Electronic Sound Essays - Synthesizers, , Term Papers

Electronic Sound Electronic Sound Even 100 Years History of Electronic Instruments before the turn of the century, when the electronic age was still in its infancy, the first attempts to generate sound from electricity had begun. By 1901, Thaddeus Cadhill had already manufactured the Telharmonium, an electric organ, powered by dynamos and designed to send sound down telephone lines. The Telharmonium proved to be the first of several forward-thinking electronic instruments to be developed in the early part of the century, the most important of which was the Theramin. Named after its Russian inventor Leon Theramin and consisting of a box with two ariels sticking out to control volume and pitch, the Theramin was the favorite instrument of Russian revolutionary leader Lenin. It was also manufactured for a short time in the United States, and although Theramin's ideas proved too progressive for the American public, they would later inspire Robert Moog to develop his first synths. Other electronic instruments, like the rautonium, the Odnes Martenot and the first mass-market electronic instrument, the Hammond Organ, continued to pop up through the 20's and 30's. It was with the arrival of magnetic tape, developed around the same period and perfected during World War II, that the next major innovation in electronic music occurred, as the use of found-sound opened a new world of musical possibilities. Steve Reich experimented with manipulating tape to affect pitch or speed. Although tape editing was a difficult process that involved physically cutting and splicing the different sections together, tape continued to be used by anyone wishing to manipulate recorded sound until samplers were introduced in the 1980s. At the same time as tape was being used to unlock the world of found-sound, the development of electronically generated or synthesized sound was continuing apace. American Hugh Le Caine developed a proto-type synth (short for synthesizer) with his 'electronic sackbut' in 1948. The room-sized RCA synthesizer was active throughout the 50's and others continued to work on the idea of electronic synthesis. Finally, in the early 60's Robert Moog expanded the idea of the Theramin into what would become the first ever commercially available synth, the Moog. The first synth's were clumsy modular systems the size of sideboards and changing sound on them meant negotiating a mass of wires or 'patch-chords'. However, they did allow users to sculpt their own sounds and provided the blue print for every synth that had come after. From the late 60's onwards, electronic instruments, effects and production techniques became an increasingly familiar feature of popular music. The arrival of psychedelic rock had a big impact. Artists like The Beatles and the Beach Boys experimented with tape loops, over-dubs and other studio trickery. Others like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd fed guitars through layers of effects to create powerful, strange and fiercly electronic new sounds. At the same time as electronic sound was being incorporated into a traditional rock blueprint, others were using similar technology to create radically different forms of music. Perhaps the most obvious example are the German bands Can, Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. These bands blended the futurism of their avante garde classical backgrounds with a pop aesthetic for incredible results. Kraftwerk in particular must go down as perhaps the single-most influential act in the history of dance music. Techno visionaries who used modified synths, Kraftwerk self-designed sequencers and improved drum pads to create a radical sound that spawned a string of US dancefloor hits throughout the 70's and early 80's. Important and certainly commercially successful pioneers were the many funk and soul artists to notice the potential of electronic sound at an early stage. Stevie Wonder was an early Moog client, while George Clinton's P-Funk mob used synths and outboard effects to add weight to their bass-lines and create unusual dancefloor sounds. With a space-age sound to match their sci-fi image, P-Funk laid-out a blueprint that would be picked up by generations of dance producers. The release of the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 in 1978 saw the next big step in synth design since the Mini-Moog. It offered polyphonic sound, which meant that you could play more than one note at a time. It was the beginning of a particularly fertile period in the growth of electronic music technology, with samplers, digital synths, sequencers and programmable drum machines all becoming commercially available within the next few years. Midi became a standard in 1983 and companies like EMU, Roland, Akai and Ensoniq took over the market. The new technology became affordable to musicians and producers working on a budget. When the first Fairlight samplers were sold in 1978 they were priced at $25,000, in

Tupac Shakur, Thug Poet essays

Tupac Shakur, Thug Poet essays Tupac Amaru Shakur was born Lesane Parish Crooks, in Brooklyn, New York on June 16, 1971. As a child, Tupac lived an impoverished life and his family struggled when Tupacs step father, Mutula Shakur (who was a member of the Black Panthers) was sentenced to six years in prison, after taking part in a fatal armored car robbery. Tupac and his family moved from Brooklyn to the Bronx, to Harlem, and to different homeless shelters throughout the city. As a young teen, Tupacs family moved to Baltimore, and Tupac attended The Baltimore School for the Performing Arts. Tupac had started to show interest and excel in acting when his family packed up and moved once again, this time to Oakland, California (White, 13-30). Throughout Tupac Shakurs entire childhood, he always felt as if he didnt fit in because he never got the chance to settle in one area for an extended period of time. In Oakland, Tupac began to, as he called it, hang with the wrong crowd (TupacFans.com). Tupac became involv ed with hip-hop at the age of fifteen. Seven years later, Tupac released his solo album debut, 2Pacalypse Now. His first album, like the rest of his music and poetry which he would go on to write in the years that followed, addressed the societal problems of the urban lifestyle. Tupac knew all of these problems well, because he had dealt with all of them while growing up. Tupacs first hit single, Brendas Got A Baby, launched his career and put him in the spotlight. Before he released his second album, titled Strictly for my N.I.G.G.A.Z., Tupac landed a role in the film Juice. As Tupacs fame grew, his message was heard by more and more people around the world. Tupac Shakurs music and poetry were written by the society that surrounded the troubled rapper, and at the same time, his music and poetry rewrote the views that people had on the urban life of which poverty-stricken ...

To his Coy Mistress Poem Reflections Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

To his Coy Mistress Poem Reflections - Essay Example Am I to sit here in a single room waiting to be graced by your presence? Shall I sit and wait for you to take me out or am I to be hidden away until you aren’t interested in me? I think not dear one. How am I to amuse myself as you live the other part of your life? Certainly visions of rolling about with you cannot be what you expect me to substitute for an honest relationship. As you aptly recognize death, you must also realize that life, before I become a rotting carcass, must be lived and enjoyed. Thus, in your next correspondence do write as passionately of my financial protection as you do of consummation and then you will find yourself in the garden of eden. I interpret this piece as rather typical. It is the basic mating dance that men engage in when they are trying to entice a woman to go to bed with them. It is clear that he is governed by lust which is understandable. Oftentimes, that which we cannot obtain becomes irresistible and we pine after it. It should be noted that it is not that he wants â€Å"her†. He merely wants her body. His desire is akin to the desire that anyone feel when they want something. This can apply to a sexual dalliance or obtaining a video game. One can play a video game for hours when they first obtain it. Likewise, one can enjoy sexual relations for hours at a time as well. This does not mean that there is an actual love exists. Any chance that the suitor has of getting his mistress to actually go to bed with him is substantially diminished by the fact that he explains to her that if she doesn’t, she will wind up old and unworshipped. It is actually amusing because in today’s society, he would not have made it past the second verse of his poem. The tone and diction of the speaker remind me of one who is spoiled and accustomed to having their way. I would presume that the speaker was rather unattractive because he only speaks of her beauty and with his arrogance would