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'Old school' synthesiser built 40 years on


Still Waters

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An electronic sequencer and synthesiser has been built based on designs produced more than 40 years ago by electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram.

Ms Oram who died in 2003, co-founded the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and developed a system of creating sounds and compositions using drawings.

The machine is thought to have remained unfinished in her own lifetime.

But experts say the Mini Oramics's approach to composition and performance would have been influential.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-36651270

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I'm bang in to my old synthesizer stuff, and love the Radiophonic Workshop. I'm such a nerd. Oram was a genius.

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Fantastic article!!! Such a cool 'old' synth. The technology behind is still being used quite often today. 

This is amazingly similar to the 'piano roll' in most modern Digital Audio Workstation programs. I use Cubase for all my recordings and every once in awhile I go into the piano roll to make a few edits such as extending note lengths and note velocity. It's all done on a grid like the video demonstration in the article link shows. 
To me, how a synthesizer works is just as important as how it sounds. Many of the 'old school' synths sound much better to me than most of the newer ones out there. Something about the vintage oscillators have a better tone than the modern digital waveform synths. I own a mix of old school and modern synths (12 total.... so far) and I still use every singe one of them.

With modern technology moving more toward the virtual synths we will probably see less and less actual hardware synths being designed. I've already noticed that companies like Korg and Roland to not come out with new hardware synthesizers as often as they used to. 
 

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