photo by adriana trujillo via ZU33We lost another synth pioneer. Walter Sear passed away yesterday. He was currently running Sear Sound NYC. Some synth related snips via Wikipedia:
"Walter E. Sear (1930-2010) was an American recording engineer, instrument importer, instrument designer, inventor, composer, tuba player, movie producer, synthesizer pioneer, and vintage recording equipment guru. Since 1970 he ran the legendary Sear Sound recording studio in New York City, which is known for its vast collection of vintage analog recording gear and is patronized by bands such as Sonic Youth, Steely Dan, Wynton Marsalis, and Paul McCartney...
Sear started out his long and varied career as a classical tuba player. After 4 years at the Curtis Institute of Music, he landed a job as principal tuba of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He later was a freelancer in New York City, playing for 6 years with the Radio City Music Hall pit orchestra as well as The Symphony of the Air, The Goldman Band, Sound of Music and numerous commercial studio dates...
In the late 50's he became friendly with Robert Moog after buying parts from him for a homemade Theremin. In the early 60's, Sear used his music industry connections to become Moog's sales agent and business partner. He encouraged Moog to make his synths more practical, eventually leading, in the late 60's, to the development of portable synthesizers which could be used in live performance. Sear also became known as a performer and composer on the Moog synthesizer for various movie soundtracks including Midnight Cowboy...
He built his first recording studio in 1964 as one of the first commercial electronic music studios. Sear Sound is the oldest recording studio in New York City, and boasts over 285 vintage and contemporary microphones, four rebuilt Studer recorders used by the Beatles at Abbey Road, and one of the earliest Moog synthesizers, built by Sear with Moog[2][3]."
I knew Walter, a good guy and full of knowledge and skill. The recorders he had are sold at Abbey Road but have no connection to the Beatles, sadly.
ReplyDeleteWalter will be deeply missed. He was a good friend to Bob and is a very important part of the Moog Legacy. We at the Bob Moog Foundation are deeply saddened by this news.
ReplyDeleteWalter Sear also wrote a good introduction to synthesizers back in 1972; I just uploaded the front cover to my blog.
ReplyDeleteAs Sintex wrote Sear wrote a good introduction to synth. I was 13 when I found the book in a music shop in Milan. It was my first book on electronic music and I still have it after 35 years...when I saw Mr. Sear on the Moog DVD documentary I realized it was like I was meeting someone of my family...
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