Laurie Spiegel plays Alles synth - temporary replacement

[@MusicMouse]

"Good" or "bad" sounds is not something I think about. I just use sounds to make music and often enjoy listening to them. But, since you ask, I do think some sounds are "bad". There are sounds that are physically painful or harmful. There are sounds the military make that may be killing whales and dolphins. If a sound can be "bad" certainly those would be.

[@22mar79]

When some people start complaining about what kind of notes a musician is playing more than enjoying the music and asking themselves why there are thousands being killed out there with their consent and sponsorship, it's time for the military to push the red button, if there is one (I doubt). 🙂

[@MusicMouse]

For those of you wanting more about this instrument (and please bear in mind that this was state of the art as of 1977) there is tech data at lauriespiegel.net/ls/obsolete_systems/Alles_synth_1977.pdf

[@audioartisan]

Thank you for the Tech Data link. And thank you for pioneering so many contributions to Electronic Music. Very appreciated. :)

[@christopherholmes1750]

I think its fab

[@CultureFusionSite]

It still sounds amazing. There's nothing quite like that sound.

[@A_New_Yorker_Lost_In_Florida]

i always had a major crush on u laurie!!! i too am a synthesist andi love your music!!!! u are a major inspiration in my life...ty vm

[@AlexPelayo]

Laurie, where are you? we are waiting for you. We need you more than ever

[@peatrude4872]

This deserves a lot more recognition.

[@b.benjamineriksson6030]

Sure. She is a legend though. Not in the main-stream maybe but still.

[@MusicMouse]

Yes it was FM synthesis - several years before the Yamaha DX-7 came out and with additional variables, such as putting the number of harmonics in the modulator and carrier on real-time faders, which was probably unique to the software played in this video.

[@MusicMouse]

Hi Diego. This instrument did not have fixed functions like a sequencer does. It's a computer that is running a program I wrote. Yes, there are some stored patterns, ones you can see me select with the switches in the top right corner, but most of what you hear is the software reprocessing what I play live on the keyboard and building a texture out of it, then playing it back to accompany me. That's why I called this software a "concerto generator". Too complex to explain more right here.

[@willypotts100]

“If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.” ― John Cage

[@ahzootube]

Hmm interesting

[@petrut.1224]

It's actually the opposite for me. I rejected the mainstream stuff and got deep into this area.

[@MusicMouse]

Hi KipGenJin. I definitely meant FM, but you are right that there were additive processes going on as well. The FM modulator and carrier signals were created by additive synthesis, with the number of harmonics in each controlled in real time by sliders. The digitally-generated sine waves that were added to form the carrier and modulator signal waveforms were made by hardware that was being prototyped in the lab and tested by musical use in this instrument. I hope that answers your questions ok.

[@amycollins8832]

Absolutely brilliant! These tones are heavenly and otherworldly to me. Thank you.

[@mothman2]

I keep coming back to this a lot, shame it only lasts 3 mins.

[@AlanRanta]

This video of Laurie Spiegel is the perfect thing to show your friend who only listens to guitar music. This is the Jimi Hendrix solo of synthesis.

[@diegoceron5097]

Baba M1

[@tarkusvideochile]

He descubierto hace muy poco su música, soy fanático de los sintetizadores desde pequeño, ahora con 51 no termino de conocer y aprender: Su música es maravillosa, su album "Unseen Worlds" se ha convertido en mi compañero de viaje día a día y "The Expanding Universe" mi conexión con el Universo: Muchas gracias por su música y por compartir su conocimiento en su canal.

[@MeatyController]

I first saw this improvisation in the OHM: Early Gurus of Electronic music compilation DVD. That was close to ten years ago. Now as I begin to study and compose with FM synthesis, I've become all the more inspired watching this. I see this piece as the glorious dawn of digital synthesis! It emits so many emotions and states of mind; curiosity, melancholy, confusion, and triumph. I believe it is because of this kaleidoscopic profusion of feeling that we are still in awe of it after all these years.

[@jorgmuller3110]

Way ahead of it's time

[@firsthippy]

Watched "Sisters with Transistors" the other night. It's very cool to find some longer pieces of the music highlighted in that film on youtube.

[@chrisjenkins6687]

I recently heard Obsolete Systems and found it fascinating, and this live performance is something else again - marvellous stuff, astonishing technology. I look forward to hearing more Laurie Spiegel.

[@tamaspeter5632]

Organic, alive, FM, goosebumps...

[@DavidMorley]

This video always thrills me. A wonderful performance Laurie

[@michaelbauers8800]

Everytime someone reposts this to a synth page, I rewatch it. I enjoy the timbral flexibility of digital synths.

[@byrondot]

Impressive performance. Thank you for your beautiful art.

[@mattalles6333]

Excited to find this! Hal Alles is my uncle. I remember seeing the promo materials for the more portable Synergy keyboard. He still has one, and the associated Kaypro.

[@MusicMouse]

Also although realtime "software synths" were not feasible at that point except the generation very simple signals (e.g. squarewaves by bit-toggling or noise generators by scanning CORE memory content to a DAC), non-realtime (non-interactive) software synthesis had been going on since the late 1950s.

[@Lexvander]

Hearing Laurie Spiegel's music around 1980 was one of my first encounters with computer music - it changed my life.

[@beatriz.t]

Laurie Spiegel, an inspiration. thank you.

[@andrewcs_]

i started programming digital synths using real time control over FM carrier/modular indices in max/msp about two years ago, had no idea that's what you were doing way back then ! so cool laurie thanks for your work, such an inspiring person :)

[@Gnorghosz]

Fantastic. It's like a new ways of sounds, never heard this kind of sound process. Marvelous. Thank you Laurie, I will explore it.

[@tomfoley5975]

I had the great pleasure and privilege of house-sitting Laurie's Tribeca loft (below Richard Serra's - I hear he has now taken over the whole building) and looking after her dog, Dopey in the early 1980's. I still keep recordings of my own forays in electronic music on her McLeyvier synth. Those were the days! Cheers, Laurie.

[@MusicMouse]

Hi Tom! :-)

[@michaelbauers8800]

I mainly know about that synth because of Strange Brew. Who owns it now if it still exists?

[@meagain2222]

wow very fine piece of true electronic music so rare these days.What a blessing.Thank you.

[@crackprods]

Most of the composers of the electronic revolution, 50's thru 70's, were men, but the greatest of all of them was a woman. Laurie, you not only pushed the vocabulary of the technology forward, but you wrote unspeakably beautiful music that was entirely adapted to its new context, that sounded new and eternal at the same time. AND you made Music Mouse. Thank you x

[@luquenhash]

Disagree. The best women in electronic music, for me, are Delia Derbyshire and Constance Demby. Even so, Delia is like a shadow to David Vorhaus, as Constance Demby is a shadow to Terry Riley. I mean, you always find a male example who is better than his female equivalent.

[@MusicMouse]

Music is an art, not a competition. There is no such thing as "best". And we each like different music at different times too, just as we each make different kinds of contributions as music evolves. Thanks nonetheless for the high praise of the first of these comments. I reject the assertion that there is a better male composer for every kind of music a women does. It's amazing that anyone would even think that let alone make such a judgemental sweeping generalization in public.

[@luquenhash]

I always find assertions that women are better and more advanced in this or that area (what I relate to a natural feminist reaction of our present liberal society), as we can see in the first of these comments, asserting that the greatest of all electronic composers of 50s to 70s was a woman (you) - which you apparently don't rejected, of course. I understand that it can be his preference. In the same way, I just expressed my preference, and appreciate the freedom you give to us in your channel to express our opinion.

[@MusicMouse]

Lucas de Brito who ever said that women are better at it than men? We are mostly just trying to be treated equally and until recently most of us weren't even noticed in this field. But more fundamentally, why do you try keep trying to rank the personal work of unique creative artists above and below? I did push back a bit on that very gratifying glowing praise, when I said that music isn't a competition. It's an activity of individuals and we are all different, and different people like various kinds of music at different times. Why would I need to be seen as better or worse than Delia or Daphne? We are each just being ourselves musically. That being said, lots of people have gotten a lot out of my music and I'm happy about that. It was a tremendous amount of work to get good music out of the bleeding edge of tech that was generally not meant for musical use back when electronic and digital music were first being explored.

[@luquenhash]

Well, Mrs Spiegel, the guy with nick Curious Orange said that a woman is the best at it, and I said that, for me, is a man. In fact I rank works above and below according to my preferences. I agree music is not a competition like soccer or MMA, but I believe there are attributes in art that make a work better or worse than another. Artists like The Beatles and The Beach Boys, that were constantly competing for the best 60s pop album, also believed it. I think a bit of competition is also profitable for art. Sorry for my english, it's not my first idiom.

[@loydanonamous1217]

This is an electronic music classic masterpiece.Pure genius. Thank you for sharing this with us Laurie. I sure wish you could go back to that old machine and create more masterpieces like this.

[@giordano.rizzardi]

Every time i look at this it's always an emotion, thanks Laurie Spiegel !

[@ronaldkreimel8501]

That is so inspiring to see You work with this synthesizer! There is so much character to be discovered in such a "machine". Thank You for uploading this and giving so much insight in the comments! Must now go make sounds right away...

[@Ruby-xk8kn]

you are such an inspiration Laurie, my hero :)

[@michelzenitud5524]

Zenitud complète avec elle 🌹👌🔊🔊🔊 Laurie petit bout de femme créatrice de génie 💕🔊🔊🔊🔊 J'adore ! 😚Michel !

[@mbreeson]

So great to see this. I wish it would play on both the left and right channel. It seems to only come out of the left channel unfortunately. That aside, I am in awe of the early FM synthesis. I have a great respect and admiration for your work Ms. Spiegel. Thank you for everything!

[@joshmoore9712]

This is additive.

[@ghostexits]

Is there a current MIDI platform that incorporates the concerto generator processing function. i.e. real-time interactive note/harmonic accompaniment? Man, this video is a revelation. It really peaked my interest in the early digital synthesizers and the work that was created on them.

[@MusicMouse]

I’d assume that by now plenty of people are doing it, each in a different one of the infinite number of ways that what one plays could be processed and then played back. I don’t know of one specific example I could link you to. But any programming language provides the potential to.

[@ghostexits]

Laurie Spiegel I figured there must be; although in a way, it's sort of a specialized application. I'll have to do some research. Ms. Spiegel, do you continue to compose and perform? Whenever I see the press photo of you with all the EML equipment, I can't help but wonder if you still have it or use it from time to time?

[@edgeeffect]

When they were doing this, they had to start the software from first principles. In more recent years, there platforms like Max and Pure Data that have made this kind of programming far more accessible.

[@matthieu573]

Your work is amazing ! You're a great artist. Matthieu from France.

[@rukanoMusic]

this is totally great... I could listen to it for days! it has something different and more attracting the most of the moder "i-can-do-everything" synths... thanks for this!

[@Cednj]

Excellent !

[@michaelbauers8800]

I really like that sound that comes in around 30 seconds, a low frequency sound with a lot of noise. Those are the sorts of sounds like on synths, because while I presume there are some mechnical ways to get similar sounds, they are not traditional sounds or analog synthy sounds. It's why I like modern synths like the Waldorf Blofeld.

[@MusicMouse]

@MrWillbloke Yes there is. Scroll down a bit on this page: retiary.org/ls/obsolete_systems Detailed tech info on the instrument is in this pdf: retiary.org/ls/obsolete_systems/Alles_synth_1977.pdf Thanks for asking. You're the first person who ever did.

[@MusicMouse]

@lordoid "One of these?" There only ever was one. It was a prototype and test for many of its components and a proof-of-concept for a realtime digital synthesis musical instrument. Compared to the large room-sized computers used for making music at that time it was sleek, small and cute, and it was blue - beautiful and little in the context of its times. This instrument went o Oberlin College. I don't know its status there today, if it is still there or works.

[@rscottenglish]

I love her very cool studio desk setup. ; - )

[@GeorgCarlson]

wow, how are you not more known? spectacular wizardry level stuff!

[@monolunarazul]

Thank you so much for the music! Amazing!

[@rivotrich7]

Beautiful sounds!

[@MuzikJunky]

We wish you'd record again! Peace.

[@howardkleger2]

This is a first for me. Usually, notable musician's pages are auto-generated. I like the tone of the more active/shifting compositions. I'm focusing in on that approach to sound composition, but now heading more into thematics; specifically building up a small side menu family-tree of sounds like using popular rock as the main branches and following that logic, then using that as the pallette to choose for such and such focus in a series to compose a few in the frame of a few theme albums.

[@victora.r.8583]

Loved it. It moved me...

[@setphaser]

Totally amazing Laurie! It's odd to me how inspiring it is to see another female musician make something so out there and be such a musical role model. I guess it's extra special when it's a female, particularly as the field is so male dominated. I'm babbling, what I'm saying is, I admire your work greatly, somehow I feel like I should feel awkward for that, funny isn't it? Thank you! I hope I find more magic like this in my travels.

[@mrknoch]

Fantastic!

[@brettinoloverromantico4095]

Mesmerizing 🍄

[@cosmowerkstapes]

refreshing. really love it.

[@MHaudiochannel]

Every time I watch this, it never fails to stun.

[@jediforce6551]

just my cup of tea, this! 🤩

[@mauricesrocynski5610]

vraiment incroyable et magnifique merci

[@FM_MARCIANO]

VERY VERY GOOD THANK YOU👽

[@CaseyVan]

I used to download and try all kinds of generative music software, and interfaces, but I could not try Music Mouse, because I didn't have a Mac. I could only imagine what it sounded like. So I invented my own interface, called it MIDI Mouse. It was a grid that worked like a harmonica. The right click was a draw, and the left click was a blow on a harmonica, but there were several rows, and I added a bass line.

[@markhh99]

lovely and amazing. where can i get that glorious machine.

[@KristopherBernard]

Beautiful performance. The tones and textures are sublime. Thank you.

[@flopart]

This is so hugely inspiring to me. I've become fascinated by 60s/70s Bell creative output, which started with seeing a Ken Knowlton video and now I've found you! Wow.

[@filmstaratease]

You are a legend!

[@TEMPOTENCIAL-videos]

Sensacional.Profundo

[@dreamcyberium]

Most of the electronica pioneers of the fifties to the seventies were men. While what they have contributed was nothing short of incredible, women like you and Suzanne Ciani are just as incredible, but perhaps too obscure. I look up to musicians and technicians like you. Beautiful. I would buy any of your albums in a heartbeat.

[@marekpiotrowicz6051]

Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and Elizabeth Parker all worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and were certanly great poineers of electronic music.

[@MrWillbloke]

@MusicMouse , second link doesn't work :-( . I managed to find some info on Wiki but then got sidetracked reading about the Amy chip ! I work in a University supporting Music Tech , got really interested in early computer music when a Lecturer played me John Chownings Turenas on our Pro-tools surround rig !

[@hiperateo]

amazing

[@rockingharderthanyou]

Thank you.!

[@MusicMouse]

@6364gg2 It wasn't that kind of general purpose computer. We could only program it remotely, from a PDP 11/45 in another part of the building over trunk cables. Those 11/45s did run early UNIX and the software I wrote for this interactive performance set-up was in an early version of C. - Laurie

[@studiodreadful]

Gut gemacht, Danke ...

[@stomachlining]

love it

[@grospuf]

[@aliensporebomb]

I'm amazed and happy this footage exists - that was so far ahead of its time it's funny!

[@jeffreyclement2726]

Ought to give Morton Subotsky's electronic music box a listen.

[@CaseyVan]

Although I'm not much into playing music, or collecting CD's, I still see a need for ambient music to play while I'm at work, sonic landscapes that are not too distracting, but keep me from being bored. Maybe some day I will find a way to generate non-stop music, maybe an Android app. The MIDI Mouse was created with Visual Basic 6.

[@MusicMouse]

@DeRex9 "Synth porn"? I hope that isn't bad. This synth was built in 1977 by Hal Alles and his team at Bell Telephone Labs, Holmdel, NJ. It is all digital. There was no realtime digitial synthesis in the 1960s and this one-of-a-kind instrument was a first in many ways. Hal and BTL got a lot of patents out of it. There is a link on the video's page to a Computer Music Journal article that more fully describes it.

[@muthalovah]

Love this video - there only seems to be audio in the left channel though, if you could fix that it would be fantastic!

[@manunanakiki3730]

Es ist so ähnlich wie jemandem beim kochen zu zusehen. Toll, wenn man sowas kann.

[@DanielHeikalo]

Brilliant, AND beautiful. Thank you Laurie.

[@thePOLYGIRL]

its so nice to walk thru your sound and music garden(-s) !

[@Seekthetruth3000]

Beautiful sounds, thanks for the post!

[@costasaroniadis3376]

Great video just a few days.i.descover you ...im very interest about you and your music ...may ask where us now this synth

[@MusicMouse]

It went to Oberlin College. No one managed to get it working again there. Eventually they took out the processors for sound generation, filtration etc. I think they are using the physical interface as a bank of MIDI controllers.

[@costasaroniadis3376]

@@MusicMouse im very happy to.find you i have start my trip to electronic music ...i.like the hardware synths more from midi but many times i use both ...to be honest .. i like to find more about you and if you still produce new music ...thanks

[@murdockscott]

Wonderful. I felt like I was geographically and culturally isolated in my youth and had difficulty finding information about people I considered pioneers in electronic music. What little I did discover from people like Laurie Spiegel inspired me a great deal. It's a real joy to live in a time when I can explore so much more. Thank you very much for sharing this. I wonder if my copy of music mouse will load if I stick the floppy in the old Mac Plus I have sitting on the shelf. The bigger question is would I be able to find a midi interface these days! : )

[@petedako]

Beautiful ~ thank you Laurie!

[@MusicMouse]

@lordoid Ah! I just found your message. You already checked it out at Oberlin. (Good work!) I heard a rumor it was dropped on the stairs while being moved and was never the same again, but that was only a rumor. It was extremely far from an easy instrument to program, that in itself could have been why it never sang again.

[@MusicMouse]

@lordoid It was a true prototype, so there only ever was one of these. After Bell Labs it went to Oberlin College computer music lab. I don't think they ever got it to work. Had to be programmed in the C language remotely over a UNIX network.

[@kriz716]

Really nice highly recommended

[@federicogoez]

Te amo

[@bbs1369]

Beautiful and unique - must track down a full quality recording. Thank you. Ben and Ayako from London.

[@angelometz]

Thanks for posting! Fantastic!

[@xoio]

Could one of these be BOC's 'secret weapon' ......

[@mootbooxle]

This is fantastic!! Thank you Laurie! Is this machine all additive synthesis?

[@MusicMouse]

No, but I keep seeing people saying that. It has 256 digital gizmos that can act as filters, which when set to oscillate can be used as sine wave generators, and those can be connected however you wanted programm it. In this video I used some of them as filters but to generate the sounds I paired them as modulator-carrier pairs to do (pre-Yamaha) FM synthesis. I did additive synthesis within this program but only indirectly, not for the signals you hear. I used the slider panel Interactively in real time to control the number of harmonics in the carrier and modulator of each FM pair.

[@mootbooxle]

Laurie Spiegel Thank you for explaining that, Laurie! It definitely sounded like FM to my ears, but I didn't know that it was possible, so I assumed it was some sort of additive thing. That's fascinating! Is this machine still intact somewhere?

[@MusicMouse]

The instrument was moved to the computer music lab at Oberlin College not long after this video was made. They were never able to get it up and running again that I know of, and eventually it was gutted, the physical interface (keyb, sliders etc.) connected to parameters on some modern synth, and its powerful internal synthesis engine is probably a goner.

[@goldleafsound]

man this is probably the best video on the whole internet! what a synthy babe

[@feeeedyabrain]

That's a good theory about music. After sought, tasted and loved all the music types & genres i finished on this conclusion : All the music types are good, you just have to find how to appreciate them there's just a state of mind that got the musician when he makes his music and if you want to appreciate it, you have to understand it. I'm fan of old synth and old rhythm-box that got their propper sound, and i don't pretend that i fully understand your music, but it sounds pretty good ! Respect

[@alsaulso1332]

she killing it!!! 100% love it

[@gmrblgargl]

Sounds like Michael Stearns "Planetary Unfolding"

[@TheTerminator1919]

Djjjjj Khaaaled! I mean Laurie.

[@wurlybird9]

machines can amplify human energies. broadcast and replicate though the cold vast space. capturing the interaction. a strange love and discipline. deep and magical. transcendent but never extending beyond the most extreme limits. one is longing for travels but the journey must remain safe. all is understood, energies shall align and illuminate the way. you close your eyes, become one with sound. your light rides the wave and thus an infinite closed loop of satisfaction

[@Deepwatermusic]

Awesome!

[@ajantred]

Its like a big DX7 :D

[@tamaspeter5632]

Yep. An unzipped DX7.

[@alienbandfreq]

wow wow wow. i would just love to have play on that, just amazing !