CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORIHRIT.GE SYNI'HESIZER USE IN 1?0RJIAR MUSIC A PR01?0SED VIDEO PRODUCI'ION A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Mass Conununication by Sharon Lynn Stallings August 1986 @ . The Thesis of Sharon Stallings is approved: Dr. ]))nald Wood Robert Delwarte Mr. Tan BurreMs, Chair cal. ifornia State University, Northridge ii '!he ccmnittee for this thesis and Dr. Leps are gratefully acknowledged. '!he california Chaml::er Sym!;hony Society, Inc. is appreciated for allowing the use of its computer for this project. This project could not have been completed without the effort and consideration of the busy J;e<>ple who took the time to particip:tte in the thesis questionnaire. Many thanks are given to family and friends for their understanding and support, especially to Drs. John and Dina Stallings, who had valuable suggestions, and to Anthony Marinelli, who proJ;X>sed the original idea and provided constant help in seeing the thesis oompieted. iii TABLE OF CONTEm'S iii v CHAPl'ER I. '!HE 'IHESIS Background of the Subject 1 Statement of the Subject 6 Purpose of the Thesis 7 Significance of the Subject 7 Assumptions 10 Delimitations 10 Limitations 11 Definition of Tenns 11 Organizations of the Thesis 14 II. REVIEW OF 'IHE LITERA'IURE Introduction 15 Early synthesizer Developments 16 Voltage COntrolled Analog Synthesizers 20 Analog-Digital HYbrid synthesizers 26 Completely Digital Synthesizers 33 COnclusion for synthesizers 42 Documentaries 44 III. PROCEDURES Identification of the Subject Area 55 Research ~thods 56 Development and Implementation of the Questionnaire 56 Selection of the Interviewees 57 Data Analysis 61 IV. IXXlJMENI'ARY SCRIP!' 62 V. IMPLEMENl'ATION OF THE PROrosAL Budget Requirements 93 Marketing Plan 97 BIBLimRAmY 103 APPENDIXES Appendix A--Questionnaire 105 Appendix B--Interview Data 106 iv ABSTRACr SYN!'BESIZER USE IN IDFULAR MUSIC A PROIDSED VIDEO PRCDUCI'ION by Sharon Lynn Stallings Master of Arts in Mass Communication This thesis contains a proposal for a video production on the use of synthesizers in popular music. The production is designed as a infomational 'IV documentary. The subject matter includes the stages of synthesizer developnent and how the synthesizers were used and are being used in pop.Uar music. The proposal includes a chapter on the scope of the topic and on the proposed doctnrentary production, a review of the literature on synthesizers and documentaries, a section on procedures for the original research on synthesizers done for this project, a documentary script, a chapter implementing the proposal which includes budgetary requirements and a marketing plan. Appendixes include the questionnaire for the original research and the responses of the interviewees. v OIAPl'ER I THE 'IHESIS Background of the Subject S¥nthesizers create and change sounds electronically. This allows :people who use synthesizers (called synthesists) to control the basic. properties of sound, and hence create almost any sound they can imagine or create an imitation of well know sounds. With these capabilities, synthesizers have arisen to great importance in the world of music. Not only are they featured in concerts, but few popular records are produced without same use of synthesizers. synthesizers have became as necessa~ to popular music performers and canposers as drums; in fact, often they are used in place of drums. They may also be used to simulate violins, brass instruments, and perhaps even singers. In many cases, listeners cannot tell the difference between an instrument and a synthesizer's producing the sound of that instrument. Synthesizers are able to imitate sounds because of a };art of sound called overtones, or hannonics. For eve~ note (pitch) played on an instrument, for example middle C on the piano, there are actually other pitches higher than the C which are also being heard at less volume. These are called overtones or haiinonics. It is basically the difference between the overtones produced by the piano versus those produced by a guitar, for instance, that makes 1 2 the sound of the piano different fran that of the guitar. '!his is true of all instruments. '!heir basic sound is determined by their overtones. The synthesist learns the overtone structure, as it is called, of an instrument and sets his or her synthesizer to produce the same structure-hence imitation of the sound of the instrument. In addition to this capacity for imitation, synthesizers can be used to create whatever sounds the synthesists desire. The unique sounds and capabilities of synthesizers bring new dimensions to music, such as sounds and effects unlike what any acoustic instruments can produce. Still, the general public knows relatively little about music synthesis and its place in the music world. S¥nthesizers began at the turn of the 20th Century. The first with any success was the Telhanoonium, a huge $200,000 keyboard instrument. It could produce :man;y -sounds, but was made archaic by electronic developnents, especially the vacuum tube. Of the synthesizers produced after this and before World War II, the Theremin and Ondes Martenot, developed in the 1920s, are the only two synthesizers still in use today, and that use is extremely limited. These two allowed the synthesist to change the sounds, as did the Telharmonium, but were much more portable. (Manning, 1985, pp. 1-3) The biggest developnent in the acceptance of new sounds by the public was not the result of a synthesizer at all. S¥nthesizers were used mainly in avant-garde classical pieces. It was the Hammond Organ that really brought electronic keyboards into the 3 popular music world. The Harrmond Organ was developed in 1930, and marketed in the United States in 1935. It was not a synthesizer because the factory determined the sounds and gave the user no ability to change them. This electronic organ substituted for the piano in popl].ar music quite frequently. Its distinctive sounds became a standard in the music industry. The Hammond Organ exists today in essentially the same version as the original and is still used occasionally. It is, however, very camoon for a producer to request Hammond Organ sounds have than imitated on today's synthesizers. (Mackay, 1981, pp. 20-21) During the 1940s, the world at war had no time to work on developing synthesizers. '!he next major advancement was the prototype RCA synthesizer_ developed in the 1950s, which used a player-piano-type punch-sheet to prOduce sounds. It was a very complicated computer controlled instrument. Because of its gigantic size, it was a pennanent installation. Due to this, and the fact that there was only one, it was extremely difficult to obtain access to and was never used in popular music. Although these early synthesizers can be traced back into the first half of the 20th century, the beginnings of major synthesizer use in popular music were in the late 1960s. Until this time, mst synthesizers had no control systems to allow change of pitch while staying tuned. In most cases, synthesized notes were recorded one note at a time on tape and then spliced together, a long process. (Salzman, 197 4, p. 141) 4 The process of tape splicing was obviously not very practical for use in popular music. 'Ihe subsequent invention of a method for using voltage variations to control synthesizer sound meant that synthesizers could be used to produce a series of notes for recording. These were called voltage-controlled analog synthesizers. '!hey worked by having an electronic device (oscillator) produce an electronic wavefonn and voltage changes m:>dify the wavefonn. 'Ihe process was that the synthesist turned knobs (like rheostats for light fixtures) controlling the amount of voltage going to the mechanisms in the synthesizer which controlled the pitch, volume, duration and tone quality of the sound. The knobs did not connect to anything else which would cane between this direct connection. Voltage control, especially in the Moog and Buchla synthesizers, was the developrent that actually began the widespread use of synthesizers in popular music. The Moog synthesizer was the best known synthesizer which worked this way. The previously heralded electronic organs, including the Hammond Organ, soon seemed limited compared to the sounds these synthesizers could produce. (Rhea, 1977, p. 49) 'Ihe Moog and other synthesizers of this period, however, could only produce one note at a time (rono!ilonic), as is still true of many synthesizers. Either only one melody line would be played on the synthesizer (as in a Keith Emerson solo) or each melody line had to be recorded separately in a studio. In the latter case, the recordings were mixed together to make what the listener would hear on a record, such as in Tangerine Dream albmns. The next major 5 developnent in synthesizers came in 1975. It was :polyt:hony, or the ability to produce more than one note simultaneously, allowing the synthesist to play different melodic lines at once. This was very valuable to those using synthesizers in live performances. It gave them the ability to produce a similar kind of result on stage that had previously taken many recording in the studio. {Horn, 1982, p. 241) Though most of the 1970s, commercially available synthesizers were all voltage-controlled analog synthesizers, similar in basic concept to Moog's first synthesizer. With the advent of computers, digital can:ponents were inserted into the analog process. First available in 1978, the resulting digital-analog hybrids contained digital and analog canponents in one synthesizer. The early synthesizer of this type had a mechanism which would measure the instrument settings (the anount of voltage being allowed to go to the mechanisms) used by the synthesist to create a sound.