieff here.

Make Noise Spiratone - Shepard Tone Generator for the tELHARMONIC

Published on Sep 15, 2015 MAKEN0ISE

The Sipratone is not a new module or firmware but rather an existing implementation of the tELHARMONIC.

via Make Noise

"The Spiratone is a form of Shepard Tone generator. It is a sonic barber pole that creates the auditory illusion of a tone that continually ascends or descends in pitch, yet ultimately seems to get no higher or lower.

It occupies the same space as the tELHARMONIC. To find it, have nothing patched to D-Gate and HOLD H-LOCK for 5 seconds. The sound will dramatically change... you've found the Spiratone inside your tELHARMONIC.
Multi Voice Shepard Tone generator inspired by Jean-Claude Risset 'Computer Suite from Little Boy: Fall,' 1968 & James Tenney "For Ann (rising)," 1969

CENTROID sets spacing of the oscillators

INTERVAL allows for complete control of modulation depth and direction

FLUX adds random pitch flucuations

6 octaves of continuous 1V/ Octave pitch control

4 octaves of quantized pitch control

DEGREE Modulation able to be synchronized by clock or gate via D-Gate input

Gate Out completes the conversation between Spiratone and rest of system!

Utilizes High performance DSP hardware with 24bit, 48kHz codec, 32 bit floating point processing

Reasonable power consumption

Pairs well with Optomix"

An Interview with Barry Schrader

Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in.  New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process.  If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com.  This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!

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