1978 . RECORDING NOTES on SYNERGY's "CORDS' • L

^ $lM -V Sept./Oct. 1978 4 ELECTRONIC MUSIC &RIOME RECORDING H '1- • ^ . C ★ ^ . RECORDING NOTES ON SYNERGY'S "CORDS' • l SEQUENCES - DIGITAL &' ANALOG' * V_ o * BUILD A VOCODER * C i ’ • O c . n o ta tio n - To u c h sv^ tc h e s : p a tc h e s ANALOG DELAY INTRODUCING... TWO-CHANNEL ANALOG DELAY UNIT FOR AMBIENCE SYNTHESIS AND DELAY EFFECTS FEATURES 2 dimensional. Without the mixture of di mance and yet still serve to create rect and delayed sounds that a large hall strikingly realistic spaciousness in your * TWO INDEPENDENT CHANNELS provides, almost all music reproduced in listening room. If you don't have 2 extra * 3072 STAGES OF DELAY PER the home is lifeless. Quadraphonics has power amp channels on hand, we offer CHANNEL not proved to be the solution to this several low cost, low power amps in kit problem. The recent developement of form that would be ideal for this pur * ADJUSTABLE INPUT AND OUTPUT bucket-brigade semiconductor techno pose. LEVELS WITH INPUT OVERLOAD logy has made it possible to offer a rea INDICATION ‘ Although the 2AS-A has been de sonably priced delay unit that can trans signed for use in music reproduction * INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL VOLT form your listening room into a con systems as an ambience synthesizer, its AGE CONTROLLED DELAY TIME cert hall. Using your present stereo voltage controlled clock and mixing capa * COMPANDOR IN EACH CHANNEL system, the 2AS-A, and whatever you bilities allow it to be .configured in a have in the way of 2 additional speakers number of ways for delay effects such as * 3 MODES/CHANNEL WITH ADJUST and 2 channels of power amplification— phasing, flaging, chorous, and vibrato. Ex ABLE MIX you have all the parts to put together an ternal voltage control for special effects * CONVENTIONAL REVERB OUTPUT ambience system that is capable of creat must be user supplied. FOR MUSIC EFFECTS ing the kind of 'space' you enjoy music The 2AS-A is sold in kit form only If you haven't heard what analog in. You don't need state-of-the-art com and includes the circuit boards, com delay can do for home music reproduc ponentry to enjoy an ambience system. ponents, chassis (1 iy2" x 10" x 4"), tion, you're missing something. Let's face The secondary power amplifiers and cover 120VAC power supply, assembly it, stereo in your living room is flat and speakers can be of very modest perfor instructions and application notes. MAIL THIS COUPON TODAY 2AS-A Analog Delay Unit $250.00 ppd. Cont. U.S. □ Enclosed is $ ______ or BAC ft_____________________ □ or Master Charge ft. .Bank ft. Expire Date. NAME_________________ ADDRESS STATE. .ZIP . 219 W. Rhapsody, San Antonio, Texas 78216 CITY_____ SOUTHWEST TECHNICAL PRODUCTS CORPORATION London: Southwest Technical Products Co., Ltd. Box 32040, San Antonio, Texas 78284 Tokyo:Southwest Technical Products Corp./Japan STAFF CONTENTS EDITOR: Marvin Jones ISSN: 0163-4534 ASSISTANT EDITOR: Linda Kay Brumfield VOLUME 4, NO. 2, 1978 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: John S. Simonton, Jr. FEATURES: Page No. PRODUCTION: Anita Jenkins Notes on the Recording of Synergy's "Cords" Donald Cooper By: Larry Fast ................................................................................. 6 Marcina Howard Electronic Music Notation POLYPHONY is puBlished Bi By: Brian Folkes ................................................................................ 9 monthly at 1020 W. Wilshire B lvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73116, By Poly Rhythmic Control of Analog Sequencers phony PuBlishing Co. Entire contents By: John DuesenBerry ..................................................................... 26 copyright ©1978, Polyphony PuBlish- ing Co. , All rights reserved. No Magic Buttons - Touch Switch Theory portion of this puBlication may Be By: Steve Wood .................................................................................. 30 reproduced in any manner without written permission from the puBlisher. Application to mail at second class postage rates is pending at Oklahoma City, OK. ADVERTISING rates and deadline CONSTRUCTION: schedules furnished upon request, contact: Marvin Jones or Linda Kay Build a Modular Vocoder Brumfield (405) 842-5480. By: JeffWurstner ............................................................................ 34 DEALERS & DISTRIBUTORS bulk purchase discount schedules availaBle PET/ Muse; Interfacing Paia Synthesizers to PET Computers upon request, contact: Marvin Jones. By: Russell Grokett, Jr..................................................................... 40 SUBSCRIPTIONS: Accepted on a one year (6 issues) Basis. Rates: Mailed in the USA - $8. 00/yr. ; Canada & Mexico - $9. 00/yr. ; Inter national - $10. 00/yr. DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS: BACK ISSUES: All Back issues are Editorial (Guest Editorial By: Douglas Townsend) ................................ 4 still availaBle at $2. 00 per copy. Lab Notes: Seque and Ye Shall Find (Digital Sequencing Software) FOR CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Be By: John S. Simonton, Jr.................................................................. 15 sure to send in your form er address (enclose mailing laBel if possiBle) Polyphony Reviews along with your new address. Also in By: Marvin Jones .............................................................................. 19 clude the numBers at the top of your mailing laBel to enaBle us to make your Bookshelf .......................................................................................................... 20 address change as efficiently as possiBle. Patches -............................................................................................................ 36 POLYPHONY P. O. Box 20305 Industry Notes ................................................................................................. 38 Oklahoma City, OK 73156 ADDRESS CORRECTIONS REQUESTED n a t i o n a l ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC MERCHANTS c r ON THE COVER: LLJ \ Monkeying Around with Electronic Music Equipment 2 Q) graphically represented in art by Greg Schneck, Terre ^NAJVM Haute, Indiana. 3 POUPHONy September /October 1978 Guest Editorial Some Thoughts About Contemporary Music BY: Douglas Townsend One phase of music that seems to and understood ( with its good and bad sensuous harmonies of Tristan, But in get the greatest (negative) response from respects) if viewed in the correct per the space of, say, 40 years, we are our readers, is the music (or comments spective. confronted with several radically differ relating to it) of today — or yesterday. It is generally accepted that the ent means of musical expression, each Lack of sympathy for the present state young artists of today are Better equipped purporting to Be an expression of our of music is not new, as the following than their counterparts were forty or so time! comments, written almost two hundred years ago. However, the function of the Most of us, I think, listen to one years apart indicate: teacher is to see that his students learn type of music or another. Unfortunately, 1791; " . modem composers resort as much as he has to offer, or as much too many people hear either "only with to arBitrary complexities in as they can accept. He is not respon their feet," as Sousa said, or only what order to conceal their inaBility siBle for their inspiration. In other they want to hear. Verv few people are to write a good tune. Sometimes words, although the teacher may equip willing to put forth the same amount of the key is perfectly lost, By a student to write equally well for the effort in listening to music (whether wandering so far from it that string quartet as for the modem sym Beethoven or Berg) that they do when there is no road to return — phony orchestra, the aspiring compos they read Defoe or Faulkner. The But extremes meet at last of er simply may not have the talent equal reason for this is, I suspect, partly themselves... And when discords to his technique. This is not unique Because music involves listening, get so entangled, that it is so with our age; the aBility to express one feeling and thinking, while reading past the art of man to untie the self on paper or canvas has always rarely involves more than thinking. knot, something in place of Been more prevalent than the aBility to In general we are not used to Alexander's sword does the create a masterpiece. The important regarding the arts as anything But a Business at once." thing is not the quantity of great works pleasant adjunct to the Basic necessi which are produced, But the aBility of ties of life. For example, we are 1952: "Almost all contemporary the artist and layman to express him taught to read almost as soon as we composers are producing music self creatively. Sean O'Casey summed enter grade school, but the arts are which is uninteresting, distress this up nicely when he wrote that "Only generally relegated to classes (usually ing, or positively repellent to a few great should come of time to live once a week), of "appreciation". In a the vast majority of the beyond it." society where we must take classes in American puBlic." It is easy to criticize the compos order to "appreciate" even the most OBviously it is impossiBle to like ers of our own time as writing non-music, conservative and traditional art, it is all the music one hears, just as it is as agonizing in sounds, e tc ., But hardly surprising that today's com impossiBle to like everyBody one meets. Monteverdi, too, was just as severely posers of serious music are frequently There is, however; a middle road, which criticized for his "modem" music as regarded as avant garde and experi is frequently

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