Synapse - Archive of 1st Electronic Music Magazine (1976-79)

Started by Elantric, April 05, 2012, 09:23:54 AM

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Elantric

Synapse - Archive of 1st Electronic Music Magazine

http://www.cyndustries.com/synapse/intro.cfm

Back in the 1980's I actually met Malcom Cecil and performed a repair on the Tonto Synthesizer  (below) 



Some valuable reading here on the roots of music  synthesis

aliensporebomb

Wow.  Always been intrigued with TONTO since I saw the pictures of it and heard it on Steve Hillage's "Motivation Radio" recording that Cecil was involved in production of as a producer and player.  I'd be curious to hear what you thought of it - is it as big as it seems on "paper"?  Talk about enormous, biggest modular I think I've ever seen a picture of.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Elantric

Indeed - for many years the Tonto was classified as the worlds largest analog Synthesizer.

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/inside_tonto_with_malcolm_cecil





In early 1980's, a who's who of major players and performers would hang out at Valley Arts Guitar in  Studio City, California.
Bulk of the time I was employed there, I was holding a soldering iron and making swift repairs. Malcom Cecil inquired if I could make an emergency house call. He had recently moved the Tonto Synth to a rented store front space in Santa Monica - with the idea of establishing a small project studio there while he worked on his solo album "Radiance' , and renting out blocks of time for artists to use the Tonto Synth, which had developed a case of intermittent operation after the recent move. 

I diagnosed the problem, and made the repair no charge (I had a habit of doing that back then! ;) - mostly because I was such an admirer of Mr Cecils and the Tonto Synths contributions to "raising the bar" of electronic music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Cecil

TONTO's Expanding Head Band

With Robert Margouleff, he formed the duo TONTO's Expanding Head Band, a project based around synthesizers. The duo were closely associated with Stevie Wonder's multiple Grammy Award winning Talking Book (1972), sharing the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical award as well as collaborating on and co-producing classic Wonder albums such as Music of My Mind, Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale.

Cecil is credited, with Margouleff, as engineer for the Stevie Wonder produced album Perfect Angel (1974), by Minnie Riperton.

Their unique sound made them highly-sought after and they went on to collaborate with, amongst others, Quincy Jones, Bobby Womack, The Isley Brothers, Billy Preston, Gil Scott-Heron and Weather Report, Stephen Stills, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Little Feat, Joan Baez and Steve Hillage.

The Tonto synthesizer

Tonto is an acronym for "The Original New Timbral Orchestra," the world's first (and still the largest) multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer, designed and constructed by Malcolm Cecil. Tonto started as a Moog modular synthesizer Series III owned by record producer Margouleff. Later a second Moog III was added, then four Oberheim SEMs, two ARP 2600s, modules from Serge with Moog-like panels, EMS, Roland, Yamaha, etc.[3] plus several custom modules designed by Serge Tcherepnin and Cecil (who has an electrical engineering background).[4] Later, digital sound-generation circuitry and a collection of sequencers were added, along with MIDI control. The modules are all mounted in an instantly recognizable semicircle of huge curving wooden cabinets, twenty feet in diameter and six feet high.

    "I wanted to create an instrument that would be the first multitimbral polyphonic synthesizer. Multitimbral polyphony is different than the type of polyphony provided by most of today's synthesizers, on which you turn to a string patch and everything under your fingers is strings. In my book 'multitimbral' means each note you play has a different tone quality, as if the notes come from separate instruments. I wanted to be able to play live multitimbral polyphonic music using as many fingers and feet as I had."[5]

The synthesizer was featured (as the "electronic room") in the 1974 Brian de Palma film Phantom of the Paradise.


It was also used in the album 1980 by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson and features on the front and back covers of this album.

Tonto has been solely owned by Malcolm Cecil since he acquired Robert Margouleff's share in 1975. In the mid-1990s Tonto was moved to Mutato Muzika[6] studios, the headquarters of Mark Mothersbaugh and Devo, leading to widespread rumors that Mothersbaugh had purchased Tonto but this was not true. Currently Tonto is located in its own studio in upstate New York close to Woodstock.






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TONTO%27s_Expanding_Head_Band


aliensporebomb

#3
Glad to hear that Cecil still has possession of Tonto and that Mothersbaugh's extended stint with it at Mutato Muzika was just a long term lease or something.

Here was my first exposure to Tonto.  Check out that intro:



Seriously, I was amazed when first heard that.  I think I was 14 or so.  I think I discovered the early Tangerine Dream releases around the same time.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Rhcole

Cleaning out a closet on Sunday, and I found an old issue of Synapse magazine with Robert Fripp on the cover. Man, what a different time! Articles on computer languages and systems, DIY synth projects and the new "polyphonic" computers/synths (1000 programable events in non-volatile memory!).

The Nebula guitar synth referenced here must never have hit the market. The company was located in Sunnyvale CA, a couple of hours away from me.

There is an AMAZING modular synth/M.C. Escher takeoff poster that the magazine advertises for sale. I wish I could still buy it! The picture is in black and white (black and sepia with old paper) anybody interested in colorizing it? I'll scan and post if there is interest.


Elantric

Please do!

I loved Synapse mag
http://www.cyndustries.com/synapse/intro.cfm



More on Nebula
http://retrosynthads.blogspot.com/2010/05/bcd-technology-incs-nebula-guitar.html

BCD Technology Inc's Nebula Guitar Synthesizer, Synapse 1979


BCD Technology Inc's Nebula guitar synthesizer advertisement from page 44 of Synapse Magazine May/June (Summer) 1979.

This was a surprising find.

After my recent blog posts about the 360 Systems/OB-1 and 360 Systems/SEM advertisements from 1978, I started flipping through future issues of Synapse magazine to see just how far the guitar-synthesizer trend continued. Sure enough, not only were the big guns of the guitar-synth world like ARP and 260 Systems continuing to show up in Synapse both in articles and advertisements, new companies like BCD were also jumping onto the bandwagon.

I had never heard of the Nebula guitar synthesizer, so when I first saw this advertisement, I did a quick search to try and dig up some dirt.

I didn't find much.

I first tried looking for information on Wikipedia's guitar synthesizer page, but because the Nebula didn't use a HEX pickup or pitch-to-voltage converter (PVC) , I'm not sure that the Nebula may have actually fit in with this crowd. I'm still doing some deeper research into all the different tech behind guitar-synthesizers in general, so I can't really comment too much on this yet. But will hopefully be knowledgeable enough in this area in the near future.

There is the chance the Nebula was vaporware (although the ad does ask the reader to see their local dealer or write the factory, suggesting to me that the factory was actually creating something). But, my Google Images search (albeit an admittedly quick one) should have turned up at least one photo, no?

The top search results on Google's Web search linked me to a 1979 newsletter called 'Device'. The 'Info' section on page 11 of issue 2:79 provided a short description of BCD Industry and the Nebula:

    "A new company has entered the guitar synthesizer/processor market, BCD Technology, Inc. (285 K Sobrante Way, SunnyVale, CA, 94608 - tel (408) 739 2880). Their product, the NEBULA, makes extensive use of the SSM chips designed by Dave Rossum and Ron Dow. The guitar signal is processed directly (no hex pickup, no PVC) and is modified by way of: an input processor (consists of compressor, fuzz, and octave divider/multiplier), a VCF, a VCA, envelop generators, and a parametric equalizer. List price is $795 + options"

Reading this, I completely forgot about the Nebula and became more curious about 'Device'. When did it start? Who was behind it? Why had I not heard of this newsletter?

According to the 'What's Happening' section of the 1979 Summer issue of Synapse, 'Device' was a relatively new start-up newsletter devoted to the electronic guitarist:

    "...Craig Anderton and Roger Clay have begun a monthly publication of Device, a newsletter for the Electronic Guitarist/Musician. Included in the format are construction articles, equipment reviews, features on circuit design, and interviews.

What, you don't know who Craig Anderton is? Um.... where have you been? :o)

And want to know something *really* cool? You can find all the issues of 'Device' online. Seriously. Someone at ampage.org has scanned all of them. They aren't readily linked from the home page, but if you go to hammer.ampage.org and go to pages 10, 11 and 12, you can find all issues.

The ampage site describes the newsletter as:

    "This was a newsletter for "electronic" guitarists that was published by Craig Anderton and Roger Clay in 1979, and lasted for 12 skinny but deep issues. Lots of useful info and nostalgia inside."

You have to check it out. I know it will keep me busy for quite a while. It's helping me with my guitar-synth tech research *a lot*.

Hint: Issue 12 includes an 'Index' of all the content - great for the reference fanatic like me! :o)
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Posted by RetroSynthAds at 12:30 PM
Labels: 1979, bcd technology inc, guitar synthesizer, nebula, synapse magazine

shawnb

I've also got that issue of Synapse floating around here somewhere...   

Address the process rather than the outcome.  Then, the outcome becomes more likely.   - Fripp

aliensporebomb

#7
Thanks for the link.  I'll definetely look at that!  Had I known back then!

I was obsessed with this topic when I was 14 or 15 years old, maybe as early as 13.

It all started with the Mahavishnu Orchestra "Inner Worlds" release which had John McLaughlin playing a modified Gibson L5-S solidbody guitar with a hex pickup to a 360 systems custom pitch to voltage converter that was driving SIX mini-moog modules.  I'd never heard anything like it.  The opening track "All in the Family" had him dueling lead guitar with synth and then doing fast unison runs alongside Narada Michael Walden's drumming with Ralphe Armstrong on bass and keyboards by the great Stu Goldberg.

I then started researching the topic - there was the Ampeg Patch 2000 which was a modified Hagstrom Swede guitar with a floor pedal controller.  There's a demo on youtube of that system.

Then I heard about the Arp Avatar which had a two page ad in Guitar Player magazine along with an Eva-Tone soundsheet included.  I still have the soundsheet and someone else encoded theirs to youtube.

A little earlier there was a soundsheet for an effects pedal called the VDF Super Pedal (I still have this too) and that was an effects pedal that included what sounds like an analog version of the Roland SL-20 slicer as well as some other interesting "synth-like" effects.  I should probably encode and denoise this as I've never seen or heard this demo anywhere else.

The persons performing on the Avatar soundsheet was Ned Liben and his band but the late Liben was mostly known for his Sundragon studios and the fact that he was the mastermind behind EBN-OZN, a duo known for their hit "AEIOU Sometimes Y" which had extensive MTV airplay and a lot of what he was doing was controlling a Fairlight CMI thru a custom guitar-to-midi interface.  Guitar World magazine had an interview with Liben at the time and I was saddened to hear about ten years later he died of a heart attack one morning cooking his son breakfast.  He was one of the many unsung pioneers of the guitar synthesizer.

Besides the usual such as the Korg X911, the EHX Micro Synthesizer (I owned one!) and the Roland Systems (that I saved almost two years for and sold everything I owned to get in 1982) I always kept track of the systems that didn't get much press or evidence they existed: the Beetle Quantar (later was scooped up by Yamaha, marketed briefly then quietly buried).  Then there was the Zeta system that I really wanted to get and started saving for but it was around then that I heard the demo for the VG-8 and the rest is history..
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Now_And_Then

 I see that Aliensporebomb has mentioned the EHX Micro-Synth, which I was going to mention because the description of the Nebula brought it to mind. Of course the Nebula seems like it would have been a far more elaborate version of the Micro-Synth, and capable of processing polyphonic input, it seems, which the Micro-Synth really isn't. But I couldn't really make out the labels on the picture of the Nebula so it could be a completely different sort of device - assuming that it ever really existed, which seems to be questionable.

aliensporebomb

Do any photos of the Nebula exist?

I'm definetely encoding and denoising that VDF soundsheet - looks like a lot of people are selling those as "rare 45 rpm records" for high dollar amounts and the company went out of business three decades ago after producing just 60 of the VDF super pedals.
My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Elantric

QuoteDo any photos of the Nebula exist?

CLICK ON PIC FOR LARGER SIZE

Rhcole

#11
As requested by Elantric,

The Painfully Cool 1979 Synapse magazine poster that I failed to send $4 for to get a 17" x 22" print in color and lost forever. Now it's YOUR TURN! You colorists out there, have at it!

Elantric

I love it!


Seems I once saw a similar cover on OMNI magazine or Byte

Kevin M


mbenigni


Elantric

Realize the Synapse mag link includes full reprints of each issue

Here is an old 1979 interview with Kraftwerk
http://www.cyndustries.com/synapse/synapse.cfm?pc=35&folder=sept1976&pic=11

aliensporebomb

Oh man.  Interviews with Kraftwerk circa Radio Aktivitat AND interview with Larry Fast of Synergy AND Tom Oberheim in the same issue (head explodes)!

My music projects online at http://www.aliensporebomb.com/

GK Devices:  Roland VG-99, Boss GP-10, Boss SY-1000.

Rhcole

Synapse was awesome. I used to sit with a musician friend and we'd read copies like comic books.

admin

Quote from: Elantric on April 05, 2012, 11:52:11 AM
Indeed - for many years the Tonto was classified as the worlds largest analog Synthesizer.

http://www.dangerousminds.net/comments/inside_tonto_with_malcolm_cecil





In early 1980's, a who's who of major players and performers would hang out at Valley Arts Guitar in  Studio City, California.
Bulk of the time I was employed there, I was holding a soldering iron and making swift repairs. Malcom Cecil inquired if I could make an emergency house call. He had recently moved the Tonto Synth to a rented store front space in Santa Monica - with the idea of establishing a small project studio there while he worked on his solo album "Radiance' , and renting out blocks of time for artists to use the Tonto Synth, which had developed a case of intermittent operation after the recent move. 

I diagnosed the problem, and made the repair no charge (I had a habit of doing that back then! ;) - mostly because I was such an admirer of Mr Cecils and the Tonto Synths contributions to "raising the bar" of electronic music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_Cecil

TONTO's Expanding Head Band

With Robert Margouleff, he formed the duo TONTO's Expanding Head Band, a project based around synthesizers. The duo were closely associated with Stevie Wonder's multiple Grammy Award winning Talking Book (1972), sharing the Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical award as well as collaborating on and co-producing classic Wonder albums such as Music of My Mind, Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale.

Cecil is credited, with Margouleff, as engineer for the Stevie Wonder produced album Perfect Angel (1974), by Minnie Riperton.

Their unique sound made them highly-sought after and they went on to collaborate with, amongst others, Quincy Jones, Bobby Womack, The Isley Brothers, Billy Preston, Gil Scott-Heron and Weather Report, Stephen Stills, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Little Feat, Joan Baez and Steve Hillage.

The Tonto synthesizer

Tonto is an acronym for "The Original New Timbral Orchestra," the world's first (and still the largest) multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer, designed and constructed by Malcolm Cecil. Tonto started as a Moog modular synthesizer Series III owned by record producer Margouleff. Later a second Moog III was added, then four Oberheim SEMs, two ARP 2600s, modules from Serge with Moog-like panels, EMS, Roland, Yamaha, etc.[3] plus several custom modules designed by Serge Tcherepnin and Cecil (who has an electrical engineering background).[4] Later, digital sound-generation circuitry and a collection of sequencers were added, along with MIDI control. The modules are all mounted in an instantly recognizable semicircle of huge curving wooden cabinets, twenty feet in diameter and six feet high.

    "I wanted to create an instrument that would be the first multitimbral polyphonic synthesizer. Multitimbral polyphony is different than the type of polyphony provided by most of today's synthesizers, on which you turn to a string patch and everything under your fingers is strings. In my book 'multitimbral' means each note you play has a different tone quality, as if the notes come from separate instruments. I wanted to be able to play live multitimbral polyphonic music using as many fingers and feet as I had."[5]

The synthesizer was featured (as the "electronic room") in the 1974 Brian de Palma film Phantom of the Paradise.


It was also used in the album 1980 by Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson and features on the front and back covers of this album.

Tonto has been solely owned by Malcolm Cecil since he acquired Robert Margouleff's share in 1975. In the mid-1990s Tonto was moved to Mutato Muzika[6] studios, the headquarters of Mark Mothersbaugh and Devo, leading to widespread rumors that Mothersbaugh had purchased Tonto but this was not true. Currently Tonto is located in its own studio in upstate New York close to Woodstock.






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TONTO%27s_Expanding_Head_Band