Isao Tomita

[LektroiD]

How does he get such a unique sound? I've heard many demos and noodles made with modulars (both digital and analogue), but none have sounded anything like the sound effects he produced during the 1970s.

[doctorvague]

[ndkent]

Perhaps the term "noodles" is telling in a reverse way.

He clearly set out to achieve goals and had the patience to put in a lot of work to achieve them.

He started with a good sized Moog. I never asked him but my guess is he saw the synth on the cover of "Switched On Bach" and asked to buy something similar from Moog Music. Ironically the synth on the album cover was actually owned by the record company and Carlos actually used a larger more custom system, but none the less he bought a solid system and had the goal to realize orchestral style compositions using synthetic tone colors. I was lucky enough to speak with him for a while 10 years ago. He was of a mind then and I'm pretty sure he continues to think the Moog modular is the best sounding synth ever. In later years though he's had to sample sounds he makes to get polyphony rather than build many parts through overdubbing because the time and strange postures it takes to record the way he used to in the 70s are too much for him over a long time. He has stuff like VA analogs and a Synclavier too and I believe uses Nuendo these days to work in 4.1 surround. One bit of a "cheat" he did in the 70s was use a lot of Mellotron for choir sounds, he'd run mellotron through his Moog in place of the VCOs, so a few of the amazing sounds, mostly choral and string aren't pure synthesis.

He continued to be a soundtrack composer with occasional orchestral commissions before, during and after the period when he made the classical synth albums, so he already was a very skilled orchestrator. He told me he never liked the strange and abstract sounds made with electronics and synthesizers early on. He was blown away by "Switched on Bach" because as a composer and arranger what Carlos was doing with a Moog was incredibly inspiring.

Anyway, just my opinion, but using a modular is not a very fast process, so something going on live or live to tape isn't likely going to be as exciting as something crafted over time with overdubs and a plan. Not that it can't but the chances are against it. Doing a lot of experiments is surely valuable in terms of discovery and familiarizing oneself. But I think a lot of people think that because they are having a great thrill messing around with their system that somehow that thrill transfers over to anyone listening. But that's just not true. You have to discover and put together an exciting listening experience from the sounds you create.

To sort of paraphrase some of Eno's writing, you really want to hear the results of successful experiments rather than just hear some experiments

[stikygum]

He's definitely got the patience for achieving what he wants. Very interesting musician.