Laurie Spiegel on YouTube

[tconrardy]

Hi All

Just found this



Its Laurie Spiegel playing the 1977 Bell Labs Hal Alles Synth.
What a cool sound! I wonder what VST's can be used to replicate this sound. You need some step sequencers, but theres some weird modulation going on too.

You might remember Laurie as the creator of Music Mouse, and alternate mouse controller for Mac, Atari, Amega, and now PC via Steem.

EDIT
here the 'more' section:

Concerto for Self-Accompanying Digital Synthesizer. The instrument is possibly the first realtime digital synthesizer, built at Bell Telephone Labs, NJ by Hal Alles and team, with C language software written by Laurie that processes the player's live input into an ongoing accompaniment that will continue to be played live against.

This is a legal copy uploaded by the owner of the original tape. The OHM DVD's video was taken from this.

For more info on see http://retiary.org/ls/obsolete_systems

For tech info on the synth see:
http://www.matrixsynth.com/blog/media...

Tim

[Scot Solida]

Tim, I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't come close to the Bell Labs instrument with Cameleon. Hal Alles' work eventually manifested itself in the form of DK's Synergy, an additive instrument featuring 32 oscillators (each with its own envelope generators for pitch and amplitude). It was a relatively simple instrument by today's standards, but one listen to Wendy Carlos' Digital Moonscapes or the Tron soundtrack will tell you that, in the right hands, it was capable of great depth.

Like many modern hybrid additives, the Alles instrument (but not the Synergy) featured filtering...32 filters in fact! Very cool stuff! Using the article on Matrixsynth as a rough guide, one might be able to whip up a basic approximation with a software modular like Reaktor. But you better have plenty of CPU...the Alles instrument has 256 envelope generators! That link, by the way, was cut off in your post. It should read http://www.matrixsynth.com/blog/media/m ... Alles1.pdf

[tconrardy]

Tim, I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't come close to the Bell Labs instrument with Cameleon. Hal Alles' work eventually manifested itself in the form of DK's Synergy, an additive instrument featuring 32 oscillators (each with its own envelope generators for pitch and amplitude). It was a relatively simple instrument by today's standards, but one listen to Wendy Carlos' Digital Moonscapes or the Tron soundtrack will tell you that, in the right hands, it was capable of great depth.

Like many modern hybrid additives, the Alles instrument (but not the Synergy) featured filtering...32 filters in fact! Very cool stuff! Using the article on Matrixsynth as a rough guide, one might be able to whip up a basic approximation with a software modular like Reaktor. But you better have plenty of CPU...the Alles instrument has 256 envelope generators! That link, by the way, was cut off in your post. It should read http://www.matrixsynth.com/blog/media/m ... Alles1.pdf

Thanks Scott..and also for the history. Yes..I could try this in cameleon. I was playing with Cygnus last night, as it has a somewhat additive sound, and also has three built in step sequencers. That modulartion stuff she was doing was also unique. It could be high pitched mod going into a filter, but I doubt that had regular analog style control on it. I just loved that sound! ..and I don't know what prompted me to put in Lauries name in the search at YouTube, but glad I did.

BTW: here is my Music Mouse page for those interested:

http://tamw.atari-users.net/mmouse.htm

You can now download Music Mouse for Free, and run it on a PC via Steem.( the atari emulator for PC)Howeveer, if you use it..please support Laurie with the shareware fee!

Tim

[ianweb123]

Tim, I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't come close to the Bell Labs instrument with Cameleon. Hal Alles' work eventually manifested itself in the form of DK's Synergy, an additive instrument featuring 32 oscillators (each with its own envelope generators for pitch and amplitude). It was a relatively simple instrument by today's standards, but one listen to Wendy Carlos' Digital Moonscapes or the Tron soundtrack will tell you that, in the right hands, it was capable of great depth.

Like many modern hybrid additives, the Alles instrument (but not the Synergy) featured filtering...32 filters in fact! Very cool stuff! Using the article on Matrixsynth as a rough guide, one might be able to whip up a basic approximation with a software modular like Reaktor. But you better have plenty of CPU...the Alles instrument has 256 envelope generators! That link, by the way, was cut off in your post. It should read http://www.matrixsynth.com/blog/media/m ... Alles1.pdf

Thanks Scott..and also for the history. Yes..I could try this in cameleon. I was playing with Cygnus last night, as it has a somewhat additive sound, and also has three built in step sequencers. That modulartion stuff she was doing was also unique. It could be high pitched mod going into a filter, but I doubt that had regular analog style control on it. I just loved that sound! ..and I don't know what prompted me to put in Lauries name in the search at YouTube, but glad I did.

BTW: here is my Music Mouse page for those interested:

http://tamw.atari-users.net/mmouse.htm

You can now download Music Mouse for Free, and run it on a PC via Steem.( the atari emulator for PC)Howeveer, if you use it..please support Laurie with the shareware fee!

Tim

I thought the Youtube clip was very Cygnus-y. Bear in mind that the first oscillator in Cygnus is effectively an additive synth (albeit with a limited number of harmonics) The special thing about Cygnus though is that the Oscillator can be synced to another Oscillators freq. Perhaps it is this feature which gives it that 'Cygnus' sound. Was the Bell labs synth syncable in this fashion?

[NorthStarMusic]

An old post and I also just posted this in another discussion but if helpful:

I am long time Synergy owner. I upgraded my original Synergy to the II+ and used a Kaypro II for many years to program it. I thought some here might like to know that its legacy may continue on a bit longer thanks to a Synergy emulator called Synergia. Being a digital synthesizer its reproduction in Synergia sounds just like a new Synergy ( new power supply, capacitors, etc., the usual culprits in aging synths).

Even better, there is a Kaypro SYNCHS Emulator (Synchs was the Synergy Control Host Software that allowed the programming and saving of voices, cartridge images to disc and the machines state). Its called Synergize. It can be run on iOS as well and essentially gives you the GDS type of interface. If interested, here's a video of both being used together:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mhFNOb ... drive_link