FEATURE

25 YEARS

Genius Bar
An esteemed group of music-technology pioneers offer their visions
for the future of electronic instruments
By Gino Robair

s EM celebrates a quarter-century of
music-technology coverage, it seems
appropriate to look toward the future rather
than dwell on the past. And who better to discuss the future with than six men who helped
shape music technology, in some cases well
before EM (and even Poiyphony) was a gleam
in its founder's eye?
Since our panel discussion titled "The
Evolution of Electronic Instrument Interfaces:
Past, Present, Future" at the 125th AES
Convention in 2008, I've wanted to meet
again with Roger Linn, Dave Smith, and Tom
Oberheim andfollowup on some of the topics we touched upon, such as new directions in
gestural control and the continued popularity
of the analog synth. Fortunately, it's not difficult to get them together because they form
the core of the Dead Presidents Society, which
meets regularly for coffee near the University
of California, Berkeley, campus. (lTie name
refers to the fact that each had been in charge
of his own company.)
These days, they call themselves the
Breakfast Club because the group has grown
to include other pioneers in thefield,including faculty members from the Center for
Computer Research in Music and Acoustics
(CCRMA) at Stanford University and the
Center for New Music and Audio Technologies
(CNMAT) at UC Berkeley, two of the most
important research centers for music technology in the world. Consequently, on March 4,
2010,1 was thrilled to have three additional
club membersDon Buchla, Max Mathews,
and David Wesseljoin in on the discussion.
Rather than have them reminisce about
the Good Old Days, I wanted to hear their
thoughts about the issues that have yet to

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be addressed, despite the huge technological advances they've witnessed. It didn't

surprise me that they had strong feelings about the subject and, at times, wildly
contrasting opinions.
The discussion lasted nearly an hour,
which is more than I have print space for. You
can read the rest of the roundtable online at
eniusician.com.

how an instrument is used. If it's buried in the

So a lot of people are getting analog

mix, who can tell the difference between ana-

instruments now because they want some-

log and digital? If you're playing it solo, then,

thing that they can touchturn knobsand

yeah, you're still going to hear the difference.

it always does the same thing. They're not

Someday [digital instruments will] get

better and better at being sloppier and sloppier. As I always say, as a designer, if you design
something digital, you spend all your time
adding slop in. If you're designing analog, you
spend all of your time trying to take the slop

BEYOND ANALOG VS. DIGITAL

and the noise out. Somewhere the two may

EA: I'd like to begin by talking about where

join, I suppose, in the future. If you don't put

electronic instruments could be going rather

time limits on it, everything will happen, some-

than focus on where they've been.

day. I don't know if that's a very good answer.

Tom Oberheim: Well, that leaves me out

[laughs].

EM: No, it's very interesting. I'm trying to

figure out why people want analog gear. What

EM: Last time we met, you were being

is it that draws them to it? Is it just the sound?

nudged back into business. Have you been

Smith: There are two sides to it, I think.

surprised by the success of the new SEM ana-

One side is the actual analog electronics. But

log synth?

the other side is being able to get a concise

Oberheim: Yeah, very much so. Dave

musical instrument with a certain set of con-

warned me that it would do better than I

trols that doesn't change and will be the same

thought. And I think Roger warned me, as

in 10 years, and doesn't change with operating

These 32 pressure-sensitive touch pads

form the SLABs instrument used by David
Wessel. It can send 96 channels of control
data (32 each of x. y. and pressure).
Ethernet is used for I/O. with Core Audiocompatible drivers for Mac OS X that send
gesture data as audio.

well. 1 thought maybe I'd sell a tew a month.

But it's been better than that.
EM: What kinds of instruments would
you design if the vintage-style analog synth
market weren't so lucrative?
Dave Smith: I'd be in big trouble
llaughs].
Ai: Would you?
Smith: Look at the product line.
EM: Where would you want to go instead?
Not just with sound machines, but including
gestural controllers.
Smith: I'm the wrong person to ask that
because my interest is more in the sound than
in the control side of things. When it comes to
the control side, I'd rather go with something

(L-R): Tom Oberheim. Dave Smith, Roger Linn, Gino Robair, and Don Buchia at the 125th
AES convention in 2008.

that everybody uses and is used tosomething

that is easy to buy and easy to develop. I'm not a

systems and all that. Most people use the term

mechanical designer, by any means, and that's a

digital to mean soft synths.

huge part of any sort of alternate control system.

clicking through menus. They're not bothering with software and having to update it every

I saw an ad a couple of weeks ago for some

couple months. Some software synths don't

These other gentlemen have a lot more to offer

soft synth that said, "It's going to take you

work anymore because the company stopped

in that sense.

a lifetime to figure out everything that this

supporting them: They're not porting them to

instrument can do." And I kind of scratched

the latest operating system. That's another one

tal .sound will be equal in popularity or accep-

my head: If I'm playing a musical instrument,

of my predictions from a long time agothat

tance, in regards to what people say they want

do I want to spend a lifetime just learning what

the software synth you buy today will not work

trom analog? Will that ever even out?

it can do? Or do I want to be able to play it, and

at some point in the future because it won't

play it the same way tomorrow, and the day

get ported forever. So it's more than just the

after, and the day after that?

analog-versus-digital thing.

EM: Will we ever get to a point where digi-

Smith: Probably. It's almost more of a

preference thing at this point. It depends on

READ MORE OF THE ROUNDTABLE INTERVIEW

EMUSICIAN.COM/BONUS_MATERIAL

06.10

I EMUSIC1AN.COM

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FEATURE

GENIUS BAR

Roger Linn demonstrates a new

instrument concept that he and Ingrid
Linn are developing. It comprises a
multitouch. pressure-sensitive TouchCo
control surface overlaid with a grid of
semitone rows offset by fourths, which
control their custom Cycling '74 Max/
MSP sound-generator patch. Each finger
has independent pitch (x), timbre (y), and
expression (z) control.

25 YEARS

EM: That's the issue with off-the-shelf

software that breaks when you move to a new
operating system. It may take you three years to
learn how to use it, but then it's obsolete by the
time you figure out where all the menus are.
Smith: I see it becoming worse now. And
my perception is that the software is all becoming disposable. I see that mostly with the apps
EM: Your SLA Bs controller [for Cycling '74
Max/MSP] is a three-dimensional controller.

Max Mathews
playing his
Radio Baton.

THE MAX-FACTOR

now on the iPhone. ITiere's just so much of it,

and it's all cool stuffthat's the problem!

Wessel: The inspiration for this came

EM: Is it a distraction from coming up

from years of working with Don's Thunder,

with a real instrument that you would master?

which I loved because it had pressureand a

Smith: Exactly. If you have 35 apps to pick

very sensitive implementation of pressure. So

from, to play around with on your iPhone, then

you could use dynamics and play softly and

which one do you pick and how much time do

loudly, which is, unfortunately, neglected

you spend on it? Or do you learn the five quick

in so many controllers today. Things play at

tricks and then move on? And it'll get worse

mezzo-forte all the time, but usually with

with the iPad, probably.

the gain knob turned up [laughsl. And com-

EA: That brings up a point: In the acoustic

pressed, and on all the time. Whereas, I'm

world, and even in the analog electronic world,

really interested in the kind ofthing you can

there are instrument-controller paradigms.

get out of dynamics.

But in the digital world, it's a lot more open.

We had to build some new stuff to use,

Wessel: But I thinkyou could identify some

David Wessel: I've been pulling out Max

and the touchpad thing is very compelling. I

paradigms. For example, the tablet controller.

patches that I made in 1989, and they just come

used it last night, and I came away feeling like

One of our people, Michael Zbyszynski, set out

up. And they're working, just like they did.

I d been playing an instrument. And 1 get to

to make a method tor playing with a pointing

Max Mathews: That's an exception.

practice. But this idea of practice, too, is very

deviceactual exercises, like you'd find in a

Wessel: It may be. But I think things have

important. People are reluctant to make the

method book of some kind. There are spatial

gotten better. T!ie computers are more reliable. I

investment with their bodies and practice a

gestures. These things are pressure-sensitive, as

have less tear of crashing than I did in the past,

lot. I don't see that going avvray. Analog instru-

well; you can add that feature in right away.

and 1 like the convenienceand theflexibility.I'm

ments, acoustic instrumentsthey require an

I think percussionists, in particular, can

really interested in rolling my own material. I

investment in getting chops and that kind of

adapt to a variety of acoustic configurations

have trouble with what I call the tbund-object

thing. I think that's very important.

typically, every piece has a different setup. So

notion: "Well I found this neat sound." I want

to know, in some mathematical sense, why that

Mathews: That's true for both analog and

digital instruments.

I think they're perhaps the most susceptible to

using new controllers because they're ready to

works so that I can preserve it going into the

Smith: It's a vicious circle with controllers

make the transition. And the spatial layout issue

future. My take is that the situation isn't so bad.

because nobody spends the time to learn them.

is going to be with us for a long time. The handwaving thing is probably going to be around

Then on the control side, for me, when you

They don't want to spend the time to learn

add more control in interesting ways, you gain a

them because they're afraid that, in two years,

for a while, lliat was there in the Theremin; we

lot of extra sound quality. In other words, a lot of

it's not going to be around. And it's not going

know there are disadvantages with that.

what we associate with quality is in the control

to be around in two years if nobody takes the

of the sound.

time to learn them.

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If you look at the kind of controller technologies that are in [Microsoft's] Natal, you

the video processing. Well, that same company

WHAT MAKES A
SUCCESSFUL CONTROLLER?

that did the original Natal had pretty good hand

Don Buchla: I've developed a great number of

actually have this sort of body model built into

models that they could extract from ihe video

controllers and control techniques, and so on.

itself. People in the industry have said, "Well,

The breakdown is that the ones that are accept-

let's do a real Guitar Hero, where there's a real

ed and used and developed further are those

guitar and we're now looking at the hand and

that are most closely linked to the thought. It's

Each of the roundtable members

getting all the detail out." I think we might see

amazingly illustrated [by this story]: I work

would be worthy of a feature arti-

that because we have the processing to do it.

a lot with bionics, usually with amputees. I

cle of their own. In case some of

was impressed by what a woman said to me

their names are new to you, here

SIX PIONEERS
IN EIGHT SENTENCES.

VINTAGE SOFTWARE

just three days ago. She no longer has to think

is a thumbnail sketch that I hope

Mathews: I want to mention something that

about picking something up. She no longer has

will pique your curiosity about

could serve as a slight antidote or delay for obso-

to think about a movement. She just moves

their work.

lescence. I wrote a program in roughly 1964 or

that is the word she used. She just moves her

Don Buchla (buchla.com)

'65: Music V. Eventually I went on to Csound,

arm when it happens. She doesn't think about

has been building electronic

which Barry Vercoe wrote, and so I never used

it upfront.

musical instruments for more

the program anymore. But recently. Bill Shotstat

If you play an instrument, you don't

than 45 years. His innovations

revived this program, took my code, and made it

want to think about it. The things that con-

in voltage control helped usher

run on a Macintosh, using my original instruc-

tribute to thinking about it and then playing

in the era of affordable perfor-

tions. And, of course, the Macintosh runs about

are, one, latency, obviously; and two, nonfa-

mance systems.

10,000 times taster than the IBM 7094. This

miliarity with the process and the outcome

thing will play the scores that were written by a

of the process.

lot of musicians in the 1960s.

Roger Linn's (rogerlinndesign.

com) legendary drum machine,

The gesture has to be spatially relevant.

the

LM-1 Drum

Computer,

Now how did he do that? Well it was very

The percussionist is a good example. I don't

changed the course of popular

simple. 1 wrote the original program in a com-

agree with David's observations. 1 think the

music. And if that wasn't enough,

piler called Fortran, and Fortran still exists and

percussionist is the last person that's going

he designed the formidable

is live. You can run it on a current Macintosh.

to embrace technology. Primarily because

MPC 60 for Akai.

Bill didn't have to do too much work for this.

of latency, and because of the usefulness of

Max Mathews (csounds.

Just put my code into it.

tapping a thing, like a table, and hearing the

com/mathews) wrote the first dig-

This inspired Bill to write a program

sound immediately come from the table. You

ital composition program. Music

that perfectly emulates the Samson Box

don't hear it come from a speaker up there. You

V, and is often referred to as the

CCRMA's very powerful hardware digital

hear it come from the table. And it sounds like

Father of Computer Music.

synthesizerto run either on a Macintosh

a table, and its decay time is natural. We learn

or on a Linux computer. The only things that

about those things since we were bornhow

(tomoberheim.com) pioneering

Among Tom

Oberheim's

remain of those are the original score in a digi-

things should sound in nature. And we can

work is the first completely pro-

tal form and an aging analog tape. So [John]

create new sounds, but nevertheless, they obey

grammable performance synth

Chowning has now resynthesized a number of

the old laws. They sound, now, when we touch.

and the first commercially avail-

his programs that he didn't have good files for.

It goes, now. It doesn't go 10ms later.

able polyphonic synthesizer.

The lesson from thisand it is not a pre-

You see jazz groups fall apart on a stage

Besides designing the influ-

vention of eventual extinction; I don't know

that's too wide because the piano can't hear

ential Prophet-5, Dave Smith

how to make anything live foreveris to write

the drums or because there's too much latency

(davesmithinstruments.com) cre-

as little as possible in basic machine language

there. T hey can't play in time. It's essential

ated the first PC-based software

and write as much as possible in a compiler

to music. Much music, not all music. But we

synth and helped launch the MIDI

language that will be maintained by someone

have that immediacy and that's what 1 think

standard.

else into the future.

makes a successful controller. It preserves the

Director of CNMAT at the

immediacy that we're familiar with, and we've

university of California, Berkeley,

Smith: You can always port it: There's no

question about that. It's just that somebody has

grown up with.

David Wessel (cnmat.berkeley.

to port it. And as a designer, I would rather not

edu/people/david_wessel) is a

have to keep working on my old products and

Besides

keeping them running. I'd rather work on a

Report," Gino Robair is editorial director for

new product.

Gearwire.com and ajormer EM editor.

writing

bis blog, "The

Robair

leading researcher in computer

music technologies.

06.10

I EMUSICIAN.COM

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