Ramondo Robinson Art Review 1 To find a digital artifact before 1979 I really had to dig deep and actually almost came at

a loss for a moment since I grew up in generation Y where the computer has been in my

life from the earliest of moments. Just about everything I can remember revolves around

some bit of technology since my Dad was a bit of a gadget freak. In the 80’s a lot of

things where about automation, and using a digital device was a process.

The reading covered memory, cpu processing, radars, calculators, and much more in the

reading which didn’t leave much other digital devices to choose from especially when

they have to predate 1979. Then I guess it hit me “Cameo”! The recording artist from the

80’s who smash hit was Word Up! For so long I just enjoyed his music and took for

granted that synthesized sound he had used that became so easily parodied. I even

remember my friends mocking his voice and that synthesized sound from the 80’s and

never realized that technology had been around for decades.

Of coarse Cameo didn’t create the technology used in the process known as the music

synthesizer, also called electronic sound synthesizer, machine that electronically

generates and modifies sounds, frequently with the use of a digital computer now days. 1During the 60’s there were a couple of synthesizers that were out and all were pretty

compact and design. Robert Moog, an American physicist, developed a couple of

synthesizers named after him Moog, Moog II, and Moog III. The Moog III three in

particular had two five-octave keyboards that controlled voltage changes (and

subsequently pitch, timbre, attack, decay of tone, etc) that gave musicians an infinite

variety of tonal control.2

The Buchia synthesizer developed by an American scientist Donald Buchia used

subtractive synthesis, which removed unwanted components from a signal containing a

1 "music synthesizer." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 18 Jan. 2011. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/399055/music-synthesizer>. 2 Ibid.

tone (Sounds a lot like the early stages of auto-tune). Also during the late 70’s and 80’s

the synthesizers continued to evolve using microcomputers, sound sampling, Fourier

synthesis (the specification of individual harmonics), and FM (frequency modulation)

synthesis using sine waves.3

I guess with out this technology we would not have great stars like Cameo or less talented

singers who rely on auto-tune for everything. I really think that synthesized sound was

pretty much on every 80’s song I can remember so I guess the impact of this invention

was profound indeed.

3 Ibid