ABSTRACT
The programming techniques used for the classical, avant-garde, rock, pure synthesizer, and techno-pop styles of analog synthesis differ from one area to another and call for differing levels of understanding and playing ability. Jazz musicians took up the early analog synthesizers with some enthusiasm, though few of them experimented in any great depth with the massively varied tone colors available. Recent generations have become more used to later innovations such as FM synthesis or sample-and-synthesis instrument designs, or indeed to synthesizer designs that offer only very limited editing and sound creation facilities. There were some synthesists whose understanding of the potential of the Bob Moog almost matched that of Walter Carlos himself. The magnitude of Carlos’s and Malcolm Clarke and Malcom Cecil’s achievements in sound synthesis can be better appreciated on listening to some of the albums released by other labels in an attempt to share in the success of Switched On Bach.
