Wendy Carlos

This website is a trip back in time! I love coming across old style sites out in the wild. It reminds me of a bygone era. Her site makes me want to change the style of mine and go back to old school design paradigms. http://www.wendycarlos.com/ (Another great site when you need a little nostalgia boost is Space Jam: https://www.spacejam.com/)

Another classic from an electronic music pioneer, author of the original TRON score: http://www.wendycarlos.com/

Also did the great soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange. An under-appreciated electronic music pioneer. https://www.wendycarlos.com/+wcco.html

There's some more fascinating backstory on Carlos' own website: http://www.wendycarlos.com/+tron.html I love the whole score, especially the pipe organ solo. It's interesting that the theme was in 7/8 right from the start -- you'd have thought a power of two would be more appropriate for computers! But somehow it works. The rhythm and harmony both feel like they're pushing towards the future.

It's called timestretching. You basically have to chop up the sound into little bits and play them back in a staggered fashion. The technology has a history from before the digital age: http://www.wendycarlos.com/other/Eltro-1967/index.html Boutique DSP developer Sean Costello has done a great series of articles here: https://valhalladsp.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/digital-pitch-shifting-ea…

Perhaps the greatest contributor to the philosophy behind my own site is taken from the website of Wendy Carlos. Her site houses a page describing how her website ‘lives’: [1] > I’m happy to report that this page (like most housework) will never be finished. It is a living document that grows and matures, just like most of real life. It is not a “work in progress”, for this would imply not much intrinsic value until that magic day it is completed. > A novel is a work of art that, once completed may continue to exist forever in that finished state. An encyclopedia must be published at regular intervals to reflect new information gathered since the day it was published. Periodicals are timely only when first printed, then fall behind the times – get the latest issue to keep up. The technology behind web documents allows us to update information as often as is necessary. In this context, publishing dates become an outdated concept. > While it is possible to “finish” a web document, the fixed information becomes stagnant, thus abolishing any desire for a return visit. This is something I call a cob-web page. [1]: https://www.wendycarlos.com/live.html

No mention in the article of Switched on Bach 2000. This is the album that was a distillation all of her knowledge and skill. Entirely digital (DKS Synergy and Yamaha FM), except for a single Moog note! (She leaves it as a challenge to listeners to locate it...) The tracks are almost unreal: as different from 'modern' subtractive 'fat' analog-style synths as can be. She champions complex timbres and original tunings, and it makes a tremendous difference to the music. I compared a classical organ recording of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor to her version, and what a difference! Her tuning makes the music so much richer, and she surrounds the listener with a dizzying web of sound - the surround sound is incredible! Her articles in Keyboard magazine, about the making of SoB2000, were a huge influence on how I came to perceive music. BTW, Wendy Carlos is also a brilliant eclipse photographer: http://www.wendycarlos.com/eclipse.html

Wendy Carlos' album "Beauty in the Beast" is an exploration of these types of alternative tuning schemes. https://www.wendycarlos.com/+bitb.html

It was entirely analog (well, all except for the fingers). Switched-On Bach was recorded in 1968, playing one voice at a time on a keyboard going to a custom 8-track tape recorder. https://www.wendycarlos.com/+sob.html And I was another who found it enthralling when it came out, and still do.

The page you are thinking of is probably https://www.wendycarlos.com/pruri.html I agree, Wendy is a pioneer and has an incredible body of work. It’s a shame her music is mostly out of print and not available to stream. I realize that’s her choice but it leaves her legacy unavailable to modern audiences.

Yes! Adding to what you said, Wendy Carlos has an interesting writeup on her MIDI "Wurlitzer": https://www.wendycarlos.com/wurlynew/, and the "Historical Roots" section mentions the use in silent movies.

There was Rediscovering Lost Scores, a two-volume CD set, as mentioned in the article. https://www.wendycarlos.com/+rls1.html https://www.wendycarlos.com/+rls2.html

Much as I personally like the Wendy Carlos Tron work, I've got a feeling it didn't resonate with Disney audiences and that really hurt the film at the box office. The visuals were really slick but the music was very jarring and sometimes discordant for people used to saccharine soundtracks... https://www.wendycarlos.com/+tron.html