Raymond Scott on the web!

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 4:44 pm Post subject: Raymond Scott on the web!

http://raymondscott.com/

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above: Raymond Scott with his 1950s keyboard synthesizer invention, THE CLAVIVOX

Raymond Scott patented his keyboard synthesizer invention called the Clavivox in 1956. The instrument can glide from any note to any other note, over it's 3-octave keyboard, without a break. Equipped with foot pedals and a set of left-hand keys, the Clavivox can also create staccato attacks, allow on/off vibrato toggling, and many other effects.

NOTE: The design of the Clavivox includes a sub-assembly constructed by a 20 year-old Bob Moog, who, a decade later designed the first Moog Synthesizer. Mr. Moog explains: ''The sound producing circuitry in Scott's Clavivox resembles very closely the first analog synthesizer my company made in the mid-sixties. There are ways of changing the waveform that are characteristic of analog synthesizer.''

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For writing film scores, Raymond Scott has developed an instrument which he calls the ''VIDEOLA.'' The mechanism operates a movie film in a projection room in another part of the house by remote control.

The movie is flashed on a television screen, so that Scott can watch the film as he composes appropriate music. A recording apparatus is hooked up to the VIDEOLA, as well, so that he can stop, play back, listen, rub out, and rewrite.

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 4:49 pm Post subject:

Wall of sound!

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A sequencer!!!

"Standing 6 feet high and covering 30 feet of wall space, the sequencer consisted of hundreds of switches controlling stepping relays, timing solenoids, tone circuits and 16 individual oscillators. If you walked behind the wall during the operation the music produced would be all but drowned out by the cacophonous klickety-klack of the relays as they switched positions." -Herb Deutsch, author & Hofstra University music professor, recalling a visit to Raymond Scott's self-design & built studio

mosc · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 5:48 pm Post subject:

I never heard of Raymond Scott. Wow. Cool music from the combo. The clips have a mechanical quality that is similar to electro-music. This sounds like intellegent jazz, not hot.

That wasn't all that long go. It's still shocking to see how primative their instrumentation is.

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 5:55 pm Post subject:

I am telling people I expect that book they are selling on the site for xmas!

Raymond Scott is not well known over here, but he is in the textbooks as a pioneer.

mosc · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 8:35 pm Post subject:

Beginning in the 1950s, Raymond Scott designed and built the first of many very different versions of THE RAYMOND SCOTT ELECTRONIUM, a keyboard-less, automatic composition and performance machine. This invention engaged the attention of Berry Gordy, who hired Scott as Motown's Director of Electronic Research and Development.

Click here for some music...

elektro80 · Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 8:43 pm Post subject:

The Raymond Scott story is pretty colorful and wild!