@synth_history: Frank Zappa demos ‘Spastic Droopers’ on the Synclavier. Much of Zappa's later work was influenced by his use of the instrument, which was an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system and music workstation. Some musicians feared that the instrument would replace them, although Zappa felt that real-life musicians and the Synclavier were to be viewed separately. Here’s an interesting excerpt from Zappa’s 1989 book describing what the instrument was capable of. Reading the whole excerpt is worth it. [“The Synclavier allows the composer not only to have his piece performed with precision, but to style the performance as well - he can be his own conductor, controlling the dynamics or any other performance parameters. He can bring his idea to the audience in a pure form, allowing them to hear the music, rather than the ego problems of a group of players who don’t give a sh-t about the composition. Obviously, there are things you can do with live musicians that you can’t do with the Synclavier, and vice versa. I view them as separate mediums. Listen to the radio - a lot of what you think is being played by Beautiful Rock Stars is actually being played by machines like the Synclavier. I know of a group whose producer brought them in for one day and sampled all their instruments. Then he put the song together using the sounds of their instruments — the guys never played on the song. The machine played their instruments for them. All they had to do was come back and sing on top of it and make the video.”] References: The Real Frank Zappa Book, 1989; Zappa in His Own Words, 2016. #zappa #frankzappa

Synth History

Open In TikTok:

Region: US

Thursday 27 June 2024 17:48:47 GMT