S-F-X
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S-F-X
''S-F-X'' (stylized with interpuncts as ''S·F·X'') is a 1984 electronic music album by Japanese musician Haruomi Hosono. The album is his first solo album after Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) disbanded. Credited also is "Friends of Earth", as Hosono would later form a band with this name. The album is the first album released by label Non Standard, a record label created between Hosono and Teichiku Records to release the technopop/hip-hop styled material he worked on. The 1988, 1993 and 2001 reissues of ''S-F-X'' contain tracks from ''Non-Standard Mixture'', an EP created by Hosono the same year as the album. Production Hosono produced the album with the help of engineer Yasuhiko Terada. The album utilized several new electronic musical instruments shortly after they released, including the Roland TR-909 drum machine, the Yamaha DX7 digital synthesizer, the Korg SDD1000 digital delay unit (which he used as a sampler), and the Kurzweil K250 sampler. Like his earlier album ''Phil ...
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Haruomi Hosono
, sometimes credited as Harry Hosono, is a Japanese musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in Japanese pop music history, credited with shaping the sound of Japanese pop for decades as well as pop music outside of Japan. He also inspired genres such as city pop and Shibuya-kei, and as the leader of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, contributed to the development and pioneering of numerous electronic genres. The grandson of '' Titanic'' survivor Masabumi Hosono, Haruomi began his career with the psychedelic rock band Apryl Fool, before achieving recognition both nationally and internationally, as a founding member of the bands Happy End and Yellow Magic Orchestra. Hosono has also released many solo albums covering a variety of styles, including film soundtracks and a variety of electronic ambient albums. As well as recording his own music, Hosono has done considerable production work for other artists such a ...
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Roland TR-909
The Roland TR-909 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 909, is a drum machine introduced by Roland Corporation in 1983, succeeding the TR-808. It was the first Roland drum machine to use samples for some sounds, and the first with MIDI functionality, allowing it to synchronize with other devices. Though the 909 was a commercial failure, it influenced the development of electronic dance music genres such as techno, house and acid house. Development The TR-909 was designed by Tadao Kikumoto, who had also led development on Roland's previous drum machine, the TR-808, and designed the Roland TB-303 synthesizer. Makoto Muroi was also a chief engineer, the software was developed by Atsushi Hoshiai, and the voice circuits were developed by Yoshiro Oue. The 909 was the first Roland drum machine to use samples, for its crash, ride and hi-hat sounds. Hoshiai sampled his own drum kit for the cymbals, using a mismatched pair of Paiste and Zildjian hi-hat cymbals. He sampled them ...
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Ambient Music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melody,The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. ambient music uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening, and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre evokes an "atmospheric", "visual",Prendergast, M. ''The Ambient Century''. 2001. Bloomsbury, USA or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and some works use sustained or repetition (music), repeated notes, as in drone music. Bearing elements with new-age music, acoustic music, instruments such as the piano, string section, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer. The genre originated in the 1960s and 1970s, when new musical instruments were being introduced to a wider market, such as ...
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Yamaha DX7
The Yamaha DX7 is a synthesizer manufactured by Yamaha Corporation from 1983 to 1989. It was the first successful digital synthesizer and is one of the best-selling synthesizers in history, selling more than 200,000 units. In the early 1980s, the synthesizer market was dominated by analog synthesizers. Frequency modulation synthesis, a means of generating sounds via frequency modulation (FM), was developed by John Chowning at Stanford University, California. FM synthesis created brighter, glassier sounds, and could better imitate acoustic sounds such as brass and bells. Yamaha licensed the technology to create the DX7, combining it with very-large-scale integration chips to lower manufacturing costs. With its complex menus and lack of conventional controls, few learned to program the DX7 in depth. However, its preset sounds became staples of 1980s pop music; in 1986, it was used in 40% of the number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Its electric pian ...
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Rock Music
Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew from the black musical genres of blues and rhythm and blues, as well as from country music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk music, folk, and incorporated influences from jazz and other styles. Rock is typically centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drum kit, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a Time signature, time signature and using a verse–chorus form; however, the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most p ...
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MIDI
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, computers, and related audio devices for playing, editing, and recording music. A single MIDI cable can carry up to sixteen channels of MIDI data, each of which can be routed to a separate device. Each interaction with a key, button, knob or slider is converted into a MIDI event, which specifies musical instructions, such as a note's pitch, timing and velocity. One common MIDI application is to play a MIDI keyboard or other controller and use it to trigger a digital sound module (which contains synthesized musical sounds) to generate sounds, which the audience hears produced by a keyboard amplifier. MIDI data can be transferred via MIDI or USB cable, or recorded to a sequencer or digital audio workstation to be edited or played back. ...
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Resident Advisor
''Resident Advisor'' (also known as ''RA'') is an online music magazine and community platform established in 2001 and dedicated to showcasing electronic music, artists and events across the globe. Its editorial team provides news, music and event reviews, as well as films, features and interviews. Resident Advisor also provides global event listings and ticket sales platform, club and promoter directories, artist and record label profiles, and the ''RA Podcast''. The company has its headquarters in London, with additional offices in Berlin, Los Angeles, New York and Melbourne. The website won a People's Voice award in the 12th Annual Webby Awards in 2008. History ''Resident Advisor'' was founded in Sydney, Australia in 2001 by Paul Clement and Nick Sabine as a website for providing news and information relating to the Australian dance music scene. As ''Resident Advisor'' grew both Clement and Sabine initially kept their day jobs and hired staff to help with the site. In 20 ...
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Roland TR-808
The Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer, commonly known as the 808, is a drum machine manufactured by Roland Corporation between 1980 and 1983. It was one of the first drum machines to allow users to program rhythms instead of using preset patterns. Unlike its nearest competitor at the time, the more expensive Linn LM-1, the 808 generates sounds using analog synthesis rather than by playing samples. The 808 was a commercial failure, as electronic music had yet to become mainstream and many producers wanted more realistic drum sounds. After building approximately 12,000 units, Roland discontinued the 808 after its semiconductors became impossible to restock. It was succeeded by the TR-909 in 1983. Over the course of the 1980s, the 808 attracted a cult following among underground musicians for its affordability on the used market, ease of use and idiosyncratic sounds, particularly its deep, booming bass drum. It became a cornerstone of the emerging electronic, dance and hip-hop ...
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LinnDrum
The LinnDrum, often erroneously referred to as the LM-2, is a drum machine manufactured by Linn Electronics between 1982 and 1985. About 5,000 units were sold. Development The LinnDrum was designed by the American engineer Roger Linn. It was cheaper and more widely produced than his first drum machine, the Linn LM-1, which had been affordable only to wealthy musicians and studios. Release The LinnDrum sold far more units than the Linn LM-1 and its successor, the Linn 9000, combined. It was used by artists and producers including Trevor Horn, Stock Aitken Waterman, Sandy Vee, Justin Hayward, and Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan .... When Linn Electronics closed in 1986, Forat Electronics purchased its assets and offered service, sounds, and ...
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Music Sequencer
A music sequencer (or audio sequencer or simply sequencer) is a device or application software that can record, edit, or play back music, by handling Musical note, note and performance information in several forms, typically CV/Gate, MIDI, or Open Sound Control, and possibly audio signal, audio and automation data for digital audio workstations (DAWs) and Audio plugin, plug-ins. Overview Modern sequencers The advent of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) in the 1980s gave programmers the opportunity to design software that could more easily record and play back sequences of notes played or programmed by a musician. As the technology matured, sequencers gained more features, such as the ability to record multitrack audio. Sequencers used for audio recording are called digital audio workstations (DAWs). Many modern sequencers can be used to control Software synthesizer, virtual instruments implemented as software Audio plug-in, plug-ins. This allows musicians to repl ...
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Roland MC-4 Microcomposer
The Roland MC-4 MicroComposer was an early microprocessor-based music sequencer released by Roland Corporation. It could be programmed using the ten key numeric keyboard or a synthesizer keyboard using the keyboard's control voltage and gate outputs. It was released in 1981 with a list price of (¥430,000 JPY) and was the successor to the MC-8, which in 1977 was the first microprocessor-based digital sequencer. Like its predecessor, the MC-4 is a polyphonic CV/Gate sequencer. Chris CarterROLAND MC8 MICROCOMPOSER ''Sound on Sound'', Vol.12, No.5, March 1997 Information This sequencer was released before the advent of MIDI, and viewed by some composers to have more accurate timing. The MC-4 has an output patchbay to the right of the control panel, allowing you to patch the MC-4 to a synthesizer using 3.5mm patch cords. There are four channels of outputs containing CV-1, CV-2, Gate and MPX (multiplex) to control four separate synthesizers.page 1, Roland Microcomposer MC-4 Operatio ...
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Kurzweil K250
The Kurzweil K250, manufactured by Kurzweil Music Systems, was an early electronic musical instrument which produced sound from sampled sounds compressed in ROM, faster than common mass storage such as a disk drive. Acoustic sounds from brass, percussion, string and woodwind instruments as well as sounds created using waveforms from oscillators were utilized. Designed for professional musicians, it was invented by Raymond Kurzweil, founder of Kurzweil Computer Products, Inc., Kurzweil Music Systems and Kurzweil Educational Systems with consultation from Stevie Wonder, Lyle Mays (Pat Metheny Group), Alan R. Pearlman (ARP Instruments), and Robert Moog (Moog synthesizer). History In the mid-1970s, Raymond Kurzweil invented the first multi-font reading machine for the blind, consisting of the earliest CCD flat-bed scanner and text-to-speech synthesizer. In 1976, the blind musician, Stevie Wonder, heard about the demonstration of this new machine on ''The Today Show'', and later bec ...
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