Let's Make 80s Computers Talk | 1980s Commodore Speech Synthesizer

video upload by Kari

"Today, I take a non-technical look at a couple of speech synthesisers from my collection on my C64 from the 80s. Specifically, the Commodore Magic Voice and Currah Speech 64."

You can find additional posts featuring the Currah speech synthesis here.

Stand by Me: The Sounds Made for the Film

video upload by Anthony Marinelli Music

"In this video, Anthony tells the story surrounding the musical score from (1986) hit film Stand by Me which features an All-Star cast that incudes River Phoenix, Wil Wheaton, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Kiefer Sutherland, Casey Siemaszko, John Cusack and Richard Dreyfuss.

We learn that the first version of the film was titled The Body, named after the novel by Stephen King. The film's director, Rob Reiner intuitively changed the film's name to Stand by Me after licensing the rights to the song with the same name written by Ben E. King along with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The name change was made only one week before the film's delivery date. With little time to spare, the musical score was re-created using the sounds and melody from the song and performed on the Synclavier Digital Music System using it's on board sequencer/recorder and employing a sound modeling technique unique to the Synclavier called "Resynthesis".

Anthony describes "Resynthesis"as creating synthesizer sounds based on samples analyzed by the computer that use cross fades of back-to-back wave tables. "Resynthesis" gives you the tonal character of the original sampled sound with all the benefits of a synth (e.g less memory, same length across the keyboard, more editing capabilities...) Along with Brian Banks, Anthony programmed all the sounds and replayed the entire score in this way after the original score by Oscar Winning composer Jack M. Nietzsche was abandoned. The film's director Rob Reiner was present throughout the scoring process. The duo had just completed work programming and performing Jack's score for the John Carpenter Oscar Nominated film Starman.

In this video you'll hear the actual sounds used in the film that Anthony loads from the original 5.25" floppy disks (that still work perfectly after being in storage for close to 40 years). The final score used a core instrumentation of resynthesized versions of a flute, stand up bass, bowed wine glasses and piano. There was no DAW in existence so all the tracks were input into the Synclavier's internal sequencer/recorder and locked to picture using the latest feature SMPTE time code. With this set up, everyone could watch the film while the music was being recorded.

Anthony also states the importance of a good film or a good song. It's all the difference in the potential of your work as a programmer, arranger or performer. He advises to step back and really listen to what you are creating to find the emotion in the sounds.

Anthony's musical touch as both composer and performer is connected with some of the most influential creative minds over the last 40 years. He’s composed and conducted original orchestral scores for over 80 feature films including Young Guns, Internal Affairs, The Man From Elysian Fields, 15 Minutes and Planes, Trains & Automobiles, been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for his symphonic work "In the Family Way", written over one thousand TV commercials in a myriad of musical styles, co-founded Levels Audio Post (LA's premiere post production facility) and performed and arranged on big-box-office films and influential hit records such as Michael Jackson's Thriller.

His extensive work as a young arranger, orchestrator and performer for Quincy Jones, Jack Nitzsche, Lamont Dozier, Arthur Rubenstein and Giorgio Moroder was vital in launching his own career. His early years pioneering modular analog synthesizers along with his wide-ranging music scholarship positioned Anthony at the center of the music technology revolution. He attended the University of Southern California School of Music as a piano and composition major.

https://www.discogs.com/release/19915...

Instagram: https://instagram.com/anthonymarinell...

Website: www.anthonymarinelli.com"

Synclaver V & Hardware Vintage Synclavier II

Published on Apr 21, 2018 100 Things I Do

"I have owned the hardware Synclavier II for a while now and what might surprise some people is that I also still use the Arturia Synclavier V. In some ways they can sound very much alike, in others they can be a very different beast.

I started to do a clip comparing the Synclavier V to the Vintage Synclavier II and ended up starting a track! So how do they sit together in a mix ? Pretty well actually.

I will get back to a direct comparison soon... well .. as soon as I can figure out how to do it without it turning into a flame war :D"

Synclavier II Brochure

flickr By Chris Kann
(click for more)

Synclavier 9600 Refurbished by Synclavier

via this auction

 "Described as 'The Rolls Royce of all musical instruments.' Built to the highest quality using military and aviation spec components (the red buttons in the keyboard are the ones designed and used in the B52 military aircraft!)... It comes complete with all the famous Synclavier user sounds... t also comes with the recent MegaMusic library for Synclavier included at no extra cost. (It cost £2,400 to buy new.) This contains almost 17,000 musical instruments and unique sounds created on the Synclavier for the Synclavier. You will be joining the most exclusive instrumental club in the world. The world's most expensive musical instrument coupled with the world's most exclusive sounds. When it was new the system cost 200,000 dollars. Yes, you did read that right. Two hundred big ones..." "Voices 16 x 100khz stereo voices - 16 left and 16 right making a total of 32 x 100khz DACs! (voices). These are the later DDV voices. Sampling: Full 9600 spec stereo sampling input module, with soft clip. (none of that digital harshness) Control Module Reduced size wheeled Synclavier 'Road Case' with original end covers. Keyboard: VPK keyboard fully overhauled and realigned and converted to 220V. Processor Model D processor. Capacity Full 5 minutes of dedicated sample RAM - this RAM stays intact even if the machine crashes. No lost edits! Output 8 x fully dynamically assignable balanced line XLR outputs, plus 2 x stereo composite balanced line outputs. External control: MIDI, SMPTE, Analogue Clock, click track (Tracks SMPTE in slow motion, and slews with tape variations - nothing else can do that!) -- Memory: 200 track sequencer, 2 million event recorder, microsecond accuracy. -- Including: Internal Superfloppy drive, Internal new SCSI drive, External MegaMusic library optical drive, MIDI interface, professional music printing software..."

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Synclavier 9600 Complete Original

via this auction

"Synclavier 9600 workstation in excellent condition, originally owned by Mick Jones of Foreigner fame . Currently non-operational. It powers up, just needs to be hooked up properly."

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great guns in da studio

YouTube via zackdagoba | February 01, 2011
Some synth spotting via It's Full of Stars. Korg Trident and Moog modular provide the audio.
Note the Fairlight on top of the Synclavier.

Korg DS-10 Everyday Electronics Occult Project

YouTube via retrotechnical | January 01, 2011 | 0 likes, 0 dislikes
Sinclair ZX81
"What if Sir Clive had made microsynths instead....."