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Oberheim OB-X
The Oberheim OB-X was the first of Oberheim's OB-series polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizers. First commercially available in June 1979, the OB-X was introduced to compete with the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, which had been successfully introduced the year before. About 800 units were produced before the OB-X was discontinued and replaced by the updated and streamlined OB-Xa in 1981. The OB line developed and evolved after that with the OB-8 before being replaced by the Matrix series. The OB-X was used in popular music by Rush (on '' Moving Pictures'' and ''Signals''), Nena, Styx member Dennis DeYoung (used frequently from late 1979 to 1984), Queen (their first synthesizer on an album), Madonna for her debut album, Prince, and Jean-Michel Jarre who used it for its "brass" sounds. Specification The OB-X was the first Oberheim synthesizer based on a single printed circuit board called a "voice card" (still using mostly discrete components) rather than the earli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oberheim Polyphonic
The Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer is a range of analog music synthesizers that was produced from 1975 to 1979 by Oberheim Electronics. It was developed by Tom Oberheim, and was the first production synthesizer capable of playing chords. Specification Oberheim took the idea and electronics of a Minimoog synthesizer and put them in a small box, making a few changes, and in 1974 introduced the SEM (Synthesizer Expander Module), which became the building block of his polyphonic synths. By strapping two, four, or eight of these SEMs together under keyboard control, he was able to create practical, albeit large, synthesizers that could play two, four, or eight notes simultaneously. The Oberheim Polyphonic Synthesizer was born. Each SEM in an Oberheim Polyphonic generates one voice (or note). There was an optional Polyphonic Synthesizer Programmer module (PSP-1) for the four- and eight-voice models with 16 memories, which allowed the user to store and recall some sound settings of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oberheim
Oberheim is an American synthesizer manufacturer founded in 1969 by Tom Oberheim. History and products Tom Oberheim founded the company in 1969, originally as a designer and contract manufacturer of electronic effects devices for Maestro (most notably the Maestro PS-1A Phase Shifter),, and briefly a retail dealer for ARP Instruments, eventually designing the company's first Oberheim-branded product, the Oberheim DS-2, one of the first digital music sequencers. In 1975 Oberheim introduced the Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) to complement the DS-2 sequencer and enable a user to play one synthesizer while the DS-2 played a sequence on another. The SEM featured a two-pole filter that could operate as a low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, or band-reject filter, giving it a different sound than the Moog and ARP filters popular at the time. The company later combined multiple SEM modules with a digitally-scanned keyboard and a 2-channel voltage-controlled sequencer to create a series o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dennis DeYoung
Dennis DeYoung (born February 18, 1947) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He was a founding member of the rock band Styx, and served as its primary lead vocalist and keyboardist from 1972 until 1999. DeYoung was the band's most prolific and successful writer, having been credited as the writer of more Styx songs than any other band member. DeYoung penned seven of the band's eight ''Billboard'' top 10 singles as well as a solo top 10 single. Life and career 1947–1970: Early life Dennis DeYoung was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, to parents Maurice and Loraine DeYoung. Growing up in the Roseland area of Chicago, DeYoung started his career as an accordionist in 1962 at the age of 15 when he teamed up with his 13-year-old neighbors Chuck and John Panozzo in a three-piece combo originally called The Tradewinds. The trio added guitarist Tom Nardini in 1964 and renamed the band TW4. In 1968, Nardin was replaced by John Curulewski and in 197 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Road Island (album)
''Road Island'' is the fifth and final album by Ambrosia, released in 1982 on Warner Bros. Records. The album marks the band's return to their progressive rock roots and it was the first one produced by James Guthrie. Despite positive reviews from critics, the album was a commercial disappointment, peaking at #115 on the Billboard 200. "How Can You Love Me" only managed to reach #86 on the Billboard Hot 100, while "For Openers (Welcome Home)" peaked at #44 on the Mainstream Rock charts. Track listing Personnel ;Ambrosia *David Pack – guitar, lead and backing vocals, keyboards *Joe Puerta – bass, lead and backing vocals *Burleigh Drummond – drums, backing vocals, percussion, bassoon * David Cutler Lewis – keyboards *Royce Jones – backing vocals * Christopher North – keyboards, backing vocals ;Additional musicians *Jim Horn – saxophone (Kid No More) ;Production * Producer: James Guthrie *Engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambrosia (band)
Ambrosia is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1970. Ambrosia had five top 40 hit singles released between 1975 and 1980, including the top 5 hits "How Much I Feel" and "Biggest Part of Me", and top 20 hits "You're the Only Woman (You & I)" and "Holdin' on to Yesterday". Most of the original band members have been active with the group continuously for over thirty years to the present day, with the notable exception of original lead vocalist and guitarist David Pack since 2000. Ambrosia currently tours internationally and has worked in the past and present with Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Alan Parsons, Bruce Hornsby, Bill Champlin, Michael McDonald and Peter Beckett among other notable artists. Formation The group was founded as a quartet with guitarist/vocalist David Pack, bassist/vocalist Joe Puerta, keyboardist Christopher North and drummer Burleigh Drummond. According to Joe Puerta, their original name was "Ambergris Mite," but after do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sample And Hold
In electronics, a sample and hold (also known as sample and follow) circuit is an analog device that samples (captures, takes) the voltage of a continuously varying analog signal and holds (locks, freezes) its value at a constant level for a specified minimum period of time. Sample and hold circuits and related peak detectors are the elementary analog memory devices. They are typically used in analog-to-digital converters to eliminate variations in input signal that can corrupt the conversion process.Kefauver and Patschke, p. 37. They are also used in electronic music, for instance to impart a random quality to successively-played notes. A typical sample and hold circuit stores electric charge in a capacitor and contains at least one switching device such as a FET (field effect transistor) switch and normally one operational amplifier.Horowitz and Hill, p. 220. To sample the input signal, the switch connects the capacitor to the output of a buffer amplifier. The buffer ampli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portamento
In music, portamento (plural: ''portamenti'', from old it, portamento, meaning "carriage" or "carrying") is a pitch sliding from one note to another. The term originated from the Italian expression "''portamento della voce''" ("carriage of the voice"), denoting from the beginning of the 17th century its use in vocal performances and emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used interchangeably with anticipation. It is also applied to one type of glissando on, e.g., slide trombones, as well as to the "glide" function of steel guitars and synthesizers; in the latter it is often used to add a melancholic effect to the overall melody. Vocal portamento In the first example, Rodolfo's first aria in ''La Sonnambula'' (1831), the portamento is indicated by the slur between the third and fourth notes. The second example, Judit's first line in '' Duke Bluebeard's Castle'' (1912), employs an inclining, wavy line between the fourth and f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Z-80
The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were delivered in March 1976, and it was officially introduced on the market in July 1976. With the revenue from the Z80, the company built its own chip factories and grew to over a thousand employees over the following two years. The Zilog Z80 is a software-compatible extension and enhancement of the Intel 8080 and, like it, was mainly aimed at embedded systems. Although used in that role, the Z80 also became one of the most widely used CPUs in desktop computers and home computers from the 1970s to the mid-1980s. It was also common in military applications, musical equipment such as synthesizers (like the Roland Jupiter-8), and coin-operated arcade games of the late 1970s and early 1980s, including ''Pac-Man''. Zilog licensed the Z80 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Storage
Computer data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The central processing unit (CPU) of a computer is what manipulates data by performing computations. In practice, almost all computers use a storage hierarchy, which puts fast but expensive and small storage options close to the CPU and slower but less expensive and larger options further away. Generally, the fast volatile technologies (which lose data when off power) are referred to as "memory", while slower persistent technologies are referred to as "storage". Even the first computer designs, Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine and Percy Ludgate's Analytical Machine, clearly distinguished between processing and memory (Babbage stored numbers as rotations of gears, while Ludgate stored numbers as displacements of rods in shuttles). This distinction was extended in the Von Neumann a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oberheim OB-X Internals
Oberheim is an American synthesizer manufacturer founded in 1969 by Tom Oberheim. History and products Tom Oberheim founded the company in 1969, originally as a designer and contract manufacturer of electronic effects devices for Maestro (most notably the Maestro PS-1A Phase Shifter),, and briefly a retail dealer for ARP Instruments, eventually designing the company's first Oberheim-branded product, the Oberheim DS-2, one of the first digital music sequencers. In 1975 Oberheim introduced the Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) to complement the DS-2 sequencer and enable a user to play one synthesizer while the DS-2 played a sequence on another. The SEM featured a two-pole filter that could operate as a low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, or band-reject filter, giving it a different sound than the Moog and ARP filters popular at the time. The company later combined multiple SEM modules with a digitally-scanned keyboard and a 2-channel voltage-controlled sequencer to create a series o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Michel Jarre
Jean-Michel André Jarre (; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and is known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, accompanied by vast laser displays, large projections and fireworks. Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents and trained on the piano. From an early age, he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including street performers, jazz musicians and the artist Pierre Soulages. But his musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrète at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His first mainstream success was the 1976 album ''Oxygène''. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 18 million copies. ''Oxygène'' was followed in 1978 by ''Équinoxe'', and in 1979, Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958April 21, 2016), more commonly known mononymously as Prince, was an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. The recipient of numerous awards and nominations, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest musicians of his generation. He was known for his flamboyant, androgynous persona; his wide vocal range, which included a far-reaching falsetto and high-pitched screams; and his skill as a multi-instrumentalist, often preferring to play all or most of the instruments on his recordings. Prince produced his albums himself, pioneering the Minneapolis sound. His music incorporated a wide variety of styles, including funk, R&B, rock, new wave, soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ..., synth-pop, pop music, pop, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
