MOTM

Tomita's "Sound Creature" is a pretty rare album, I think--at least in the
'States (Tomita albums in *general* are pretty rare these days). I found it
as an import in a record store in Georgia while I was visiting someone back
in 1981 for about $45; since then I have seen it mentioned once or twice on
the 'Net, but hardly ever, and to my knowledge, it was never put out on CD
here or in Japan.

It is a two-album set with a booklet, unfortunately all in Hiragana &
Katakana--I have never yet gotten anyone to translate the printed material
for me. However, there are a few illustrations, and Tomita produced it in
such as way that, if you already understand how analog synthesis "works,"
you can really follow along with him on the album and hear what he's doing,
even though there is no speech. It's a mini "Secrets of Synthesis" years
before Carlos' disc, and I have a warm sppot in the ticker for it.

Disc One is instructive, and Disc Two is samples of his work from other
albums, with a few cuts that made it onto subsequent albums like 'Canon...'
and a couple that I never heard anywhere else even today (not that they are
real jaw-droppers, but it's nice to have some rare Tomita cuts on the
shelf).

The way Disc One is set up is this: there are several chapters, each one is
a small lesson on how he creates a particular phrase. So the first track in
[what I'm calling] a 'chapter' will be something like the first 45 seconds
of the completed opening to "Daphnis et Chloe." Then it fades out and you
hear a "bing" like on the soundtrack to an old filmstrip, telling you that
you have advanced to the next paragraph in the book [basically; I think].
Then you might hear a steady sawtooth wave, I imagine telling you "I start
with this raw wave." Then, "Bing-bing" (paragraph two). You hear a lowpass
filter closing down on the bright wave. Then, "bing-bing-bing," a little
frequency modulation is added... you get the idea. He gradually walks you
through building each key sound and then adds it to the mix until we hear
the completed 45-second clip again. In the "Daphnis..." example, you even
hear him load the 'piping birds" into the sequencer and speed up the rate
into the familiar parallel melisma in the background.

It's pretty cool; I enjoyed it a lot in my youth. I haven't played it in a
hell of a long time... got to dig that out.

The "bings" are like tally marks--every fifth one is a higher pitch, so you
actually can count them.



-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Bradley

Not familiar with "Sound Creature". Does he actually speak on it, and
talk
about his synthesis technique? Have you got this album?