The Stretta Procedure: Modular Synth Epics
I recently found this great article about Modular Synth Epics at The Stretta Procedure blog. It talks about the rise and fall of the Modular-driven landmark synthesizer CDs of the late 60′s and early 70s, most notably,The Well-Tempered Synthesizer (1969), Switched-On Bach II (1974), By Request (1975) and Switched-On Brandenburgs (1979), Sonic Seasonings, Clockwork Orange Soundtrack, Beauty in the Beast and others.
Excerpt:
The introduction of patch storage and presets caused a schism. What inevitably happened with pre-built sounds was people stopped programming and simply played the instrument. There is nothing inherently wrong or bad about this, it was a much needed technological step forward. However, the idea of building a sound as needed for a composition decayed to relative insignificance. The sound was chosen first, and the music followed. Analog modulars themselves drifted into obscurity with the introduction of MIDI and digital synthesizers like the DX7. Not only were modulars finicky and time-consuming to use, the sound itself was old-fashioned and out of date. Thus followed a dozen years of inactivity – a modular synth dark ages.
