Suzanne Ciani

Title link takes you to a few more shots of Suzanne Ciani on Failed Muso. Also check out these previous posts for more.

Synths in TV and Film

Note: some of the videos below have been pulled from YouTube, but I'm keeping mention of them up as a reference that they are out there.

Let the page load before scrolling - it's a long one.
Be sure to see the Synth Movies list and see the Synth Movies and Synth TV and Film labels for more.

1. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Synths: ARP 2500 played by Phillip Dodds, head of ARP Engineering, Yamaha CS-?.


2. Fame Synths: ARP 2600, MOOG Minimoog

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SYNTHBOOKS #05 - BJOOKS Push Turn Move - Kim Bjorn | SOUNDMIT

video upload by SOUNDMIT

Googlish translation further below:

"Ciao a tutti e bentornati o benvenuti ai video del Soundmit, vi ricordo che potrete vedere i precedenti video sul nostro canale all’indirizzo www.soundmit.com/youtube e se vi piacciono, iscrivetevi e seguiteci anche sui nostri canali social all’indirizzo www.soundmit.com/social

Riprendiamo le nostre pillole letterarie con una serie nella serie, ci occuperemo infatti di una serie di 5 libri relativamente nuovi, scritti da Kim Bjorn, designer, DJ e scrittore Danese che abbiamo avuto il piacere di ospitare diverse volte al nostro Soundmit.

Andiamo in ordine cronologico parlando del libro che ha dato il via alla serie ovvero, PUSH TURN MOVE!

Come vedete, qui con me ne ho due copie, in realtà sono due edizioni differenti. La seconda, leggermente più sottile ma con eguale numero di pagine, è stata rivista recentemente e riallineata all’impostazione grafica dei volumi usciti successivamente.

Sono anche stati rivisti in parte i contenuti, infatti non troveremo alcune interviste e alcune considerazioni su prodotti di aziende che non esistono più o che hanno sospeso le attività, in favore di nuovi e più aggiornati contenuti.

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MOTU Adds Artist Demos to Encore Soundbank to Benefit the Bob Moog Foundation

"MOTU's Bob Moog Foundation Encore Soundbank has never sounded better! Electronic music powerhouses Suzanne Ciani, Larry Fast, and Amin Bhatia have created a wonderfully diverse set of demos featuring the breadth and power of this collection.

Listen to the demos here

Proceeds from the Encore Soundbank benefit our hallmark educational project, Dr. Bob's SoundSchool, and our Archive Preservation Initiative.

You can purchase the soundbank here

Many thanks to Suzanne, Larry, and Amin for their stellar contributions to this project. We are grateful to have the support of this highly esteemed trio of talented musicians, all of whom Bob held in high regard. Our ongoing thanks to MOTU for their support of the Bob Moog Foundation!"

ciani-buchla keyboard cover

flickr by bdu

full size

"suzanne ciani and her buchla 200 on the cover of contemporary keyboard, june 79"

Suzanne Ciani on 3-2-1 Contact

YouTube via magneticring. Sent my way via gerald.

Remember this post? Looks like someone finally put it up on YouTube.

Oberheim OB-X, Sequential Circuits Prophet 5, Buchla

Note: the original YouTube vid has the title as "Suzanna Ciani on 3-2-1 Contact" I usually do not change titles others create, but in this case it was leading to some confusion in the comments so I went ahead and corrected it in the title of this post. The video on YouTube still has Suzanna as of this note as I have no control over that.

Mycelium Symposium March 2021 - Modular/Virtual Modular Performances, Workshops, and Presentations

video by Omri Cohen

You can find additional resources from Omri Cohen at https://www.patreon.com/omricohen

"So this is the first Mycelium Symposium, an online event dedicated to modular and virtual modular.
Here is a rough timetable of the performances, workshops, and presentations :

This is all in the CET time zone (GMT+1)
18.00 - Performance, Giovanni Gramegna (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcTH...​)
18.16 - Performance, Stellar 53 - Journey to Saturn (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdk2...​)
18.28 - Presentation, VCV Rack Ideas - Ambient Techno Patch in VCV Rack (https://www.youtube.com/vcvrackideas​)
18.40 - Performance, Zen Wires - Welcoming Spring (https://modularzen.com/​)
18.56 - Break
19.06 - Performance, Pyer - right on time (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC74_...​)
19.20 - Performance, Rheyne - Unsettled Evocation (https://www.youtube.com/user/RheyneMusic​)
19.36 - Presentation, Jakub Ciupinski - VCV Rack Hacks (http://www.jakubciupinski.com/​)
19.47 - Performance, Synthikat - Zen Garden (https://www.youtube.com/synthikat​)
19.59 - Workshop, Pyer - Suzanne Ciani’s Buchla Cookbook in VCV Rack (https://www.pyer.be/ciani.html​)
20.15 - Break
20.25 - Workshop, Instruō - Patching the Cš-L in VCV Rack (https://www.instruomodular.com/​)
21.06 - Performance, Deev Bennes - Sublingual (https://www.youtube.com/user/deevje​)
21.23 - Break
21.33 - Workshop, Sarah Belle Reid - Acoustic Instruments and VCV Rack (https://www.patreon.com/sarahbellereid​ / https://www.soundandsynthesis.com/​)
21.49 - Performance, Martin Lueders - La-vie (https://www.youtube.com/user/mlu2006​)
22.07 - Presentation, Hora Music - Deep and Bicephalous (https://www.hora-music.be/​)
22.15 - Performance, BrokenSines - Californium (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjec...​)
22.37 - Presentation - Midilar (https://midilar-controller.webnode.sk/​)
22.52 - Break
23.02 - Workshop, The Klirrfaktor - Why and How to code your first VCV Rack module (http://klirrfactory.com/​)
23.51 - Performance, Omri Cohen - Rain keeps falling"

Buchla Documentary by Connie Field Now on Kikstarter

Follow-up to this previous post.  via Kickstarter:

"With a passion for music and engineering, Don Buchla created electronic musical instruments the world had never dreamed of before.

When we've told people that we're preparing a documentary about Don Buchla, we get one of two reactions:

a) Wow! It's about time The man's a genius! Why hasn't this happened already?

or

b) Don who?

We want to make a movie that can live up to the expectations and desires and hopes for the people who answered a), and that can introduce Don in the best way possible to those who answered b).

Don Buchla is a legendary instrument maker whose inventions were part of the greatest musical transformation of the 20th century. His pioneering work laid the basis for what electronic music was to become by creating a unique analog synthesizer which completely changed the way people think about, compose, and perform music. The list of musicians and composers who have used the Buchla range from avant-garde composer Morton Subotnick to Nine Inch Nails, with plenty more along the way. Don hasn't stopped inventing since the arrival of the Buchla, and his other instruments combine an idiosyncratic sound with a sense of wonder and theatrical magic.

"Music is a mirror that we hold up to see how cultural structures are formed. Race, social hierarchy, class, national origin the twentieth century saw a questioning of these issues on a global level, and in a sense, electronic music was the soundtrack to that intense investigation into the human situation. Almost all traditional notions of space, time, and physicality have been reconfigured in ways that we are just beginning to understand. I think that electronic music has helped us understand the process we've lived through. Think about everything from the tones you hear coming out of your telephone to the frequencies underlying cellular communication to the algorithms used to route the information holding it all together -- most of this stuff has been explored one way or the other by the avant-garde."
--Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky)

Don was definitely part of the avant-garde. He has been called a mad scientist, a genius, an innovator, a recluse, an iconoclast, and has gathered a horde of fiercely loyal admirers by following his own visionary path, and dancing to his own muse. His name and instruments are known from Indonesia to France.

We have begun to film because there have been performances and interviews to capture that we simply couldn't pass up, such as Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender from the San Francisco Tape Music Center, who commissioned Don to build the first Buchla; French composers Jean-Baptiste Barrière and Marc Battier; and performances by Subotnick and Marimba Lumina player Joel Davel, who has assisted in Buchla's workshop for over a decade.

But now we need to raise production funding to complete the rest of our filming. Among the other people we will be including in the film are early Buchla composer/performer Suzanne Ciani, analog synth performer/music journalist Gino Robair, Lightning virtuoso Forrest Tobey, synth maestro Alessandro Cortini (of Nine Inch Nails and Sonoio), Marimba Lumina co-designer Mark Goldstein, and, of course, Don himself. Ideally, we're hoping you can support us beyond what we're asking for here so we can also edit and do post-production for the film.

With your help, we will be able to do the legacy of Don Buchla justice."

Shasta Cults Self Titled Release Featuring the Buchla Touché

Pre-order on black and clear vinyl at IMPREC, and digital at BandCamp.

"Wonderful to hear such beautiful, billowing sound clouds emanating from the legendary Touché." - David Rosenboom

Shasta Cults is the musical project of Canadian electronics technician Richard Smith. For almost two decades, Smith was the official Buchla & Associates repair tech for studios, collectors, and musicians around the world. Having worked for artists such as Aphex Twin, Suzanne Ciani, Morton Subotnick and institutions such as The Library of Congress and Mills College, Smith has had the unique experience of restoring and interacting with nearly every model of Buchla instrument constructed over the past 50 years.

Recorded over the span of three months in the fall of 2018, this album was programmed using the only fully functional Buchla Touché. Developed in the early 1980s with hardware by Donald Buchla and software programmed by musician David Rosenboom, the Touché features waveforms generated internally by twenty-four digital oscillators and uses frequency modulation along with sophisticated digital and analog signal processing to produce complex timbres.

This LP is a continuation of themes first heard on Configurations, with more consideration given to the generation and recording of the pieces. The album's six tracks – a collection of sonic experiments and hypnotic drones – span almost forty minutes, showcasing not only the incredible fidelity of the Touché but also Smith's evolution as an audio engineer.

Put on some headphones, find a comfortable chair, and let this LP transport you to the mystifying southern cascades of Siskiyou County.

RIYL: ELEH, Sarah Davachi

released November 13, 2019

Programmed, recorded and mastered by Shasta Cults - Fall 2018
Artwork by IMPREC

all rights reserved

Oberheim OB-X Analog Synthesizer (1979) "Oberfett"

Published on Apr 30, 2018 RetroSound

"(c) 2018 vintage synthesizer demo by RetroSound

Oberheim OB-X Analog Synthesizer from the year 1979

The demo video shows some self programmed uncommon synth sounds.

The Oberheim OB-X is one of the fattest analog poly-synths ever.

The sound character (based of the discrete circuits and the SEM design VCF) is different to the later curtis chip based OB-Xa and OB-8.

Used by: Rush (Subdivisions, Tom Sawyer), Nena (99 Luftballons, Nur Geträumt), J.-M. Jarre (Magnetic Fields), Killing Joke (Love Like Blood), Roxy Music (Avalon), Queen (Flash Gordon), Styx (Too much time on my hands), Japan, Supertramp, Suzanne Ciani, Tangerine Dream (Exit) and more

external fx: a bit delay"

Moogfest 2018 | Spatial Sound :. Live Stream

Last streamed live on May 1, 2017 Moogfest

Bookmark this page and check back for performances.

"Watch all the one-of-a-kind performances from Moogfest's flagship Spatial Sound programming, featuring the revolutionary A3 sound array by Meyer sound, with sets by Mouse on Mars, Jon Hopkins, Jenny Hval, Author & Punisher, Suzanne Ciani, and more."

Suzanne Ciani on Gearwire

click here for the video on Gearwire. It's a good one. It of course touches on her introduction to electronic music at MIT followed by meeting Don Buchla and going to work for him. She talks about how she was very committed to non-keyboard synths and how she thought keyboards were an inappropriate interface for synthesis. Fascinating stuff. And... She pronounces Buchla, Boo-kla. So much for those that told me it was Buck-la. ;) I can finally go back to pronouncing it the way I had been all these years... life is better.

Source of Uncertainty Indiegogo Campaign

Source of Uncertainty Indiegogo from harvestworks on Vimeo.

"You can donate to this project by visiting:
indiegogo.com/sourceofuncertainty

Source of Uncertainty is a collaborative initiative of Harvestworks and ((audience)) to celebrate the Buchla200e and DIY modular synthesis. Source of Uncertainty will center around two concerts, on June 28th and July 7th, produced in association with River-to-River Festival. Related events (TBC) will also take place in the weeks leading up to the concert."

Some additional info via +odd:

"Source of Uncertainty celebrates the Buchla 200e and DIY modular synthesis. Centering around two free New York City concerts, on June 28th and July 7th, the series is a collaborative initiative of New York-based curatorial organizations, Harvestworks and ((audience)), and takes place as part of the River to River festival. The first event will feature a modular synth fair and we will be interviewing Buchla musicians for a program on Art on Air. See bios, exhibitors, links below.

Thurs June 28th // South Street Seaport // 210 Front Street NYC
Control Voltage Faire 3-8pm
Buchla Recital ft Alessandro Cortini, Carlos Giffoni, Mark Verbos 8-10
Late concert ft Xeno & Oaklander and Loud Objects

Sat July 7 // Schimmel Arts Center // 3 Spruce Street NYC
Richard Lainhart tape piece
Morton Subotnick premiers "Energy Shapes"

http://www.indiegogo.com/sourceofuncertainty
http://artonair.org/show/model-266-morton-subotnick


I had the pleasure to shoot Morton Subotnick & Mark Verbos for this video clip."

The video also features Suzanne Ciani.

Dave Smith Honored at Moogfest 2017

via @moogmusicinc

"Celebrating over 45 years of electronic innovations from Dave Smith with #tequilashots at #moogfest2017:"

And via @LindsayHogan88

"'It's great to be in an industry where your competitors are your friends' - Dave Smith being honored at @Moogfest"

That's Moog Music President Mike Adams with him. Below you'll find a shot of Dave Smith with Suzanne Ciani, known for her work on Buchla systems.

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Oberheim OB-X 8 Voice Analog Synth pt.1

YouTube via retrosound72

"vintage synth demo by RetroSound

Oberheim OB-X 8 Voice Analog Synthesizer from the year 1979. The OB-X was available with 4, 6 or 8 discrete voice cards.

part1: some self-made classic OB-X sounds (pads, brass, bass, sync- and crossmodulation sounds and more)

part2: the features of the OB-X (coming soon)

The Oberheim OB-X is one of the best analog poly-synths ever. A classic! The sound is stunning, organic and very powerful. The sound character (based of the discrete circuits and the SEM design VCF) is different to the later curtis chip based OB-Xa and OB-8.

Used by: Rush (Subdivisions, Tom Sawyer), Nena (99 Luftballons, Nur Geträumt), J.-M. Jarre (Magnetic Fields), Lilling Joke (Love Like Blood), Roxy Music (Avalon), Queen (Flash Gordon), Styx (Too much time on my hands), Japan, Supertramp, Suzanne Ciani, Tangerine Dream (Exit) ..."

How Don Buchla Pioneered Synthesizers | Red Bull Music Academy

Published on Apr 17, 2019 Red Bull Music Academy

"In the 1960s musician and designer Don Buchla was among the first wave of enthusiasts to imagine and invent the modern synthesizer as we know it today. In their RBMA lectures Buchla and his acolyte Morton Subotnick, alongside fellow designers Bob Moog, Dave Smith and Tom Oberheim, recall these early days while Suzanne Ciani and Joan La Barbara reflect on the futurism of Buchla's unique approach."

Update: it looks like today is Don Buchla's birthday.

Pic with Bob Moog via @moogmusicinc

"Today we celebrate the birthday of west-coast synth maverick Don Buchla, whose distinctive design perspective has helped to build the foundation for modern experimental synthesis and continues to inspire new sounds ⚡️."

Moving this one on top for a little bit considering. This post originally went up at 12:15.

Allen Strange's Electronic Music Reprint Seeks Funding on Kickstarter

via Kickstarter

"Hello fans of Allen Strange and electronic music:

In June 2018, I was looking to buy a copy of Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, at a time when I was getting back into electronics and electronic music after an almost 30-year hiatus. I had vague recollections of a copy in the Electronic Music Studio at York University, where I made my first explorations into sound synthesis. The spine was gone and it was mostly a pile of papers stuffed into a folder. Finding that the only copies available were either poorly scanned PDFs, and used copies for sale online for hundreds of dollars, I was disheartened, to say the least. But I had a thought: what about finding the copyright holder and getting permission to reprint a few copies? It couldn't be that hard, right? I work at a university with lots of resources, so I should be able to figure out how to do it. AND, that way I'd be able to contribute something to the electronic music communities that I'd started to join, such as modwiggler.com, modulargrid.net, and other online forums, and who had been so welcoming, sharing all their collective knowledge and wisdom. These were places where I had heard about Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, in the first place.

I started a thread on Modwiggler to gauge interest. The interest was overwhelming, and motivating. After tracking down the original publisher, it took time to find out who currently owns the copyright. With the endless help and advice of librarians Ann Ludbrook and Sally Wilson at my school who specialize in e-publishing and copyright, we got to work. One of them tracked down Allen's partner Pat and helped ensure that the family once again held title to the work, and Pat agreed to let us give this whole Kickstarter a shot, and sent us her copy of Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls to disassemble and scan. Working with library staff and my research assistant Heidi Chan, we worked to get the book digitized, and ready for reproduction. One of the biggest challenges was to replace all the images of modules. That work fell to Heidi, who scoured the internet for people who still owned the original modules and synths used in the book, getting them to take new photographs for us to use. In some cases, the original designers of some of the modules no longer had them, but they helped us track down modules and acquire new images. With Pat's help, we have added a new introduction by Stephen C. Ruppenthal, as well as a few pages of testimonials from people who learned from and were inspired by Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, from Suzanne Ciani and Todd Barton, to Dave Smith, Dave Rossum, Serge Tcherepnin, Dieter Doepfer and Tony Rolando. The book has a new cover, compliments of Allen and Pat's daughter Erin Strange, who did a wonderful job of creating a new design that carries the spirit of the original 1972 cover into this new edition. The text of book is faithful to the second edition of Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, published in 1983 by Wm. C. Brown Company.

Republishing Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, has been a four-year project since its inception. The goal, from the beginning, has been to bring this important work back into the hands of fans of the original, students and teachers of the history of electronic music, musicians and electronic music practitioners, and designers of electronic music systems. We have permission to make Allen's work available in print and electronic form from Pat Strange who holds the copyright, and Pat has been actively guiding our efforts through much of the project. At present, Allen Strange's Electronic Music: System, Techniques and Controls, will only be available through this Kickstarter.

In Pat's own words (from the preface): "Since it's first edition in 1972, Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques and Controls has been acknowledged as the definitive text on modular synthesis. In today’s musical community analogue techniques have made a resurgence among many musicians and composers. The idea of a republication has been in the works for many years and the timing of doing it now just made sense. I am very grateful to Jason Nolan, Ann Ludbrook and the team at Toronto Metropolitan University who saw the importance of this endeavor as well as taking on the task of bring this book back to life. I am so appreciative of their attention to preserving the quality of the book and respecting its content. I know that this project would have meant a lot to Allen, specifically in knowing that his techniques and teachings are continuing to influence the future of electronic music."

This is a non-profit project. Costs involved are royalties, production, logistics and shipping costs. Any residual funds will be donated to community music initiatives focusing on electronic music and electronic music learning. At present two organizations have agreed to receive funds, but we will identify more (in Europe next) depending on the amount of residual funds. These organizations are the Canadian Accessible Musical Instrument Network (http://camin.network) and the Willie Mae Rock Camp (https://www.williemaerockcamp.org).

Finally, I would like to thank Walker Farrell for the wonderful Kickstarter video.

Thank you to all supporters for being part of this project.

Jason Nolan"

Control Event: Machines In Music 2016 - Full Details

Full details on the upcoming event are in via Control:

"Machines In Music is a 2-day festival that bridges artists, musicians, and instrument builders, with a focus towards modular synthesizer hardware. The exhibition is free and open to the public of all ages.

This year we are proud to host the event at the cross-disciplinary art and performance space Knockdown Center in Queens, NewYork, as well as the DIY community space Trans-Pecos.

Saturday and Sunday daytime exhibitions are free and open to the public with 47 exhibitors displaying modular technology from North America and Europe, as well as presentations by MJ Caselden, Thom Holmes, Colin Benders, Skooby Laposky, Michael Johnsen, Ronald Kuivila and others ranging from histori- cal works to technical design. Visual art from Benton C Bainbridge, Ben Laposky, and Sabrina Ratté will be exhibited during the daytime exhibition. Exhibitors are listed on our website.

Saturday Night’s concert presents live performances from Suzanne Ciani, Alessandro Cortini, Mark Verbos, andTearing Light From Sound.
Tickets can be purchased here: http://www.ticketweb.com/t3/sale/SaleEventDetail?eventId=6908615

Sunday Night’s Wind Down is a chance to showcase a variety of performers from manufacturers to users at Trans-Pecos. Modular Performances by Colin Benders (Kyteman) GIOIA, Jean Marcel Fricke, Keven Michael-Onur Kalaycıoğlu-Żłobnicki, Kodek, Sjam Sjamsoedin and ZV_K.

================================================

♪ Exʜɪʙɪᴛᴏʀs ♪
1010 Music
2hp
4ms
AJH Synths
ALM/Busy Circuits
AQA Elektrix
Audio Damage
Bastl Instruments
birdkids

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ROLAND ELECTRONIC MUSIC SEMINAR 1980s MIDI Synthesizer Course Materials & Cassettes

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"In the mid-1980s, Roland sponsored the Electronic Music Seminar, an instructional course on MIDI, synthesizers and the use of computers in music.

The seminar featured professional musicians then at the forefront of the new technology, including:

Gary Wright - Singer / Songwriter ("Dream Weaver," "Love is Alive")
Suzanne Ciani - Electronic Music Pioneer / Sound Designer (and "Diva of the Diode")
Michael Boddicker - Film Composer ("Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai")

The seminar traveled on a multi-city tour at various venues across the country, and had a major impact on many young synthesists who attended.

This is the original seminar binder and materials that were distributed to attendees, including a 3-ring binder of printed course materials and the accompanying 4 audio cassettes of electronic music demonstrations (all tested and working.)

The binder consists of nine sections, corresponding to the topics presented at the all-day seminar:

1) Basic Performance System Design
2) Advanced System Design
3) Recording Applications
4) Advanced MIDI Techniques
5) Introduction to Computers and Music Software
6) Advanced Music Software
7) Audio / Visual Synchronization
8) MIDI Reference Materials
9) Glossaries

Aside from a little wear, the binder and materials are in excellent condition."

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Moogfest 2017 .: Day 4

Published on May 22, 2017 Moogfest

Featuring our synth godess Suzanne Ciani!

You can find all parts here.