A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer ) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music , by handling note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate , MIDI , or Open Sound Control , and possibly audio and automation data for digital audio workstations (DAWs) and plug-ins .
134-711: Syro ( / s aɪ r oʊ / ) is a studio album by the British electronic music artist and producer Aphex Twin . It was released on 19 September 2014 through Warp Records . It was James's first album under the Aphex Twin name since Drukqs (2001). The album was recorded over several years on a wide range of equipment setups. Described by James as his " pop album, or as poppy as it's going to get", it incorporates styles such as techno , synth-funk , breakbeat , acid techno , and jungle , as well as edited vocal samples of James and his family. The artwork features
268-747: A Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2015; sales of the album in the US increased 101 percent following James' win. Syro was nominated for IMPALA 's European Independent Album of the Year and shortlisted for the 2015 Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year. All tracks written and produced by Richard D. James . All personnel credits adapted from Syro ' s album notes. Performer Technical personnel Design personnel Electronic music Electronic music broadly
402-405: A PA system , several turntables, and mixers. The performance did not go well, as creating live montages with turntables had never been done before." Later that same year, Pierre Henry collaborated with Schaeffer on Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950) the first major work of musique concrete. In Paris in 1951, in what was to become an important worldwide trend, RTF established the first studio for
536-541: A chartreuse -coloured blimp featuring the Aphex Twin logo and the number "2014" appeared over London, England on 16 August 2014. On the same day Aphex Twin graffiti was reported outside Radio City Music Hall and various other locations in New York , United States. Two days later Aphex Twin's official Twitter account posted a link to a hidden service , accessible using the Dark Web software Tor , detailing
670-540: A graphical user interface for the software sequencer. Also in 1983, Roland Corporation 's CMU-800 sound module introduced music synthesis and sequencing to the PC, Apple II , and Commodore 64 . The spread of MIDI on personal computers was facilitated by Roland's MPU-401 , released in 1984. It was the first MIDI-equipped PC sound card , capable of MIDI sound processing and sequencing. After Roland sold MPU sound chips to other sound card manufacturers, it established
804-466: A slide show synchronized with a recorded soundtrack. Composers outside of the Jikken Kōbō, such as Yasushi Akutagawa , Saburo Tominaga, and Shirō Fukai , were also experimenting with radiophonic tape music between 1952 and 1953. Musique concrète was introduced to Japan by Toshiro Mayuzumi , who was influenced by a Pierre Schaeffer concert. From 1952, he composed tape music pieces for a comedy film,
938-501: A CRT display to simplify the management of music synthesis in realtime, 12-bit D/A converter for realtime sound playback, an interface for CV/gate analog devices, and even several controllers including a musical keyboard, knobs, and rotating joysticks to capture realtime performance. In 1971, Electronic Music Studios (EMS) released one of the first digital sequencer products as a module of Synthi 100 , and its derivation, Synthi Sequencer series. After then, Oberheim released
1072-454: A MIDI sequencer. Since its introduction, MIDI has remained the musical instrument industry standard interface through to the present day. In 1987, software sequencers called trackers were developed to realize the low-cost integration of sampling sound and interactive digital sequencer as seen on Fairlight CMI II "Page R". They became popular in the 1980s and 1990s as simple sequencers for creating computer game music , and remain popular in
1206-485: A collection of unreleased material from 1995 which James reworked in 2007. In 2014 a test pressing of James's unreleased album Caustic Window was listed on Discogs for US$ 13,500 (£8,050). Members of the internet forum We Are the Music Makers negotiated a deal between the collector, the forum's administrator, James and Rephlex Records , and launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to purchase
1340-465: A common household item, and by the 1920s composers were using them to play short recordings in performances. The introduction of electrical recording in 1925 was followed by increased experimentation with record players. Paul Hindemith and Ernst Toch composed several pieces in 1930 by layering recordings of instruments and vocals at adjusted speeds. Influenced by these techniques, John Cage composed Imaginary Landscape No. 1 in 1939 by adjusting
1474-434: A completely unpredictable if utterly natural logic". Writing for AllMusic , Andy Kellman referred to Syro as "one of James' most inviting and enjoyable releases" and said the album is "decked in accents and melodies that are lively even at their most distressed". Derek Staples of Consequence of Sound said Syro "peaks as Aphex Twin's most accessible album since his ambient works". Pitchfork highlighted Syro as part of
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#17327652248571608-461: A detailed list of its production and promotional costs. A cryptic viral marketing campaign included an announcement on the dark web and listening events in cities around the world. The album was preceded by the lead single " minipops 67 [120.2] ". Syro received critical acclaim and placed in several international charts, peaking at number 11 in the US Billboard 200 and number 8 in
1742-608: A light-pen that would be converted into sound, simplifying the process of composing computer-generated music . It used PDP-5 minicomputer for data input, and IBM 7094 mainframe computer for rendering sound. Also in 1970, Mathews and F. R. Moore developed the GROOVE (Generated Real-time Output Operations on Voltage-controlled Equipment) system, a first fully developed music synthesis system for interactive composition (that implies sequencer) and realtime performance, using 3C/ Honeywell DDP-24 (or DDP-224 ) minicomputers. It used
1876-546: A maximum of 5200 notes (large for the time), and a polyphony function which allocated multiple pitch CVs to a single Gate . It was capable of eight-channel polyphony, allowing the creation of polyrhythmic sequences. The MC-8 had a significant impact on popular electronic music , with the MC-8 and its descendants (such as the Roland MC-4 Microcomposer ) impacting popular electronic music production in
2010-439: A meteor shower of eighties synth-funk ", with elements of " rave , jungle , breakbeat, ambience, and fond, self-referential glances at the career of Aphex Twin". Vice summarised the sound as "unlike anything else this year - but quite a lot like everything from the past thirty years". The Financial Times said the album ranged from "the chunky ambient techno of the opening track to the prettily pastoral piano melody that ends
2144-998: A number of musicians, ranging from Neil Rolnick , Charles Amirkhanian and Alice Shields to rock musicians Frank Zappa and The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band . Following the emergence of differences within the GRMC (Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrète) Pierre Henry, Philippe Arthuys, and several of their colleagues, resigned in April 1958. Schaeffer created a new collective, called Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and set about recruiting new members including Luc Ferrari , Beatriz Ferreyra , François-Bernard Mâche , Iannis Xenakis , Bernard Parmegiani , and Mireille Chamass-Kyrou . Later arrivals included Ivo Malec , Philippe Carson, Romuald Vandelle, Edgardo Canton and François Bayle . These were fertile years for electronic music—not just for academia, but for independent artists as synthesizer technology became more accessible. By this time,
2278-579: A perfected memory of 80s music ," adding "its sweeping melodies, with echoes of 1991's Analogue Bubblebath , could be seen as a return to his roots" but concluded that "Aphex Twin's music seems as new as it ever was." Rolling Stone reviewer Will Hermes stated that the record "answers Daft Punk ' s Random Access Memories with future-shock electronics supplanting nostalgic dazzle … graying snobs once called this ' intelligent dance music .' Even now, few do it better." The Independent ' s Andy Gill called Syro "a collection primarily concerned with
2412-589: A polyphonic synthesizer with sequencer called Andromatic built for them by Erkki Kurenniemi . The step sequencer s played rigid patterns of notes using a grid of (usually) 16 buttons, or steps, each step being 1/16 of a measure . These patterns of notes were then chained together to form longer compositions. Sequencers of this kind are still in use, mostly built into drum machines and grooveboxes . They are monophonic by nature, although some are multi-timbral , meaning that they can control several different sounds but only play one note on each of those sounds. On
2546-697: A public concert in New York together with other compositions I had written for conventional instruments." Otto Luening, who had attended this concert, remarked: "The equipment at his disposal consisted of an Ampex tape recorder . . . and a simple box-like device designed by the brilliant young engineer, Peter Mauzey, to create feedback, a form of mechanical reverberation. Other equipment was borrowed or purchased with personal funds." Just three months later, in August 1952, Ussachevsky traveled to Bennington, Vermont, at Luening's invitation to present his experiments. There,
2680-465: A radio broadcast, and a radio drama. However, Schaeffer's concept of sound object was not influential among Japanese composers, who were mainly interested in overcoming the restrictions of human performance. This led to several Japanese electroacoustic musicians making use of serialism and twelve-tone techniques , evident in Yoshirō Irino 's 1951 dodecaphonic piece "Concerto da Camera", in
2814-810: A score. In 1955, more experimental and electronic studios began to appear. Notable were the creation of the Studio di fonologia musicale di Radio Milano , a studio at the NHK in Tokyo founded by Toshiro Mayuzumi , and the Philips studio at Eindhoven , the Netherlands, which moved to the University of Utrecht as the Institute of Sonology in 1960. "With Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel in residence, [Cologne] became
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#17327652248572948-643: A sequencer for the GS-1 . It was only available at Yamaha's headquarters in Japan ( Hamamatsu ) and the United States ( Buena Park, California ). In June 1981, Roland Corporation founder Ikutaro Kakehashi proposed the concept of standardization between different manufacturers' instruments as well as computers, to Oberheim Electronics founder Tom Oberheim and Sequential Circuits president Dave Smith . In October 1981, Kakehashi, Oberheim and Smith discussed
3082-460: A significant influence on popular music , with the adoption of polyphonic synthesizers , electronic drums , drum machines, and turntables , through the emergence of genres such as disco , krautrock , new wave , synth-pop , hip hop , and EDM . In the early 1980s mass-produced digital synthesizers , such as the Yamaha DX7 , became popular, and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
3216-567: A strong community of composers and musicians working with new sounds and instruments was established and growing. 1960 witnessed the composition of Luening's Gargoyles for violin and tape as well as the premiere of Stockhausen's Kontakte for electronic sounds, piano, and percussion. This piece existed in two versions—one for 4-channel tape, and the other for tape with human performers. "In Kontakte , Stockhausen abandoned traditional musical form based on linear development and dramatic climax. This new approach, which he termed 'moment form', resembles
3350-454: A year-round hive of charismatic avant-gardism." on two occasions combining electronically generated sounds with relatively conventional orchestras—in Mixtur (1964) and Hymnen, dritte Region mit Orchester (1967). Stockhausen stated that his listeners had told him his electronic music gave them an experience of "outer space", sensations of flying, or being in a "fantastic dream world". In
3484-700: Is "[his] pop album, or as poppy as it's going to get" and "pleasurable to listen to ... maybe just the composition's changed, but there's no next-level beats on there". He attributed this change in style to the fact he had not used computer-controlled percussion during Syro ' s sessions. James also described the album as capping off an era so that he could begin working on new material, stating that "I don't think these tracks are particularly innovative. Maybe in really subtle ways they are, for me, but there's nothing there that I need to explore more [...] It just totally makes me want to not do anything else in that particular style." Syro (pronounced / s aɪ r oʊ / )
3618-458: Is a neologism coined by one of James' children. It is a shortened version of "Syrobonkus", a "nonsense word one of his sons blurted out while listening to [the album]". The majority of the album's track titles are named after the working titles stored on James' hard drives and reference individual pieces of equipment James used in their recording, as well as the tracks' respective BPM values. A comprehensive list of all equipment featured on Syro
3752-692: Is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments , circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers ) in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroacoustic music ). Pure electronic instruments depended entirely on circuitry-based sound generation, for instance using devices such as an electronic oscillator , theremin , or synthesizer . Electromechanical instruments can have mechanical parts such as strings, hammers, and electric elements including magnetic pickups , power amplifiers and loudspeakers . Such electromechanical devices include
3886-483: Is alone, a world of mystery and essential loneliness." In Cologne, what would become the most famous electronic music studio in the world, was officially opened at the radio studios of the NWDR in 1953, though it had been in the planning stages as early as 1950 and early compositions were made and broadcast in 1951. The brainchild of Werner Meyer-Eppler , Robert Beyer, and Herbert Eimert (who became its first director),
4020-473: Is included as part of the album's packaging; Creative Review referred to the list as a "disinfographic". Syro ' s cover artwork was designed by the Designers Republic , a graphic design studio that provided designs for previous Aphex Twin releases, including the 1999 single " Windowlicker " and the compilation album 26 Mixes for Cash . The cover art resembles a receipt, with
4154-468: Is most recognizable in its 4/4 form and more connected with the mainstream than preceding forms which were popular in niche markets. At the turn of the 20th century, experimentation with emerging electronics led to the first electronic musical instruments . These initial inventions were not sold, but were instead used in demonstrations and public performances. The audiences were presented with reproductions of existing music instead of new compositions for
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4288-408: Is often supported on the drum machines, bass machines and several groove machines . Realtime sequencers record the musical notes in real-time as on audio recorders , and play back musical notes with designated tempo , quantizations , and pitch . For editing, usually " punch in/punch out " features originated in the tape recording are provided, although it requires sufficient skills to obtain
4422-467: Is possibly referred as " audio sequencing ". Possibly it may be one origin of " audio sequencing ". The early music sequencers were sound-producing devices such as automatic musical instruments , music boxes , mechanical organs , player pianos , and Orchestrions . Player pianos, for example, had much in common with contemporary sequencers. Composers or arrangers transmitted music to piano rolls which were subsequently edited by technicians who prepared
4556-718: Is to be realized as a magnetic tape. According to Otto Luening, Cage also performed Williams Mix at Donaueschingen in 1954, using eight loudspeakers, three years after his alleged collaboration. Williams Mix was a success at the Donaueschingen Festival , where it made a "strong impression". The Music for Magnetic Tape Project was formed by members of the New York School ( John Cage , Earle Brown , Christian Wolff , David Tudor , and Morton Feldman ), and lasted three years until 1954. Cage wrote of this collaboration: "In this social darkness, therefore,
4690-655: The Atari ST home computer in the 1980s gave programmers the opportunity to design software that could more easily record and play back sequences of notes played or programmed by a musician. This software also improved on the quality of the earlier sequencers which tended to be mechanical sounding and were only able to play back notes of exactly equal duration. Software-based sequencers allowed musicians to program performances that were more expressive and more human. These new sequencers could also be used to control external synthesizers , especially rackmounted sound modules , and it
4824-572: The Belgian Albums Chart in Flanders and subsequently entered the top 10, rising to number 7 in its second week. On the United States' Billboard charts , Syro placed in the top 10 in several charts, having sold 23,000 first-week copies—22 percent of which were LP copies and responsible for "the largest sales week in 2014 for a dance/electronic album on vinyl", according to Nielsen SoundScan . Syro topped
4958-768: The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in the late 1950s. Following his work with Studio d'Essai at Radiodiffusion Française (RDF), during the early 1940s, Pierre Schaeffer is credited with originating the theory and practice of musique concrète. In the late 1940s, experiments in sound-based composition using shellac record players were first conducted by Schaeffer. In 1950, the techniques of musique concrete were expanded when magnetic tape machines were used to explore sound manipulation practices such as speed variation ( pitch shift ) and tape splicing . On 5 October 1948, RDF broadcast Schaeffer's Etude aux chemins de fer . This
5092-507: The Ensemble of electro-musical instruments [ ru ] , which used theremins, electric harps, electric organs, the first synthesizer in the USSR "Ekvodin", and also created the first Soviet reverb machine. The style in which Meshcherin's ensemble played is known as " Space age pop ". In 1957, engineer Igor Simonov assembled a working model of a noise recorder (electroeoliphone), with
5226-710: The Oramics designed by Daphne Oram in 1957, and so forth. During the 1940s–1960s, Raymond Scott , an American composer of electronic music, invented various kind of music sequencers for his electric compositions. The "Wall of Sound", once covered on the wall of his studio in New York during the 1940s–1950s, was an electro-mechanical sequencer to produce rhythmic patterns, consisting of stepping relays (used on dial pulse telephone exchange ), solenoids , control switches, and tone circuits with 16 individual oscillators . Later, Robert Moog would explain it in such terms as "the whole room would go 'clack – clack – clack', and
5360-899: The Scottish Albums Chart , as well as reaching number 1 on both the Dance Albums and Official Record Store Albums charts. Syro entered the top 10 in several international charts, including the Irish Albums Chart , the Irish Independent Albums Chart and the Russian Albums Chart , where it debuted at number 10 with first week sales of 10,029. The album entered the weekly Japanese Albums Chart at number 8 and sold 10,553 physical copies in its first week of release. Syro debuted at number 35 on
5494-671: The UK Albums Chart . It was nominated for the Choice Music Prize and the 2015 Mercury Music Prize , and won the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album . Warp founder Steve Beckett mentioned in 2009 that a new Aphex Twin studio album would "hopefully" be available by the end of the year, though no album was released. In 2010 James said he had completed six studio albums. Among them were two "very non-commercial abstract, modular-synthesis field recordings" completed in 2006, and Melodies from Mars ,
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5628-480: The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign wrote one of the earliest programs for computer music composition on ILLIAC , and collaborated on the first piece, Illiac Suite for String Quartet , with Leonard Issaction . In 1957 Max Mathews at Bell Labs wrote MUSIC , the first widely used program for sound generation, and a 17-second composition was performed by the IBM 704 computer. Subsequently, computer music
5762-506: The demoscene and chiptune music. Modern computer digital audio software after the 2000s, such as Ableton Live , incorporates aspects of sequencers among many other features. In 1978, Japanese personal computers such as the Hitachi Basic Master equipped the low-bit D/A converter to generate sound which can be sequenced using Music Macro Language (MML). This was used to produce chiptune video game music . It
5896-432: The telharmonium , Hammond organ , electric piano and electric guitar . The first electronic musical devices were developed at the end of the 19th century. During the 1920s and 1930s, some electronic instruments were introduced and the first compositions featuring them were written. By the 1940s, magnetic audio tape allowed musicians to tape sounds and then modify them by changing the tape speed or direction, leading to
6030-477: The 'cinematic splice' techniques in early twentieth-century film." The theremin had been in use since the 1920s but it attained a degree of popular recognition through its use in science-fiction film soundtrack music in the 1950s (e.g., Bernard Herrmann 's classic score for The Day the Earth Stood Still ). Music sequencer The advent of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and
6164-445: The 1950s and algorithmic composition with computers was first demonstrated in the same decade. During the 1960s, digital computer music was pioneered, innovation in live electronics took place, and Japanese electronic musical instruments began to influence the music industry . In the early 1970s, Moog synthesizers and drum machines helped popularize synthesized electronic music. The 1970s also saw electronic music begin to have
6298-455: The 1970s and 1980s more than any other family of sequencers. The MC-8's earliest known users were Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. In 1975, New England Digital (NED) released ABLE computer (microcomputer) as a dedicated data processing unit for Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer (1973), and based on it, later Synclavier series were developed. The Synclavier I , released in September 1977,
6432-582: The DAW or the integrated music authoring environments. The features provided as sequencers vary widely depending on the software; even an analog sequencer can be simulated. The user may control the software sequencer either by using the graphical user interfaces or a specialized input devices , such as a MIDI controller . Alternative subsets of audio sequencers include: This type of software actually controls sequences of audio samples; thus, it can potentially be called an " audio sequencer ". This technique
6566-557: The DS-2 Digital Sequencer in 1974, and Sequential Circuits released Model 800 in 1977 In 1977, Roland Corporation released the MC-8 MicroComposer , also called computer music composer by Roland. It was an early stand-alone, microprocessor -based, digital CV/gate sequencer, and an early polyphonic sequencer. It equipped a keypad to enter notes as numeric codes, 16 KB of RAM for
6700-681: The Louisville Symphony and A Poem in Cycles and Bells , both for orchestra and tape. Because he had been working at Schaeffer's studio, the tape part for Varèse's work contains much more concrete sounds than electronic. "A group made up of wind instruments, percussion and piano alternate with the mutated sounds of factory noises and ship sirens and motors, coming from two loudspeakers." At the German premiere of Déserts in Hamburg, which
6834-475: The Philips studio in the Netherlands. The public remained interested in the new sounds being created around the world, as can be deduced by the inclusion of Varèse's Poème électronique , which was played over four hundred loudspeakers at the Philips Pavilion of the 1958 Brussels World Fair . That same year, Mauricio Kagel , an Argentine composer, composed Transición II . The work was realized at
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#17327652248576968-450: The Poet , a 1959 series of electronic compositions that stood out for its immersion and seamless fusion of electronic and folk music , in contrast to the more mathematical approach used by serial composers of the time such as Babbitt. El-Dabh's Leiyla and the Poet , released as part of the album Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1961, would be cited as a strong influence by
7102-511: The US as part of the album's promotional campaign. Beginning on 5 September in London and concluding on 10 September in Utrecht , the events allowed applicants who had won an online lottery ballot to hear the album in its entirety prior to its international release. " minipops 67 [120.2] ", Syro ' s opening track, was released as the album's lead single on 4 September. It
7236-545: The United States following the end of World War II. These were the basis for the first commercially produced tape recorder in 1948. In 1944, before the use of magnetic tape for compositional purposes, Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh , while still a student in Cairo , used a cumbersome wire recorder to record sounds of an ancient zaar ceremony. Using facilities at the Middle East Radio studios El-Dabh processed
7370-454: The United States, electronic music was being created as early as 1939, when John Cage published Imaginary Landscape, No. 1 , using two variable-speed turntables, frequency recordings, muted piano, and cymbal, but no electronic means of production. Cage composed five more "Imaginary Landscapes" between 1942 and 1952 (one withdrawn), mostly for percussion ensemble, though No. 4 is for twelve radios and No. 5, written in 1952, uses 42 recordings and
7504-625: The Vinyl Albums, Dance/Electronic Albums and Tastemaker Albums charts, and entered the Digital Albums chart at number 8 and the Independent Albums chart at number 2. As of February 2015 Syro had sold 54,000 copies in the US. On 5 March 2015 it was announced that Syro's Japanese bonus track " MARCHROMT30A edit 2b 96 " would be released as a 12-inch single on 6 April 2015, backed with alternative versions of
7638-597: The WDR studio in Cologne. Two musicians performed on the piano, one in the traditional manner, the other playing on the strings, frame, and case. Two other performers used tape to unite the presentation of live sounds with the future of prerecorded materials from later on and its past of recordings made earlier in the performance. In 1958, Columbia-Princeton developed the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer ,
7772-695: The album at number 10 on its "Top 50 Albums of 2014" feature and Uncut selected it as the third-best album on its list of the "Best Albums of 2014". Syro was also featured at number 6 on Dazed ' s "top 20 albums of 2014" and number 8 on Clash ' s "Fuss-Free Top 40 Albums Of 2014". Elsewhere, Syro was featured in Rolling Stone at number 41 on its "50 Best Albums of 2014" list, on Stereogum ' s "50 Best Albums of 2014" at number 33 and Pitchfork ' s "50 Best Albums of 2014" at number 4. Critics on behalf of Billboard selected Syro as
7906-404: The album" with "chopped-up hip-hop instrumentals ('Produk 29'), sinister acid house stompers ('180db') and jazzy breakbeat ('Papat4')". Consequence of Sound noted elements of glitch-hop , chillwave , acid jazz and jungle. Rolling Stone described the album as "thick with Seventies jazz-funk nods" and featuring "future-shock electronics". On the album's overall sound, James said it
8040-851: The album's oldest track around "six or seven years old". A total of 138 pieces of equipment were used on Syro , including synthesisers , samplers , sequencers , processing units , MIDI interfaces, drum machines , vocoders , graphic equalisers and mixing desks . Among the brands James used were Yamaha , SSL , Sennheiser , Boss , Roland , Korg and AKG . Several pieces of equipment were further modified by James himself. In addition to instrumentation, Syro features several vocal tracks. Among them are edited "unintelligible" tracks of James, his wife Anastasia Rybina and his two sons, as well as both his mother and father, who appear on "XMAS_EVET10 [120]". He recorded several additional " poppy " vocals of his parents—none of which were used on Syro —and stored "entire sample packs of their voices" during
8174-470: The album's title and track listing. The service accumulated over 133,000 views in less than a day, according to The Guardian . In the following week several purported leaks of Syro appeared on YouTube and SoundCloud ; Richard D James subsequently denied that any of the leaks were legitimate. "Listening events" for Syro were then organised in various cities in the UK, Belgium, Canada, Netherlands and
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#17327652248578308-522: The album. The campaign raised over $ 67,000 (£41,000) from 4,124 contributions, with proceeds split between James, Rephlex and the charity Doctors Without Borders . James said the campaign was "really touching, and really sweet" and, upon realising the continued interest in his music, he was inspired to release Syro . The album was recorded in six different studios, including James's studio in Scotland, which he spent three years building and which
8442-748: The ancestor of the ORTF . Karlheinz Stockhausen worked briefly in Schaeffer's studio in 1952, and afterward for many years at the WDR Cologne's Studio for Electronic Music . 1954 saw the advent of what would now be considered authentic electric plus acoustic compositions—acoustic instrumentation augmented/accompanied by recordings of manipulated or electronically generated sound. Three major works were premiered that year: Varèse's Déserts , for chamber ensemble and tape sounds, and two works by Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky : Rhapsodic Variations for
8576-641: The borrowed equipment in the back of Ussachevsky's car, we left Bennington for Woodstock and stayed two weeks. . . . In late September 1952, the travelling laboratory reached Ussachevsky's living room in New York, where we eventually completed the compositions." Two months later, on 28 October, Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening presented the first Tape Music concert in the United States. The concert included Luening's Fantasy in Space (1952)—"an impressionistic virtuoso piece" using manipulated recordings of flute—and Low Speed (1952), an "exotic composition that took
8710-412: The composition of microtonal music allowed for by electronic instruments. He predicted the use of machines in future music, writing the influential Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music (1907). Futurists such as Francesco Balilla Pratella and Luigi Russolo began composing music with acoustic noise to evoke the sound of machinery . They predicted expansions in timbre allowed for by electronics in
8844-615: The concept with representatives from Yamaha , Korg and Kawai . In 1983, the MIDI standard was unveiled by Kakehashi and Smith. The first MIDI sequencer was the Roland MSQ-700, released in 1983. It was not until the advent of MIDI that general-purpose computers started to play a role as sequencers. Following the widespread adoption of MIDI, computer-based MIDI sequencers were developed. MIDI-to- CV/gate converters were then used to enable analogue synthesizers to be controlled by
8978-463: The desired result. For detailed editing, possibly another visual editing mode under graphical user interface may be more suitable. Anyway, this mode provides usability similar to audio recorders already familiar to musicians, and it is widely supported on software sequencers, DAWs, and built-in hardware sequencers. A software sequencer is a class of application software providing a functionality of music sequencer, and often provided as one feature of
9112-565: The development of electroacoustic tape music in the 1940s, in Egypt and France. Musique concrète , created in Paris in 1948, was based on editing together recorded fragments of natural and industrial sounds. Music produced solely from electronic generators was first produced in Germany in 1953 by Karlheinz Stockhausen . Electronic music was also created in Japan and the United States beginning in
9246-597: The development of music technology several decades later. Following the foundation of electronics company Sony in 1946, composers Toru Takemitsu and Minao Shibata independently explored possible uses for electronic technology to produce music. Takemitsu had ideas similar to musique concrète , which he was unaware of, while Shibata foresaw the development of synthesizers and predicted a drastic change in music. Sony began producing popular magnetic tape recorders for government and public use. The avant-garde collective Jikken Kōbō (Experimental Workshop), founded in 1950,
9380-402: The direction of electronic music. Another associate of Schaeffer, Edgard Varèse , began work on Déserts , a work for chamber orchestra and tape. The tape parts were created at Pierre Schaeffer's studio and were later revised at Columbia University . In 1950, Schaeffer gave the first public (non-broadcast) concert of musique concrète at the École Normale de Musique de Paris . "Schaeffer used
9514-419: The eighth-best album of 2014 and PopMatters placed the album at number 9 on its "Best Albums of 2014" feature, while Resident Advisor ranked it at number 4 on its "Top 20 albums of 2014". In its end-of-year roundup Bleep.com selected Syro as the top album of 2014, writing that the album is "a poignant reminder of the relevance of one of the most important artists of our time." Syro won
9648-740: The end of the 1960s, musical groups playing light electronic music appeared in the USSR. At the state level, this music began to be used to attract foreign tourists to the country and for broadcasting to foreign countries. In the mid-1970s, composer Alexander Zatsepin designed an "orchestrolla" – a modification of the mellotron. The Baltic Soviet Republics also had their own pioneers: in Estonian SSR — Sven Grunberg , in Lithuanian SSR — Gedrus Kupriavicius, in Latvian SSR — Opus and Zodiac . The world's first computer to play music
9782-438: The first complete work of computer-assisted composition using algorithmic composition. "... Hiller postulated that a computer could be taught the rules of a particular style and then called on to compose accordingly." Later developments included the work of Max Mathews at Bell Laboratories , who developed the influential MUSIC I program in 1957, one of the first computer programs to play electronic music. Vocoder technology
9916-546: The first programmable synthesizer. Prominent composers such as Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, Milton Babbitt , Charles Wuorinen , Halim El-Dabh, Bülent Arel and Mario Davidovsky used the RCA Synthesizer extensively in various compositions. One of the most influential composers associated with the early years of the studio was Egypt's Halim El-Dabh who, after having developed the earliest known electronic tape music in 1944, became more famous for Leiyla and
10050-528: The flute far below its natural range." Both pieces were created at the home of Henry Cowell in Woodstock, New York. After several concerts caused a sensation in New York City, Ussachevsky and Luening were invited onto a live broadcast of NBC's Today Show to do an interview demonstration—the first televised electroacoustic performance. Luening described the event: "I improvised some [flute] sequences for
10184-637: The future)." Word quickly reached New York City. Oliver Daniel telephoned and invited the pair to "produce a group of short compositions for the October concert sponsored by the American Composers Alliance and Broadcast Music, Inc., under the direction of Leopold Stokowski at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After some hesitation, we agreed. . . . Henry Cowell placed his home and studio in Woodstock, New York, at our disposal. With
10318-592: The help of which it was possible to extract various timbres and consonances of a noise nature. In 1958, Evgeny Murzin designed ANS synthesizer , one of the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizers. Founded by Murzin in 1966, the Moscow Experimental Electronic Music Studio became the base for a new generation of experimenters – Eduard Artemyev , Alexander Nemtin [ ru ] , Sándor Kallós , Sofia Gubaidulina , Alfred Schnittke , and Vladimir Martynov . By
10452-422: The hype drain away—what's revealed is pretty much flawless." Resident Advisor ' s Jordan Rothlein described Syro as "freewheeling and playful, but its every warbled note and compositional hard-left betray consideration and technical expertise that didn't come overnight. In terms of impressive twists and turns, they're myriad. Tracks morph, pressurize and reorganize—but never break down , exactly—following
10586-547: The influential manifesto The Art of Noises (1913). Developments of the vacuum tube led to electronic instruments that were smaller, amplified , and more practical for performance. In particular, the theremin , ondes Martenot and trautonium were commercially produced by the early 1930s. From the late 1920s, the increased practicality of electronic instruments influenced composers such as Joseph Schillinger and Maria Schuppel to adopt them. They were typically used within orchestras, and most composers wrote parts for
10720-473: The instruments. While some were considered novelties and produced simple tones, the Telharmonium synthesized the sound of several orchestral instruments with reasonable precision. It achieved viable public interest and made commercial progress into streaming music through telephone networks . Critics of musical conventions at the time saw promise in these developments. Ferruccio Busoni encouraged
10854-597: The inventions of phonographs , radios , and sound films which eventually eclipsed all such home music production devices. Of them all, punched-paper-tape media had been used until the mid-20th century. The earliest programmable music synthesizers including the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer in 1957, and the Siemens Synthesizer in 1959, were also controlled via punch tapes similar to piano rolls . Additional inventions grew out of sound film audio technology. The drawn sound technique which appeared in
10988-512: The late 1920s, is notable as a precursor of today's intuitive graphical user interfaces . In this technique, notes and various sound parameters are triggered by hand-drawn black ink waveforms directly upon the film substrate, hence they resemble piano rolls (or the 'strip charts' of the modern sequencers/DAWs). Drawn soundtrack was often used in early experimental electronic music, including the Variophone developed by Yevgeny Sholpo in 1930, and
11122-593: The late-18th or early-19th century, with technological advances of the Industrial Revolution various automatic musical instruments were invented. Some examples: music boxes , barrel organs and barrel pianos consisting of a barrel or cylinder with pins or a flat metal disc with punched holes; or mechanical organs , player pianos and orchestrions using book music / music rolls ( piano rolls ) with punched holes, etc. These instruments were disseminated widely as popular entertainment devices prior to
11256-495: The month" for September, and was the highest-scoring album on Metacritic that month. Syro was featured on several publications' year-end critics' lists. The album fared particularly well in the British press; The Guardian selected Syro as the fourth-best album of 2014, and the album placed at number 9 on the newspaper's reader poll. The Wire named Syro the release of the year, while NME placed Syro at number 4 on its list "Top 50 Albums of 2014", Q ranked
11390-416: The musical notes designated by a series of knobs or sliders corresponding to each musical note (step). It is designed for both composition and live performance ; users can change the musical notes at any time without regarding recording mode. And also possibly, the time interval between each musical note (length of each step) can be independently adjustable. Typically, analog sequencers are used to generate
11524-422: The newer internal digital buses than the old-style analogue CV/gate interface once used on their prototype system. Then in the early-1980s, they also re-recognized the needs of CV/gate interface, and supported it along with MIDI as options . Yamaha 's GS-1, their first FM digital synthesizer , was released in 1980. To program the synthesizer, Yamaha built a custom computer workstation designed to be used as
11658-399: The official Aphex Twin logo and album title printed upon it. According to Creative Review , the receipt on the album cover details the production and promotional costs of Syro , "from courier charges to photoshoot expenses, expressed per disc and tailored for both vinyl and CD versions." Ian Anderson, the founder of the Designers Republic, noted that the final concept for the album cover
11792-813: The organization of electronic sounds in Mayuzumi's "X, Y, Z for Musique Concrète", and later in Shibata's electronic music by 1956. Modelling the NWDR studio in Cologne, established an NHK electronic music studio in Tokyo in 1954, which became one of the world's leading electronic music facilities. The NHK electronic music studio was equipped with technologies such as tone-generating and audio processing equipment, recording and radiophonic equipment, ondes Martenot, Monochord and Melochord , sine-wave oscillators , tape recorders, ring modulators , band-pass filters , and four- and eight-channel mixers . Musicians associated with
11926-416: The other hand, software sequencers were continuously utilized since the 1950s in the context of computer music , including computer- played music (software sequencer), computer- composed music ( music synthesis ), and computer sound generation ( sound synthesis ). In June 1951, the first computer music Colonel Bogey was played on CSIRAC , Australia's first digital computer. In 1956, Lejaren Hiller at
12060-553: The popular Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in the United States. Experiments with graphical sound were continued by Norman McLaren from the late 1930s. The first practical audio tape recorder was unveiled in 1935. Improvements to the technology were made using the AC biasing technique, which significantly improved recording fidelity. As early as 1942, test recordings were being made in stereo. Although these developments were initially confined to Germany, recorders and tapes were brought to
12194-482: The principle of the theremin . In the 1930s, Nikolai Ananyev invented "sonar", and engineer Alexander Gurov — neoviolena, I. Ilsarov — ilston., A. Rimsky-Korsakov [ ru ] and A. Ivanov — emiriton [ ru ] . Composer and inventor Arseny Avraamov was engaged in scientific work on sound synthesis and conducted a number of experiments that would later form the basis of Soviet electro-musical instruments. In 1956 Vyacheslav Mescherin created
12328-421: The process. Syro incorporates elements of electronic styles including breakbeat , drum and bass , techno , acid and disco . ' NME called it a "clutch of hyper-intricate electro-funk jams so crammed with melody it feels like they might at any minute pop and coat you in goo." The Guardian described it as "rooted in an athletic 80s electro-funk ", while Vice described it as "time-travel through
12462-413: The production of electronic music. Also in 1951, Schaeffer and Henry produced an opera, Orpheus , for concrete sounds and voices. By 1951 the work of Schaeffer, composer-percussionist Pierre Henry, and sound engineer Jacques Poullin had received official recognition and The Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète , Club d 'Essai de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française was established at RTF in Paris,
12596-598: The publication's "Best New Music"; editor Mark Richardson wrote that Syro "has few extremes, no hyper-intense splatter-breaks or satanic 'Come to Daddy' vocals or rushes of noise. On the other end of the spectrum, Syro doesn't cast James in a quasi-classical light; there's no 'serious composer' tracks … without all that, what's left? Sixty-five minutes of highly melodic, superbly arranged, precisely mixed, texturally varied electronic music that sounds like it could have come from no other artist." Australian national radio station Double J selected Syro as its "Feature Album" for
12730-497: The recorded material using reverberation, echo, voltage controls and re-recording. What resulted is believed to be the earliest tape music composition. The resulting work was entitled The Expression of Zaar and it was presented in 1944 at an art gallery event in Cairo. While his initial experiments in tape-based composition were not widely known outside of Egypt at the time, El-Dabh is also known for his later work in electronic music at
12864-430: The repeated minimalistic phrases which may be reminiscent of Tangerine Dream , Giorgio Moroder or trance music . On step sequencers, musical notes are rounded into steps of equal time intervals, and users can enter each musical note without exact timing; Instead, the timing and duration of each step can be designated in several different ways: In general, step mode, along with roughly quantized semi-realtime mode,
12998-576: The rolls for mass duplication. Eventually consumers were able to purchase these rolls and play them back on their own player pianos. The origin of automatic musical instruments seems remarkably old. As early as the 9th century, the Persian (Iranian) Banū Mūsā brothers invented a hydropowered organ using exchangeable cylinders with pins, and also an automatic flute -playing machine using steam power , as described in their Book of Ingenious Devices . The Banu Musa brothers' automatic flute player
13132-622: The somatic rather than cerebral sides of Richard James' music, overdosing somewhat on staccato , bouncing synth twangs and jittery drum'n'bass beats." Syro ' s closing track "aisatsana [102]" drew comparisons to the works of French composer Erik Satie from both The Independent and Drowned in Sound . Summarising the album, reviewer Tom Fenwick said that " Syro sees a master craftsman return with renewed inspiration. And while it might not technically be James' most innovative album, it way [ sic ] well be his best … and once you let
13266-789: The sonic landscape in the way Richard D James repeatedly did through the [19]90s ... and yet by sounding simply like a series of Aphex Twin tracks, Syro is still utterly engrossing and remains, somewhat unbelievably, on a completely different planet". NME reviewer Louis Pattison surmised that the album is "a banging reminder of why the Cornish raver is one of music's true innovators". Pattison further stated that "whereas Drukqs sometimes felt alienating or punishing, Syro charms and beguiles … [it is] amazing: bug-eyed, banging rave that sounds quintessentially Aphex while not quite sounding like anything he's done before." In his review for The Wire , Derek Walmsley wrote positively that " Syro feels like
13400-420: The sounds would come out all over the place". The Circle Machine, developed in 1959, had incandescent bulbs each with its own rheostat , arranged in a ring, and a rotating arm with photocell scanning over the ring, to generate an arbitrary waveform. Also, the rotating speed of the arm was controlled via the brightness of lights, and as a result, arbitrary rhythms were generated. The first electronic sequencer
13534-482: The speeds of recorded tones. Composers began to experiment with newly developed sound-on-film technology. Recordings could be spliced together to create sound collages , such as those by Tristan Tzara , Kurt Schwitters , Filippo Tommaso Marinetti , Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov . Further, the technology allowed sound to be graphically created and modified . These techniques were used to compose soundtracks for several films in Germany and Russia, in addition to
13668-666: The studio included Toshiro Mayuzumi, Minao Shibata, Joji Yuasa, Toshi Ichiyanagi , and Toru Takemitsu. The studio's first electronic compositions were completed in 1955, including Mayuzumi's five-minute pieces "Studie I: Music for Sine Wave by Proportion of Prime Number", "Music for Modulated Wave by Proportion of Prime Number" and "Invention for Square Wave and Sawtooth Wave" produced using the studio's various tone-generating capabilities, and Shibata's 20-minute stereo piece "Musique Concrète for Stereophonic Broadcast". The impact of computers continued in 1956. Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson composed Illiac Suite for string quartet ,
13802-546: The studio of Bebe and Louis Barron . In the same year Columbia University purchased its first tape recorder—a professional Ampex machine—to record concerts. Vladimir Ussachevsky, who was on the music faculty of Columbia University, was placed in charge of the device, and almost immediately began experimenting with it. Herbert Russcol writes: "Soon he was intrigued with the new sonorities he could achieve by recording musical instruments and then superimposing them on one another." Ussachevsky said later: "I suddenly realized that
13936-571: The studio was soon joined by Karlheinz Stockhausen and Gottfried Michael Koenig . In his 1949 thesis Elektronische Klangerzeugung: Elektronische Musik und Synthetische Sprache , Meyer-Eppler conceived the idea to synthesize music entirely from electronically produced signals; in this way, elektronische Musik was sharply differentiated from French musique concrète , which used sounds recorded from acoustical sources. In 1953, Stockhausen composed his Studie I , followed in 1954 by Elektronische Studie II —the first electronic piece to be published as
14070-496: The tape recorder could be treated as an instrument of sound transformation." On Thursday, 8 May 1952, Ussachevsky presented several demonstrations of tape music/effects that he created at his Composers Forum, in the McMillin Theatre at Columbia University. These included Transposition, Reverberation, Experiment, Composition , and Underwater Valse . In an interview, he stated: "I presented a few examples of my discovery in
14204-399: The tape recorder. Ussachevsky then and there put them through electronic transformations." The score for Forbidden Planet , by Louis and Bebe Barron , was entirely composed using custom-built electronic circuits and tape recorders in 1956 (but no synthesizers in the modern sense of the word). In 1929, Nikolai Obukhov invented the " sounding cross " (la croix sonore ), comparable to
14338-734: The term "sequencer" is often used to describe software. However, hardware sequencers still exist. Workstation keyboards have their own proprietary built-in MIDI sequencers. Drum machines and some older synthesizers have their own step sequencer built in. There are still also standalone hardware MIDI sequencers , although the market demand for those has diminished greatly due to the greater feature set of their software counterparts. Music sequencers can be categorized by handling data types, such as: Also, music sequencer can be categorized by its construction and supporting modes. Analog sequencers are typically implemented with analog electronics , and play
14472-412: The theremin that could otherwise be performed with string instruments . Avant-garde composers criticized the predominant use of electronic instruments for conventional purposes. The instruments offered expansions in pitch resources that were exploited by advocates of microtonal music such as Charles Ives , Dimitrios Levidis , Olivier Messiaen and Edgard Varèse . Further, Percy Grainger used
14606-403: The theremin to abandon fixed tonation entirely, while Russian composers such as Gavriil Popov treated it as a source of noise in otherwise-acoustic noise music . Developments in early recording technology paralleled that of electronic instruments. The first means of recording and reproducing audio was invented in the late 19th century with the mechanical phonograph . Record players became
14740-662: The title track and Syro's "XMAS_EVET10 [120] (thanaton3 mix)". At Metacritic , which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, Syro received an average score of 86, based on 36 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Clash editor Mike Diver referred to the album as "an effortless comeback" and described it as "a more immediately engaging collection" than Drukqs (2001) and "an album that plays almost exclusively to its maker's long-established strengths". Writing for The Guardian , Tim Jonze said that "[ Syro ] doesn't do what some fans will have been hoping, in that it does not completely reshape
14874-400: The two collaborated on various pieces. Luening described the event: "Equipped with earphones and a flute, I began developing my first tape-recorder composition. Both of us were fluent improvisors and the medium fired our imaginations." They played some early pieces informally at a party, where "a number of composers almost solemnly congratulated us saying, 'This is it' ('it' meaning the music of
15008-486: The way I've wired it together becomes the track in itself." James also explained that when composing the "logical thing to do is not change anything and just do another one using the same set of sounds", but during Syro ' s recording sessions he would often "get bored and swap things out". All 12 tracks were written by James in-studio. According to James, the tracks were written over an extended period; Syro features both archived and more recent compositions, with
15142-510: The week beginning 22 September 2014. The station concluded its review with the statement: "This is another fascinating record from one of the few artists on this planet who can make something very weird sound utterly amazing." Syro was also selected as "Album of the Week" by Mojo and The Sunday Times , ranked number one on The Washington Post ' s September list of "best new music", featured among Dazed ' s "top ten albums of
15276-544: The weekly chart, selling 17,751 copies in its first week of release. Syro is James' first album to reach the top 10 in the chart, and his highest peaking album in the UK to date; Selected Ambient Works Volume II had previously peaked at number 11 in March 1994. Syro also appeared on four other British charts; it placed at number 2 on the Independent Albums Chart and number 7 on
15410-465: The work of Earle Brown, Morton Feldman, and Christian Wolff continues to present a brilliant light, for the reason that at the several points of notation, performance, and audition, action is provocative." Cage completed Williams Mix in 1953 while working with the Music for Magnetic Tape Project. The group had no permanent facility, and had to rely on borrowed time in commercial sound studios, including
15544-556: Was CSIRAC , which was designed and built by Trevor Pearcey and Maston Beard. Mathematician Geoff Hill programmed the CSIRAC to play popular musical melodies from the very early 1950s. In 1951 it publicly played the Colonel Bogey March , of which no known recordings exist, only the accurate reconstruction. However, CSIRAC played standard repertoire and was not used to extend musical thinking or composition practice. CSIRAC
15678-462: Was a drum machine where pegs ( cams ) bump into little levers that operated the percussion. The drummers could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns if the pegs were moved around. In the 14th century, rotating cylinders with pins were used to play a carillon (steam organ) in Flanders, and at least in the 15th century, barrel organs were seen in the Netherlands. In
15812-579: Was also a major development in this early era. In 1956, Stockhausen composed Gesang der Jünglinge , the first major work of the Cologne studio, based on a text from the Book of Daniel . An important technological development of that year was the invention of the Clavivox synthesizer by Raymond Scott with subassembly by Robert Moog . In 1957, Kid Baltan ( Dick Raaymakers ) and Tom Dissevelt released their debut album, Song Of The Second Moon , recorded at
15946-415: Was built in 1935. however, after World War II, Japanese composers such as Minao Shibata knew of the development of electronic musical instruments. By the late 1940s, Japanese composers began experimenting with electronic music and institutional sponsorship enabled them to experiment with advanced equipment. Their infusion of Asian music into the emerging genre would eventually support Japan's popularity in
16080-558: Was completed in 2006. One audio engineer spent three months with James, helping him wire together patch panels before the engineer "realised he was doing it all wrong and had to start again". Describing the overall process as "brutal", James referred to the in-studio technical issues as the catalyst for writing new music that would be featured on Syro . James used various audio setups when composing Syro ' s material. Rearranging equipment allowed him to explore more writing possibilities; he said "that will achieve some sort of purpose, so
16214-534: Was conceived after receiving a number of suggestions from James. Among James' other suggestions for the album's packaging was "the idea of pressing the album or a single track into the fabric of the cover, effectively as a deboss ", or using various images of the raw vinyl pucks from which all copies of Syro are pressed. These suggestions were implemented into Syro ' s final LP packaging, with James' wife Anastasia Rybina credited for additional design and "puckography". The promotional campaign for Syro began when
16348-419: Was conducted by Bruno Maderna , the tape controls were operated by Karlheinz Stockhausen . The title Déserts suggested to Varèse not only "all physical deserts (of sand, sea, snow, of outer space, of empty streets), but also the deserts in the mind of man; not only those stripped aspects of nature that suggest bareness, aloofness, timelessness, but also that remote inner space no telescope can reach, where man
16482-732: Was developed. In the same decade, with a greater reliance on synthesizers and the adoption of programmable drum machines, electronic popular music came to the fore. During the 1990s, with the proliferation of increasingly affordable music technology, electronic music production became an established part of popular culture. In Berlin starting in 1989, the Love Parade became the largest street party with over 1 million visitors, inspiring other such popular celebrations of electronic music. Contemporary electronic music includes many varieties and ranges from experimental art music to popular forms such as electronic dance music . Pop electronic music
16616-451: Was invented by Raymond Scott, using thyratrons and relays . Clavivox , developed since 1952, was a kind of keyboard synthesizer with sequencer. On its prototype, a theremin manufactured by young Robert Moog was utilized to enable portamento over 3-octave range, and on later version, it was replaced by a pair of photographic film and photocell for controlling the pitch by voltage . In 1968, Ralph Lundsten and Leo Nilsson had
16750-465: Was made available for stream and as a digital download following its premiere on BBC Radio 1 earlier that day. Syro was released on Warp on 19 September 2014 in Australia, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and Switzerland; 22 September in the UK and various European countries, including Denmark and Netherlands; 23 September in the US; and 24 September in Japan. The album
16884-620: Was mainly researched on the expensive mainframe computers in computer centers, until the 1970s when minicomputers and then microcomputers became available in this field. In Japan, experiments in computer music date back to 1962, when Keio University professor Sekine and Toshiba engineer Hayashi experimented with the TOSBAC computer. This resulted in a piece entitled TOSBAC Suite . In 1965, Max Mathews and L. Rosler developed Graphic 1 , an interactive graphical sound system (that implies sequencer) on which one could draw figures using
17018-540: Was never recorded, but the music played was accurately reconstructed. The oldest known recordings of computer-generated music were played by the Ferranti Mark 1 computer, a commercial version of the Baby Machine from the University of Manchester in the autumn of 1951. The music program was written by Christopher Strachey . The earliest group of electronic musical instruments in Japan, Yamaha Magna Organ
17152-503: Was no longer necessary for each synthesizer to have its own devoted keyboard. As the technology matured, sequencers gained more features, such as the ability to record multitrack audio . Sequencers used for audio recording are called digital audio workstations (DAWs). Many modern sequencers can be used to control virtual instruments implemented as software plug-ins . This allows musicians to replace expensive and cumbersome standalone synthesizers with their software equivalents. Today
17286-523: Was not until the advent of MIDI , introduced to the public in 1983, that general-purpose computers really started to play a role as software sequencers. NEC 's personal computers, the PC-88 and PC-98 , added support for MIDI sequencing with MML programming in 1982. In 1983, Yamaha modules for the MSX featured music production capabilities, real-time FM synthesis with sequencing, MIDI sequencing, and
17420-482: Was offered access to emerging audio technology by Sony. The company hired Toru Takemitsu to demonstrate their tape recorders with compositions and performances of electronic tape music. The first electronic tape pieces by the group were "Toraware no Onna" ("Imprisoned Woman") and "Piece B", composed in 1951 by Kuniharu Akiyama. Many of the electroacoustic tape pieces they produced were used as incidental music for radio, film, and theatre. They also held concerts employing
17554-669: Was one of the earliest digital music workstation product with multitrack sequencer. Synclavier series evolved throughout the late-1970s to the mid-1980s, and they also established integration of digital-audio and music-sequencer, on their Direct-to-Disk option in 1984, and later Tapeless Studio system. In 1982, renewed the Fairlight CMI Series II and added new sequencer software "Page R", which combined step sequencing with sample playback. While there were earlier microprocessor-based sequencers for digital polyphonic synthesizers, their early products tended to prefer
17688-543: Was released on triple LP , CD and various digital formats, including MP3 , AAC , WAV and FLAC . A limited-edition box set version of Syro , featuring a bonus track debossed on perspex vinyl, was released through Bleep.com . Limited to 200 pressings, interested users had to first enter a lottery, "in the interest of fairness", to become eligible. Syro placed on the mid-week UK Albums Chart at number 2, selling 9,000 copies fewer than This Is All Yours by alt-J . It subsequently debuted at number 8 on
17822-444: Was the first programmable music sequencer device, and the first example of repetitive music technology , powered by hydraulics . In 1206, Al-Jazari , an Arab engineer , invented programmable musical automata , a " robot band " which performed "more than fifty facial and body actions during each musical selection." It was notably the first programmable drum machine . Among the four automaton musicians were two drummers. It
17956-416: Was the first " movement " of Cinq études de bruits , and marked the beginning of studio realizations and musique concrète (or acousmatic art). Schaeffer employed a disc cutting lathe , four turntables, a four-channel mixer, filters, an echo chamber, and a mobile recording unit. Not long after this, Pierre Henry began collaborating with Schaeffer, a partnership that would have profound and lasting effects on
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