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Foremost among the new instrument makers is Robert Moog, 34, an amateur musician with a Ph.D. in engineering physics from Cornell. The electronic synthesizer that bears his name -a 4-ft.-long contraption that looks like the control panel of a jet airliner with an organ keyboard grafted onto it-is by far the most effective device yet developed to produce electronic sounds. Besides serving as an "orchestra" for works by avant-garde composers, the Moog (rhymes with vogue) produced the bing-bong theme that for years preceded all CBS-TV color shows and the clarion call that heralds Westinghouse...
...basic elements of Moog's machine are amplifiers, mixers, filters anc voltage-controlled oscillators. Some ol these, connected to the keyboard, trigger various "raw" sounds, such as "sawtooth" waves and "white noise." Other parts then modify the raw sounds by controlling their attack, volume and rate of decay, and by adding such characteristics as vibrato or echo. Complicated combinations of sounds-like the counterpoint and chords of Carlos' Bach album-are achieved by taping each series of sounds as they are produced, then combining them on multiple tracks of the same tape...
...lets go back about 10 years to the South Side of Chicago and some of the original stuff played by the men who made the Blues revival possible. The list of unsung heroes of the Blues is endless; but I have chosen to emphasize 3 of my favorites--keyboard man Otis Spann, Harp man Sonny Boy Williamson, and slide guitar man Elmore Jones...
...these only Otis Spann is still living. Spann is the keyboard man and co-leader of the legendary Muddy Waters Blues Band. I saw them at the Jazz Workshop about a month ago. Since Muddy likes to take it easy these days and the crowd was sparse, Spann did most of the singing. Spann lived a lot of his life in Mississippi and his singing and piano style reflect his past. His Southern accent is heavy and his voice is a mixture of pain and suffering--and the ironic sense of humor which is essential to the Blues. His style...
There have been many new inventions that make life easier for the blind, such as tape recorders and Braille machines. IBM recently came out with an electric typewriter with a regular keyboard but which types in Braille. With this any sighted person can Braille a text, without knowledge of Braille. A new process has been developed, by which fifty copies of a Braille page can be made at once, facilitating the printing of Braille books. And then there are the inventions of the future, such as the electronic cane. But these are all external crutches, so to speak; what...