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Weapon of Choice: Synclavier
The
New England Digital Synclavier System was a powerful,
integrated system for music synthesis and recording, first developed
at Dartmouth College by Jon Appleton, Sydney Alonso, Cameron Jones
and finally brought to world wide exposure by Brad Naples. Released
in the late 1970s, the Synclavier boasted a 100 kHz sampling rate
and storage on large magneto-optical discs. Synclaviers were purchased
by hundreds of artists and recording studios, often at prices in
excess of $200,000. Notable early adopters included:
Laurie Anderson, whose 1984 album "Mister
Heartbreak" includes visual depictions of Synclavier sound
waves in the liner notes
The Cars
Genesis
Duran Duran
Herbie Hancock
Producer Trevor Horn, who used the Synclavier on
records by Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Yes,
and Grace Jones, among others
Michael Jackson, particularly on his 1982 album
"Thriller"
Pat Metheny
Producer Daniel Miller, founder of Mute Records, who used it on
many Depeche Mode records
Sting
Producer Mike Thorne, who used the Synclavier on
records by Siouxsie & The Banshees, Soft Cell, Marc Almond,
and Bronski Beat, among others
Frank Zappa, who composed his 1986 Grammy-winning
album Jazz From Hell on the instrument, and whose posthumous two-hour
Civilization, Phaze III was allegedly seventy percent Synclavier-made.
New England Digital went out of business due to venture capitalists
pulling the plug in 1992. The Synclavier is no longer manufactured,
but many systems are still in use in the recording industry, particularly
in Sound Scoring & Sound Design for major movies and in music
composition and performance. In the mid 80's, the Synclavier adopted
the Macintosh Computer as the front end/user interface to the synclavier
as championed within the company by Mac fanatic Svend Erik Filby.
The Synclavier is based around two separate systems - FM voices
and SAMPLE voices - combined together under one dedicated Real Time
Performance control software interface. There is also the option
to add the Direct-to-Disk™ hard disk recording system which
is also controlled seamlessly using the same control software. The
Synclavier is famous for its depth of sound, versatility at sound
creation and production, and speed of use.
NEW ENGLAND DIGITAL
New England Digital Corp. (1976 - 1992), based
in White River Junction, Vermont, was best known for its signature
product, the Synclavier System. Originally developed
as the "Dartmouth Digital Synthesizer" by Dartmouth College
professor Jon Appleton, in association with NED founders Cameron
W. Jones and Sydney A. Alonso, - and subsequently
under the marketing guidance of Brad Naples [1] who spotted the
business potential of the design - the Synclavier became one of
the most advanced electronic synthesis and recording tools of the
day.
The system was nearly as famous for where it was not used, as it
was for the list of premier studios in which it was: the extremely
sophisticated synthesizer enjoyed the distinction of being banned
from many famous concert halls, out of fear that it would obsolete
the musicians themselves. For a while in the '80s there was even
a common phrase going around 'Is it live or is it Synclavier?'
particularly relating to certain performers and musicians who were
found to be miming to an entire show performed by Synclavier.
The mature Synclavier was a modular, component-based system that
included facilities for FM-based synthesis, digital
sampling, hard-disk recording, and sophisticated
computer-based sound editing. By the late 1980s, complete Synclavier
systems were selling for upwards of $200,000, to famous musicians
such as Sting, Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder, and to major studios
the world over. The Synclavier was also employed by experimental
musicians, such as Kraftwerk, Laurie Anderson and Frank Zappa who
used it extensively in their music. It also found itself popular
among the academic world for research and analysis of audio, and
for more clandestine operations, such as speech analysis
and manipulation by the intelligence services, submarine
sonar and sound analysis by the Navy,
flight simulators for Boeing, and even by NASA
as the core of the digital camera system on board the Galileo
Probe sent to study and photograph Jupiter
and its moons. Still used to this day in major movies for sound
design, along with TV, Commercials and Music composition and production.
Unfortunately for New England Digital, the Synclavier became a victim
of the early 1990's economic downturn, the high prices (albeit justified
as the Synclavier system components were almost entirely military
and aviation spec), and the rapidly increasing capabilities of personal
computers, MIDI-enabled synthesizers and low-cost digital samplers.
In the span of two years, the company saw enormous sales evaporate,
and in 1992 they closed their doors forever. Parts of the company
were purchased by Fostex, which used the technical knowledge base
of staff to build several hard-disk recording systems in the 1990s
(like Fostex Foundation 2000 and 2000re). Simultaneously, a group
of ex-employees and product owners collaborated to form The
Synclavier Company, primarily as a maintenance
organization for existing customers, but with an eye to
adapting Synclavier software for stand-alone personal computer use,
while in Europe the previously profitable but now motherless NED
Europe is currently run by ex-head of European operations, Steve
Hills and is still trading to this day (2005) in London, England
as Synclavier Europe
In 1998, under the company Demas, NED co-founder
Cameron W. Jones (original and current owner of the Synclavier trademark
and software) collaborated with ex-employee Brian S. George
(owner of Demas, the company that purchased all of NED's hardware
and technical assets) and original co-founding partner Sydney Alonso
to develop an emulator designed to run Synclavier software
for Apple Computer's Macintosh computer systems and hardware
designed to share the core processing with the later generation
of Apple G3 computers giving enhanced features and greater speed
to the system. Later software releases have been significantly updated
by freelance programmer Todd Yvega, one of the
world's foremost Synclavier composers and programmers.
-- courtesy of wikipedia
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