The original 1970's ambient electronic master - unearthly skills

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-- The original 1970's ambient electronic master - unearthly skills

Posted by Richard Butler on Aug-09-2010 11:35:

The original 1970's ambient electronic master - unearthly skills

In case any of you don't know this man, he made most of his stuff in the 1970's and to this day I'm in awe how on Earth he made his electronic insturments sound like real organic insturments.

Here's but one example, there are many more -RELAXXXXXX

Oh and his name, Isao Tomita.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBb7...feature=related

How did he get the old analogues to sound like real violins in this one; > check the real unicorn in the vid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmSH7BsNSrM&feature=fvw

Posted by tehlord on Aug-09-2010 13:21:

Just one of those rare genius talents I think.

Excellent stuff

Posted by LoveHate on Aug-09-2010 13:32:

nice stuff, check out wendy carlos as well.

Posted by rulzz on Aug-09-2010 14:40:

tomita is indeed good

also check raymond scott for some 1950s minimal

Posted by Richard Butler on Aug-09-2010 14:53:

quote:
Originally posted by LoveHate
nice stuff, check out wendy carlos as well.

I always found his/her stuff very preset basic sounding

Posted by Beatflux on Aug-09-2010 14:54:

Re: The original 1970's ambient electronic master - unearthly skills

quote:
Originally posted by Richard Butler
How did he get the old analogues to sound like real violins in this one; > check the real unicorn in the vid!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmSH7BsNSrM&feature=fvw

It's not close, and it's missing that famous screech violins always have. The sustain is probably the easy part to recreate, its the attack that's difficult.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0pkigApKEw

Posted by MrJiveBoJingles on Aug-09-2010 14:56:

quote:
Originally posted by Richard Butler
I always found his/her stuff very preset basic sounding

Well, there were no presets in those days. Some of the first synth presets were probably made by people trying to imitate Wendy Carlos.

Posted by MrJiveBoJingles on Aug-09-2010 15:19:

Kind of interesting to think what paths electronic music might have gone down if there had never been savable presets on synths. Reminds me of something said by another ambient master, Brian Eno:

quote:
I'm very good with technology, I always have been, and with machines in general. They seem to me not threatening like other people find them, but a source of great fun and amusement, like grown up toys really. You can either take the attitude that it has a function and you can learn how to do it, or you can take an attitude that it's just a black box that you can manipulate any way you want. And that's always been the attitude I've taken, which is why I had a lot of trouble with engineers, because their whole background is learning it from a functional point of view, and then learning how to perform that function. So I made a rule very early on, which I've kept to, which was that I would never write down any setting that I got on the synthesizer, no matter how fabulous a sound I got. And the reason for that is that I know myself well enough to know that if I had a stock of fabulous sounds I would just always use them. I wouldn't bother to find new ones. So it was a way of trying to keep the instrument fresh.