In this video, Make Noise founder Tony Rolando discusses his history with tape music, sampling, and microsound, which led to the development of the Make Noise Phonogene and Morphagene.
Topics covered:
0:00 Intro
1:01 Tony’s first encounters with tape music by John Pfeiffer, Barbara Kolb, and Mario Davidovsky
2:24 “Composing with Tape Recorders” by Terence Dwyer
3:21 The Superba tape machine
4:56 The Mystery of tape music
6:32 The difficulty of making tape music with just one device
7:28 The Casio SK-1
8:48 Tony’s tape music process ca 1995
9:58 Musical Interlude: “I’d Like to Make Communication W/ U”
12:00 The Ensoniq Mirage
13:52 Tony’s Mirage Sample Bank
14:48 The Wall of MIDI
15:32 The Akai S612
17:45 The Wall of MIDI (again)
19:18 Tony’s time in bands
19:57 Getting back into electronic music
21:44 Reaktor
22:39 Granular ensembles and computer struggles
24:38 Another Brick Wall and the feel of instruments
26:18 Other granular software of the time
27:57 Curtis Roads, Josh Kay, Richard Devine
29:09 “Microsound” by Curtis Roads
29:43 Outro
Rolando’s new album, Breakin’ Is A Memory, is available via Bandcamp. You can preview it below:
Someday, I’ll regale you a tune of how, on the last day of my 2014 Moogfest trip to AVL, how somehow absolutely randomly I ended up at the table with Tony, Kelly, and all of the rest of the Make Noise employees, without having the faintest idea of who I was talking to. I can’t remember how I introduced myself. I probably started the conversation after hearing something about synthesizers, and it was my last night there before getting to the airport for my takeoff, so why not be a buttinski and say, “Hi”? My flight was… that night? Tomorrow early morning? I dunno, I forget. I was in a few beers at that point, in some of the best breweries in the USA. And it was a great night.
Anyways… WONDERFUL article here.
P.S. What a week that was, a total nexus point in my life cycle. Soooooo many new friends.
(Nods in Synthesizer Speak to Elizabeth and James)
*Elisabeth. Stupid autocorrect.
yeah the chip shortage is fake news! cant believe behringer made up a global supply chain issue stemming from government incompetence, fear of a global pandemic with a 99.8% survival rate and it’s subsequent orweillilan lockdowns, economic sanctions, war just so they could announce “vaporware”. not very BASED, behringer!
Wow, I didn’t think Barbara Kolb was well-known enough to influence anyone except me. Super underrated composer. She has a song where a guy gets increasingly frustrated with a vending machine and beats the crap out of it. Awesome stuff.