Re: GG: WALTER Carlos

["Mark Williamson" <mwilliamson@alston.com>]

        I really enjoy hearing Bach played on the synthesizer.  
        Particularly now that such fine equipment is available at such 
        low cost.  I remember in the mid-1970s, when I was in high 
        school, most synthesizers were monophonic and you really had to 
        pay to get a polyphonic synthesizer, and it was not until I was 
        almost out of high school that the first touch-sensitive 
        synthesizers were available at all.  (I think the first one I 
        read about was an Oberheim.)  And even in the mid-1980s, when I 
        finally had a little money to spend on equipment, you really had 
        to pay for touch-sensitive instruments.  To make matters worse, 
        you found that not only would your "polyphonic" synthesizer only 
        play four voices at a time, but that many of the sounds you 
        wanted to play with used up more than one voice for each note.  
        So you constantly heard sounds "dropping out" of what you were 
        playing.  It was quite frustrating.
        
        But now, for around $1,300 (U.S., for the international crowd), 
        you can get a touch-sensitive keyboard and a sound module that 
        will really keep up with what you are playing.  Sounds still 
        drop out if you try to do to much at one time (e.g., if you are 
        using "dual tone" with one or more complex sounds) unless you 
        spend a lot of money.  And if you set the module to "multi" mode 
        (e.g., to use with a sequencer), there will be much more 
        limitation on what each of the 16 channels can do at any one 
        time.  But in the mid-80s, we didn't even have multi mode.  So 
        all in all, life is pretty nice.
        
        It makes it possible to do a lot with Bach that you couldn't do 
        before, without spending a lot of money.  Mr. Gould would have 
        approved, I think.
        
        Mark

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: GG: WALTER Carlos
Author:  Mary Jo Watts <mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu> at internet
Date:    8/5/97 4:31 PM


Mark,
     
Yep, you're right of course, I'm confusing Walter Carlos with William 
Carlos Williams whose poem _Patterson_ I've just been reading!  Oops! 
Thanks for correcting me.
     
-MJ
     
Mark R. Heesen wrote:
> 
> Mary Jo,
> 
> You said "then-William Carlos" in your latest GG letter.  I think you 
> meant
> "then-Walter Carlos".
> 
> Mark Heesen