When the phono needle first touched down on Switched On Bach (Columbia MS7194) there really wasn’t a shot fired around the world. It was an esoteric few, locked behind laboratory doors or piled under records, who first picked up on the sound of the synthesizer. Our electronic beast of a friend just had no friends and even fewer were the numbers willing to expend the phenomenal cash to develop and popularize this weird concoction pT a musical instrument. In its primeval stages of development, the wall which separated the musicians and the technologists was high, but each day brings them closer.

With the goal of producing any sound imaginable to the infinite degree, the technocrats undauntedly spurted forward into that mass most easily identified with 2001, A Space Odyssey, in search of musicians to use their creation. Ah, but yes, science meets* music. It happened first in the early Fifties, even before Bill Haley started curling his waterfall y when RCA constructed the first Electronic Music Synthesizer, called Mark I (mind you, this was before Star Trek). The Mark I had enough bugs to please even the leastprofit-minded of electronic pest exterminators. Thus paving the way for Mark II. (If at first you don’t... etc.)

In 1960, so the story goes, RCA, in an effort to continue its tax exemptions, loaned the Mark II to the Columbia-Princeton Music Center for further development. Then, during the Sixties, competition enters under the name of the Buchla, named after Don Buchla, its mentor-inventor in Berkeley, California. The Buchla was brought out by CBS Musical Instruments (Fender’s new daddy) and featured such characteristics as “a varied vocabulary of sounds in any combination of time signatures and tempos, three varieties of signals that may be filtered, gated, mixed, modulated or otherwise processed in composing, a standard control range from 0 to 15 volts, timing pulses programmable sequencers and pulse generators” and other such undeterminable processes. But the point being, little was understood except that for the consumer, it would take 29 years on the highways of America collecting soda pop bottles (CREEM soda?) and salvaging car parts just to get up the bread to put a down payment on one of these electronic noise makers (retailed at roughly $60,000) which just about nobody knew how to operate.

Yes, in its early stages; the operatormusician would have to be reincarnated several times — once as an electrician, once as a technician, and once again as a musician, just to know the capabilities of the synthesizer.

But, a break-through. In the mid-Sixties, a man whom everyone seems to know by name only, Robert A. Moog, came out with his version of the synthesizer, which closed the gap of technician and musician and capitalist ($2,500 to $15,000). iSome musicians even had the guts to use one, but with the success of Wayne Newton at a rock festival. Then, the closest event to a final success occurred when Walter Carlos recorded Switched On Bach with a Moog synthesizer. The Moog employed for this album was relatively cheap and simple to operate compared to the previous experiments. But even with the release of this LP, few had the capital to take this beast from its cave — the recording studio.

The event of Carlos’ album did spread the idea around that perhaps a . synthesizer had a chance in the music industry. Companies from all over the States started investigating the idea of putting a mini-synthesizer in the home of every musician and with that investigation came the roll call of companies like Arp, Moog, Putney, Ludwig, EMS (England), BCM Sound Systems, et al. There was even an unidentified man down in L.A. who could build a little black box which converted the essentially keyboard operated synthesizer to the guitar (now a feature claimed by the majority of companies).

For a brief analysis. Moog, like Kleenex and Coca-Cola, is the name most commonly used to explain synthesizers, but it appears that Arp (named after Alan'R. Pearlman, its inventor) is the most popularly used synthesizer in rock. The Arp, originally built by Tonus, Inc., was released in 1969. This beast was aimed at the working musician — working musicians like Elton John, Beach Boys, N.Y. Rock Ensemble, Herbie Hancock, the Rascals, Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, Jefferson Airplane, Chicago, Seatrain, John Lennon, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, Al Kooper, the James Gang, Santana, Three Dog Night, Sly and the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, Peter Townshend and on and on. This is not to say that Moog dosen’t have its impressive lineup of names, but it seems that ARP beat Moog in the price game by sacrificing certain effects for a more efficient running machine.

The synthesizer is basically approached as a keyboard or electronic instrument. Its most favored characteristic is that it can be programmed, that is, making effects to be played at a later date. A description of most synthesizer functions would be like reading a glossary of Mozambique’s most infrequently used idiomatic phrases, things like voltage controlled oscillators, envelope generators, envelope followers, bidirectional electronic switches, twin uncorrelated stereo outputs and such. But like the art of airplane flying-, each dosage brings you a little closer to understanding what the hell is going on, and most manufacturers are pretty explicit in their instructions on use. Many of the manufacturers (ARP especially and soon Moog Music) have made it easy enough for the performer to play the synthesizer without having to bother with the “why’s or names” of sounds produced. You merely press tfye touch sensitive keys of the keyboard and experiment with the dials, slide gauges and buttons which suit your fancy. Even the number of patch cords is dwindling. Usually the performer plays the rhythm elements on the keyboard and melody lines on the switchboard.

If effects interest you, listen to Switched On Bach (Columbia MS 7194), Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind {Tamla 319 — first cut on LP for vocal and instrumental effects), Who’s Next (Decca 79182), Yes’ Close to the Edge (Atlantic SD 7244). This should give you a pretty good idea of which functions are most commonly used. Keen to make note, Stevie Wonder and Peter Townshend both use the ARP 2600 model. For further information, you may write: ARP Instruments, 45 Kenneth St., Newton Highlands, MA. 02161; The Buchla, Director of Educational Research Dept., CBS Musical Instruments, 1300 East Valencia, Fullerton CA. 92631; Ludwig Electronics, 1728 N. Damen Ave., Chicago, IL 60647; EMS Of England, Inc., 140 East 80th St., NY NY 10021; BCM Sound Systems, 1833 Shaw Ave., Pittsburgh, PA. 15217; and Moog Music, Foot Academy, Williamsville, NY 14221. Wh