Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Laurie Spiegel and the Bell Labs Programmable Digital Synthesizer
YouTube Uploaded by MusicMouse on Jan 26, 2007
Audio on left channel only.
"Concerto for Self-Accompanying Digital Synthesizer. The instrument is possibly the first realtime digital synthesizer, built at Bell Telephone Labs, NJ by Hal Alles and team, with C language software written by Laurie that processes the player's live input into an ongoing accompaniment that will continue to be played live against.
This is a legal copy uploaded by the owner of the original tape. The OHM DVD's video was taken from this.
For more info on see http://retiary.org/ls/obsolete_systems
For tech info on the synth see:
http://www.matrixsynth.com/blog/media/misc/spiegel/Alles1.pdf"
Laurie Spiegel's website: http://retiary.org/ls/.
Laurie on Wikipedia
Update embeddable video and description above sent my way via Laurie Spiegel, and via Reed in the comments before the embed: "She's playing a digital synthesizer built by Hal Alles of Bell Labs. Somehow it found its way to Oberlin College in Ohio, where it has remained broken & unused in the basement for over 20 years. (The video, btw, is from the new Ohm DVD compilation). "
Update via Andrew Dean on AH:
"Here's the credit for the Spiegel trackl on the DVD:
Track 12: Laurie Spiegel Improvisation on a 'Concerto Generator'
(2:40) Music, Performance, and Interactive software by Laurie Spiegel,
1977
So, "Concerto Generator" it is. Probably early digital by Hal Alles."
Update: PDF on the instrument. Via ivan on AH.
Update: And more from steve sloan on AH.
Update via Loscha: You can find the patent for Laurie Spiegel's machine here.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Exclusive Laurie Spiegel Track on The Wire
"A veritable plethora of streamable stuff of mine is online today. In addition to the 2 in the the last post, 'The Orient Express' (with the perpetual acceleration alg) just showed up, streamable from The Wire's site"
Excerpt via the site: "Since the 1970s, US composer Laurie Spiegel has worked to develop new electronic music systems at Bell labs and elsewhere. "The Orient Express" (June–July 1974) is a track from The Expanding Universe, which was originally released as a four track album in 1980 and has recently been reissued by Unseen Worlds (digital and LP) with an added 15 tracks..."
Pictured: Laurie Spiegel in her New York studio, July 2012
Two EML semi-modulars. You can see the top system in this post featuring Laurie in her studio back in 1971.
I don't have labels for people, but you can search names in the top Blogger search box and the Google search box on the right. Here's a search using Blogger that will bring up posts in post format. Not only will you find posts focused on Laurie Spiegel, but you'll find any post mentioning her and her influence on the world of synthesizers and electronic music.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
laurie spiegel - appalachian grove I
YouTube via zulutron.
Update: Re-Published on Feb 13, 2015 PermasmokeSoundLab
via A Brief History of Computer Voltage Control on The Stretta Procedure. Be sure to see that post.
video description:
"The main intention of this youtube-account is to feature mixes and tracks somewhere between deep-minimal-dub techno/house and sounds from detroit/chicago.
well, it's sometimes hard to categorize and some tracks won't fit into that pattern at all. let's eclecticize a bit. anyway, it's music that i would like to share with others. constructive comments are highly appreciated!
- support the music : buy vinyl -
track: appalachian grove I
artist: laurie spiegel
label: 1750 arch records / sonar kollektiv (S-1765 / SK096LP)
year: 1977 / 2006
taken from ame's "...mixing" LP, originally released on "new music for electronic and recorded media" LP in 1977. for more info on laurie spiegel:
http://retiary.org/ls
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Laurie+..."
Update via fluxmonk in the comments:
"Originally from "New Music For Electronic And Recorded Media: Women In Electronic Music-1977", which included:
Johanna M. Beyer
Annea Lockwood
Pauline Oliveros
Laurie Spiegel
Megan Roberts
Ruth Anderson
Laurie Anderson"
Saturday, October 06, 2012
Laurie Speigel - 3 Tracks From "The Expanding Universe" & The New Yorker
You can find the release here: http://www.unseenworlds.net/UW09/
via The New Yorker where you'll find the full article.
"The surprise Year of Spiegel continues as her landmark and long out-of-print 1980 LP 'The Expanding Universe' is being reissued for the first time on compact disc by the Unseen Worlds label. While the original LP ran at just over forty-five minutes (and had to cheat the long title track of some dynamic range in order to fit all the grooves on side two), the newly expanded “Expanding Universe” sprawls, in its physical form, over two compact discs, with a running time of two and a half hours. What is old on this reissue sounds punchier and punkier than do the ripped-from-vinyl MP3s that exist online. And what’s new on “The Expanding Universe” is as diverse-sounding and alive as any electronic music issued this year, even though all of these pieces were conceived on a computer-analog hybrid system stashed in a Bell Labs hallway from 1973 to 1979.
This device would be Max Mathews’s “Generating Realtime Operations On Voltage-controlled Equipment” apparatus, otherwise known as GROOVE. It was a hybrid digital-analog mechanism that was big enough to require multiple rooms. (Despite its being too unwieldy to take out for live performances, Spiegel once described it as “the ultimate synthesizer.”) A technical breakdown of the GROOVE setup can become pretty complex, but, in brief, the system was controlled from a room that held a console, a monitor, a three-octave keyboard, and a joystick operated by the user, all of which was separated by a glass window from a temperature-controlled room with a large DDP-224 computer, which was in turn linked up to a digital magnetic tape drive down the hall.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/09/an-electronic-music-classic-reborn.html#ixzz28Xgbzz9w"
This one in via Karl.
Friday, December 07, 2012
Laurie Spiegel Featured on Pitchfork - Intro on NASA's Golden Disk
Probably the most remarkable thing about Laurie Spiegel is that a piece of music she made could be the first sound of human origin to be heard by extraterrestrial lifeforms. If aliens exist, of course. And assuming they have ears.
Spiegel's computer realization of a composition conceived back in the early 17th Century by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler is the opening cut on the Golden Record, a disc that accompanied both Voyager probes on their journey across the solar system and out into the great interstellar beyond in 1977..."
Read the full article on Pitchfork here. Note the EMLs to her right. The track that is floating in outer space? "Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds" performed on the Bell Labs "computer-analog hybrid" below. Don't miss vintage footage of Laurie performing on the system in this post. The track "Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds" was featured on Spiegel's "The Expanding Unniverse" posted here back in October. It was the second to last track. It's fascinating to think the message sent on NASA's Voyager probes opens with a synth.
Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds
video upload by Laurie Spiegel - Topic
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
A Visit to Oberlin's TIMARA Program Featuring the Bell Labs Hal Alles & Other Vintage Synths
Uploaded on Jan 26, 2007 Laurie Spiegel
Above: a now classic video of Laurie Spiegel performing on the Bell Labs Hal Alles.
Mark Boyd of Audulus, Endangered Audio Research and Bimini Road met up with Peter Swendsen of Oberlin's TIMARA program to talk synth. Mark showed Peter Audulus, and Peter showed Mark TIMARA's collection. Included was the historic Bell Labs Hal Alles, the first realtime digital synthesizer; made famous by synth legend Laurie Spiegel. See the video above (1st posted here, and then here with a second video).
Pics include the Bell Labs Hal Alles, vintage Buchla & Music Easel, ARP 2600, Blue EML 200 & Silver EML 300 Manual Controller, STEIM cracklebox, and an EMS VCS3 Putney.
Sunday, November 02, 2014
Laurie Spiegel: Grassroots Technologist
Laurie Spiegel: Grassroots Technologist from NewMusicBox on Vimeo.
"Electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel sees a lot of common ground between the seemingly oppositional aesthetics of folk traditions and the digital realm. But, as she explains when she spoke with Frank J. Oteri, the most important element in all of her music making is emotional engagement whether she's creating a computer realized algorithmic composition, crafting a short piano piece or orchestral score, or jamming on a guitar or a banjo. Video presentation and photography by Molly Sheridan and Alexandra Gardner. To read a transcript of the entire conversation, visit NewMusicBox."
Laurie Spiegel on MATRIXSYNTH
Monday, June 15, 2015
Vintage Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer 1977 Demo Video by Creator Hal Alles
Vintage Digital Synthisizer 1977 Published on Jun 15, 2015 urcich
Roger Powell at 5:22. Further below is a video of Laurie Spiegel playing the synth. See the Bell Labs channel label at the bottom of this post for more.
It's fascinating to hear what the initial intent of this synthesizer was.
via Hal Alles on the Synergy list:
"Since a few people have expressed interest, I posted a video on youtube of a demo using the synthesizer I developed at Bell Labs.
This demo was made as a backup for a live demo for the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Talking Motion Pictures.
Hence the references to the movie industry.
The live demo was done on the stage at the Palladium in Hollywood in 1977, so the backup was never shown.
It started life as studio video tape made a few days before the show, converted to 16 mm film, then later to VHS tape, then to DVD, and finally the digital version posted.
Very few people have seen this – I did not have a copy until 1995.
Hal Alles"
Laurie Spiegel plays Alles synth - temporary replacement
Uploaded on Apr 27, 2009 Laurie Spiegel
"This 1977 tape is one of the earliest examples of purely digital realtime audio synthesis. It manages to achieve an analog synth sounding quality, but it is entirely digital synthesis and signal processing.
The interactive software I wrote and am playing in this video recycles my keyboard input into an accompaniment to my continued playing, which is why I called it a "concerto generator". I use part of one of the keyboards for control data entry, and the small switches upper right to access pre-entered numerical patterns. The sliders are mainly pre-Yamaha FM synthesis parameter controls, for the number of harmonics and amplitude and frequency of the FM modulator and carrier that constituted each musical voice.
Until they restore the copy suffering from data corruption please look at this copy instead.
Comments can continue to be left on the original's page where there have been many views and comments views, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4T3eT...
Thanks for watching,
- Laurie"
Update via Spiegel's Reflections in the comments: "I've posted some additional info about the synth Hal Alles built that's featured here along with a link to more technical info. See my extended comment near the bottom of this page":
"I never heard this called "Alice" till the last couple years. Don't know when that name first surfaced.
A correction: This was at the time considered the world's first ***realtime*** digital (not "additive") synthesizer. Yes, it could do additive synthesis but was quite flexible as to how the oscillator could be used. I used them as FM pairs, with both the modulator and carrier of each FM pair being additive, with the number and amplitude of their harmonics controlled by the slide pots. (This video of me playing it shows is a rare example of pre-Yamaha DX-series FM synthesis.) The breakthrough was to do digital synthesis in realtime so it could be interactive. Prior to this technology, digital computers were not fast enough to produce audio in real time and it was not possible to do digital audio interactively.
There were 72 slide pots. (72 oscillators were mentioned above instead). The number of oscillators depending on how the components were programmed to interconnect. For the specifics of its synthesis architecture, please see Hal Alles's paper describing the system in Computer Music Journal, Vol. 1 #4, which you can find on my website at http://retiary.org/ls/obsolete_systems/Alles_synth_1977.pdf
The system was not dismantled as it says here, but donated to the Oberlin College Music Dept. For all I know it is still there. I'm not sure why Gary Nelson and the group there were not able to get it running. I had heard that it was dropped during the move, but alternatively, we programmed it remotely from (if I remember right) an LSI 11/45 computer in another part of the Labs. I don't know to what extent it could be programmed independently of an external computer with a compiler etc. installed, so that might have been a major hurdle for them. This was 1977 at Bell Telephone Labs, so the purpose of the system was never to make a marketable music system but to develop and test the new designs of its components, and I was under the impression a bunch of new patents resulted, The ideas built into this instrument were not lost to music though. Crumar created various synthsizers based on its internal architecture. I think (but am not sure because I never had direct experience with them) that those included the Crumar GDS and Synergy.
From the liner notes of my 'Obsolete System' cd:
This composition was commissioned by Bell Labs and the Motion Picture Academy for the 50th anniversary of talking pictures. Working with the Alles synthesizer, with its extensive array of input and output channels for control, was a real pleasure after years of GROOVE's extreme restrictions. The interactive software I wrote for this composition recycles the player's keyboard input into an ongoing accompaniment. However, writing the software from a remote DEC PDP-11 computer [..] in the new "C" computer language still undergoing frequent change, within a still-experimental UNIX operating system, without the control inputs or sonic output, under a tight deadline, while the Alles synthesizer hardware was still under construction, turned out to be quite an adventure.
It's also not necessarily true that only 1 composition survives from this instrument. Roger Powell also composed something on it I believe, though I don't know if he finished or recorded it. And I have a couple of reel-to-reel tapes I recorded on it that I haven't listened to since then (1977). It is possible that something on one of those open reels might be worthy of being considered additional music. At some point I will work up to transferring them to digital and find out."
Friday, March 30, 2012
Laurie Speigal & The Hunger Games on Wired
via Wired, where you'll find the full article.
"Laurie Spiegel, who composed a piece featured in The Hunger Games, in her New York apartment in the early 1970s, surrounded by musical equipment.
Photo: Stan Bratman"
"A strange and fascinating piece of abstract electronic music surfaces in a key sequence in The Hunger Games. The track 'Sediment,' used to great effect during the movie’s 'cornucopia scene,' was composed in 1972 by pioneering composer Laurie Spiegel, who used an analog synthesizer [the Electrocomp EML-200] and old-school tape machines to create the sweeping, nine-minute epic."
Sediment -- Laurie Spiegel
YouTube Uploaded by HungerGamesDWTC on Mar 4, 2012
"Sediment is listed in the credits as being a part of the musical score for The Hunger Games film. Whether this piece itself is included or whether the it will be performed or utilized in a different way has yet to be seen."
Monday, April 27, 2009
Laurie Spiegel plays Alles synth - temporary replacement
video upload by Laurie Spiegel
YouTube via MusicMouse
"Concerto for Self-Accompanying Digital Synthesizer. The instrument is possibly the first realtime digital synthesizer, built at Bell Telephone Labs, NJ by Hal Alles and team, with C language software written by Laurie that processes the player's live input into an ongoing accompaniment that will continue to be played live against.
This is a legal copy uploaded by the owner of the original tape. The OHM DVD's video was taken from this.
For more info on see http://retiary.org/ls/obsolete_systems
For tech info on the synth see:
http://www.matrixsynth.com/blog/media..." [mirrored here]
You might remember the video from this previous post. The original video was suffering from data corruption so Laurie Spiegel uploaded the video again. Be sure to see the comments on YouTube here for more.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Part 1: Laurie Spiegel Bell Labs Interview 1984
YouTube via MusicMouse
"This interview was taped at Bell Labs in 1984, with brief intro by Max Mathews. Some of this footage may have made it into the documentary for which this was recorded but most of it has not been seen anywhere yet. Apologies for not knowing the name of the interviewer. This is Part 1 of 2."
Part 2: Laurie Spiegel Bell Labs Interview 1984
video upload by Laurie Spiegel
Update: also see this video.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
EML Electrocomp 100
via this auction
There's a cat in the bunch. As always, if you are going to bid on this stuff, be careful. This one is Money Order only.
Update1 via cornutt in the comments:
"Info on the EML 100 is surprisingly hard to find, compared to its better-known cousin, the 101. Here's a link to an email chain that discusses some of the differences. The 100 is actually a lot more rare than the 101."
Update2 via Laurie Spiegel in the comments; "Hi Matrix. The guy running that auction is in error. I've sent him messages saying the 200 was before the 100 but he doesn't believe me and won't change it. I want to correct the choronology before this misinfo spreads any further because once something's all over the net it's forever.
According to the 1st edition of Mark Vaile's book (the edition I happen to have here) the 200 dates from 1969, and the 100 came out in 1971. Mark gives 2 dates for the 200: 1969 on p. 128 and 1972 on p. 129. The p. 129 date was a typo.
I am just about certain from my own experience that the 100, with its black and white keyboard, was released after the 200 purely modular model and its Model 300 Controller. I visited EML in CT a couple of times and their eariler products were meant to be marketed for educational use, not live performance. Also I've owned a 100, a 200 and a 300 since the early 1970s and IMHO the 200 has a just plain older feel and style and concept.
Though my memory for specific dates may be a bit fuzzy 4 decades later, my paper records show I was hired in fall 1970 to teach at a college that had an Electrocomp studio based on the 200 modular synth its 300 controller.
If anyone has any info that differs from what I've written here, please post it. It was a long time ago.
Thanks again for a great site Matrix,
- Laurie Spiegel"
Peter Forrest's A-Z of Analogue Synthesizers confirms the order as well, although he has the 100 starting in 1970 vs. 1971. According to that book, the 200 came out in 1969 (1969 - 1980) and the 100 in 1970 (1970 - 1972). Regardless, the order is 200 followed by 100. Both books are listed in the Synth Books section.
Update3 via Sasha. The verdict is still out:
"I ran across some background info on the Electrocomp 100 from Christopher Landers who was a famous newscaster back in the day. Thought you might be interested as it seems to suggest that the EML100 was the first synth in the line and that the separate modules came later (as opposed to what Laurie Spiegel is saying here: http://matrixsynth.blogspot.com/2006/11/eml-electrocomp-100.html ). He said it would be ok to post this info and quote him.
I got mine directly from Walter Sear when I was in high school (I worked at his studio in NYC and was in the room when Keith Emerson was being taught how to work his new Moog C3). Sear had been working with Moog in a business deal until Moog brought in Musonics and Sear split. At that point, Sear found the EML guys in nearby CT and had them create a box that could take on Mini-Moog ...but with the two note deal. The Electrocomp thus became the first "polyphonic" synth--using the top and bottom notes played on the keyboard so the oscillators knew what command to carry out--and also the first device to use IC's. I believe it was later that EML came up with a "box" without a keyboard. I should mention here that Bob Moog, while being the exceptional engineer that he was ...with the higher invention of "voltage control" that permeated many more electronics systems than simply synths (such as medical devices). It was Sear who suggested using a keyboard controller (Moog was set on a resistance strip, which also showed up sitting on top of keyboards for a while). Controllers, back in those days, were the holy grail. It was Sear who experimenting early with the guitar controller. As he related to me: "We can control an oscillator with almost any instrument because we can determine what frequency the controller is making and send that information to the oscillator; the problem with the guitar and other stringed instruments is multiple strings. A guitar has six strings and you can have six oscillators but, which oscillator plays in reponse to which string?" Is that great or what?
Best, Sasha"
Update4 via mr.scappy in the comments: "I have a 100 and a blue-face 200, and each has a different address for EML screen-printed on the control panel. Both list P.O. Box H, but the 100 has the city address as Talcottville, CT, 06080, and the blue-face 200 has the address at Vernon, CT 06066. (Today the 06080 zip is specific only to MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution. Interesting.)
All of my literature for EML synths shows the Vernon address, and the EML-100 is not included among the synths shown. Perhaps the 100 was built at the Talcottville location and all others at the Vernon location? This would seem to place the 100 first in line. Just a thought."
Update5: Sasha contacted Jeff Bachiochi who worked for EML. Here is what he had to say:
"If I'm not mistaken the 100 was the first keyboard synthy that EML produced but not the first synthesizer. The first was a studio type that was just oscillators, mixers, filters, sampler, and ring modulator connected by patch cords and manually controlled with knobs. Which blue was the original color of all EML products, the line quickly went into a brush aluminum style with etch black nomenclature. These were originally made for class room use and the blue paint used would chip off, from all the patch cord plugging and unplugging by the students. Ah, those were fun times."
followed by:
"Yes, Sasha, the first was the 200. That's how I got started with EML. My wife (then girl friend) told me that her High School music class had gotten this electronic music box and the address on the front was the local town. I stopped by the factory, which was in basement of one of the three co-owner's house. We began a long time friendship and I started to work for them as their first employee. The 300 came on line soon after using a keypad as the first crude kind of keyboard."
Update (6/29/2011) via Prosper in the comments:
"I now own this synth. It was refurbished and repaired in 2007 with the following mods. A) Filter has been opened up so the Filter Octave Switch goes one higher and one lower than on the synth. Very handy. B) For the Noise pot in the filter mixer, instead of going between white and pink noise it goes from white to OSC 1 output so OSC 1 does not have to patched into the filter mixer. Very handy.
I've pointed out the differences between the 100 and 101 on the VSE page for the 100."
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Laurie Spiegel and NASA's Golden Record
"Born in Chicago in 1945 she took a degree in social science before studying music at Juilliard specialising in Baroque and Renaissance lute. She then took a leap into electronic music and in the 1970s wrote interactive compositional software at Bell Labs and founded the New York University Computer Music Studio. She also became famous in rock circles for her music software for personal computers. Lauarie Spiegel's own electronic music is minimalist and deals with textures, not melody. Among her works in the 1970s was a piece using mathematical algorithms to make audible a set of laws of planetary motions devised by the 17th century astronomer Johann Kepler which he called the Harmony of the Planets, and it was this work which NASA chose to be part of 'The Golden Record' on board the Voyager space craft."
via Rhythm Divine where you'll find a full transcript and audio if you have WMP or Real Player.
Pictured: "Pioneer in the field of computer-generated music: Laurie Spiegel"
via @stretta
Update: be sure to see the comments in this post for more bits of info.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Laurie Spiegel 1971
(see link for additional details in the comments)
"The photo was taken by Stan Bratman in the apartment I had in New York for about 5 years before moving into my loft in 1971."
Electrocomp system.
Update via Spiegel's Reflections in the comments:
"A greatly expanded CD re-release of "The Expanding Universe" is in the works thanks to this excellent fairly new label http://unseenworlds.net
It is currently planned as a double cd with about 2 1/2 hours of music from that period all created on the BTL GROOVE system.
Due to the ongoing craziness of life it could take a few months more before it's out."
[Re-posted. This one was a casualty of the recent Blogger outage.]
Friday, December 26, 2008
OHM-01
YouTube via rasppatrol
"Early days of synthesizers."
OHM on Ebay
OHM on Amazon
Look for The Early Gurus of Electronic Music - DVD and CD.
Click for more Laurie Spiegel on MATRIXSYNTH
Regarding what she is playing (from a prior post):
"Concerto for Self-Accompanying Digital Synthesizer. The instrument is possibly the first realtime digital synthesizer, built at Bell Telephone Labs, NJ by Hal Alles and team, with C language software written by Laurie that processes the player's live input into an ongoing accompaniment that will continue to be played live against."
Update: the video above was posted on YouTube without permission from the makers of OHM. The following video is approved and was uploaded by Laurie Spiegel.
"Concerto for Self-Accompanying Digital Synthesizer. The instrument is possibly the first realtime digital synthesizer, built at Bell Telephone Labs, NJ by Hal Alles and team, with C language software written by Laurie that processes the player's live input into an ongoing accompaniment that will continue to be played live against.
This is a legal copy uploaded by the owner of the original tape. The OHM DVD's video was taken from this.
For more info on see http://retiary.org/ls/obsolete_systems
For tech info on the synth see:
http://www.matrixsynth.com/blog/media..." [mirrored here]
Be sure to see additional comments here.
Monday, February 06, 2017
Judy Jackson performs on the Alles Machine
Published on Feb 2, 2017 Timara Department
"Judy Jackson live performance (2016) on the repurposed Alles Machine in the TIMARA Studios, Oberlin Conservatory: http://www.timara.oberlin.edu
You can read information about the Alles Machine here: timara.con.oberlin.edu/jtalbert/Alles/alles.pdf
See the video of Laurie Spiegel playing the Alles Machine in 1977:"
Improvisation on a "Concerto Generator" (1977)
Uploaded on Oct 9, 2010 MuStudio
"Laurie Spiegel Playing the Bell Labs Digital Synthesizer, better known as the Alles Machine or Alice, was an experimental additive synthesizer designed by Harold G. Alles and Douglas Bayer at Bell Labs in 1977-78.
This composition was commissioned by Bell Labs and the Motion Picture Academy for the 50th anniversary of talking pictures. Working with the Alles synthesizer, with its extensive array of input and output channels for control, was a real pleasure after years of GROOVE's extreme restrictions. The interactive software I wrote for this composition recycles the player's keyboard input into an ongoing accompaniment. However, writing the software from a remote DEC PDP-11 computer (see also the PDP-11 FAQ and PDP Music Survey) in the new "C" computer language still undergoing frequent change, within a still-experimental UNIX operating system, without the control inputs or sonic output, under a tight deadline, while the Alles synthesizer hardware was still under construction, turned out to be quite an adventure.
It can orchestrate and perfome musicale scores as fast as a composer at its controls can think them up; create previously unheard musical sounds; and raise or lower the pitch of an instrument or human voice in real time-instantly-so that a man speaking into a microphone can be made sound like Donald Duck or Ezio Pinza. The machine divides sound into its frequencies and amplitudes, processing it un up to 200 million operations per sesond.
For more information look :
http://www.retiary.org/ls/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Lab...
http://timara.con.oberlin.edu/~jtalbe..."
Thursday, December 03, 2020
Amiga Music Mouse with dual Akemie Castles
ALM TV
"Using Laurie Spiegel‘s amazing 'Music Mouse' program on a Commodore Amiga 2000 computer to sequence dual Akemie Castles for 4 FM voices.
'Music Mouse turns your computer into a musical instrument, played by pushing the music around in real time with the computers mouse while accessinging the realtime control options from the computer keyboard'
Music Mouse was written in the mid 1980s by composer and computer music pioneer Laurie Spiegel for the Apple Mac. It was also soon ported to both the Atari St and Amiga computers. The Amiga version is our favourite due to its use of color and ability to also play samples as well as produce MIDI.
Via a simple Amiga MIDI interface, 4 voices of MIDI data are processed by dual ALM mmMidis to sequence each of the two voice of two Akemie Castles. Some delay processing then added via an Ursa Major SST-282."
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Music Mouse Live Setup
Published on Aug 29, 2019 Hairy Sands
"A quick description of our live Music Mouse setup. The Music Mouse was created by Laurie Spiegel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_.... Spiegel is probably best known for her record The Expanding Universe which was re-released by the label Unseen Worlds https://www.unseenworlds.com/releases.... Her *record* Unseen Worlds was also re-released by the same label and was composed almost exclusively with the Music Mouse https://www.unseenworlds.com/releases.... You can find out more about it at Laurie's page http://retiary.org/ls/programs.html.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandshairy/"
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
MOOGFEST REVEALS MUSIC LINEUP AND PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
Details are in. Via MOOGFEST:
"Over 150 participating artists including Flying Lotus, Animal Collective, Gotye, Suzanne Ciani, Derrick May, 808 State, Jessy Lanza, Simian Mobile Disco, Moor Mother, Syrinx, Visible Cloaks, Princess Nokia, and Function added to growing list of Moogfest 2017 participants
Gotye Presenting a Tribute to Jean-Jacques Perrey, The Center for Deep Listening Honoring Pauline Oliveros, and Peanut Butter Wolf Honoring Bernie Worrell and Other Musicians We’ve Lost
Over forty performing artists also leading workshops and sessions in four-day conference program
The independent, annual, four-day festival will take place in
Durham, North Carolina from May 18-21, 2017. This year marks its 11th iteration honoring the spirit of inventor Bob Moog.
$249 for 3-Day General Admission and $499 for 3-Day VIP
All prices exclusive of applicable fees.
Durham, NC (March 7, 2017): Today, Moogfest reveals its lineup of musical performers, led by Flying Lotus, Animal Collective, Gotye, Suzanne Ciani, Derrick May, 808 State, Simian Mobile Disco, Syrinx, Jessy Lanza, and Function. Building on the experimental format of previous years, Moogfest continues to integrate Future Sound (performances) and Future Thought (conference) programming, with many of these artists also leading sessions during the daytime conference program.
Moogfest’s trademark mix of intimate venues and masterful collaborations creates an unforgettable experience festival-goers will not find anywhere else. Experimental electronic and avant-garde dance music is complemented by thematic programming like Black Quantum Futurism, Protest, and Techno-Shamanism that span day-into-night. This year returns with adventurous formats such as live film scores, an overnight live music sleep concert, prelude to sleep listening parties, long-form durational performances, and presentations by leading Instrument Designers.
Moogfest has also invited artists including Gotye and Peanut Butter Wolf to help honor some of the innovative musicians we lost in 2016, including Jean-Jacques Perrey, Pauline Oliveros, Bernie Worrell and Keith Emerson. This 2017 lineup reinforces Moogfest’s commitment to bold experimentation, with some of the most important musicians and thinkers of our day helping to blur the lines between audience and artist, conversation and collaboration, technology and creativity.
Friday, May 07, 2021
SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS
SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS from Monoduo Films on Vimeo.
VIRTUAL THEATRICAL - ONE WEEK ONLY!
SISTERS WITH TRANSISTORS is the remarkable untold story of electronic music’s female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today. Theremins, synthesizers and feedback machines abound in this glorious ode to the women who helped shape, not just electronic music but the contemporary soundscape as we know it.
Avant-garde composer Laurie Anderson narration accompanies fascinating archival footage to trace the history of the technological experimentation of sound, the deconstruction of its parts and the manipulation into something altogether other. While traversing a range of musical approaches and personalities, from academia to outsider art to television commercials, we meet Clara Rockmore, Bebe Barron, Suzanne Ciani, Laurie Spiegel, Daphne Oram, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire and Eliane Radigue, fascinating and enigmatic musical geniuses and their peculiar way of hearing the world.
https://sisterswithtransistors.com
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