Actually, if you think about it, things like player pianos and barrel organs made use of primitive sequencer technology. Wikipedia calls these "automatic musical instruments" and says they actually date back to the 9th century.
And yes, Raymond Scott was designing sequencers for his music back in the 40's. The RCA synthesizer at Columbia-Princeton apparently also had an sequencer.
As far as synthesizers the way we know them, I believe it's been said that Buchla was one of the first to design a sequencer, which was put to use by Morton Subotnick on his early records. I think the Moog 960 came a bit later.
Yeah, most definitely. Let's specify "electronic sequencer" as opposed to mechanical. I'm pretty sure you're right about Buchula. He thought attaching a keyboard to a synth was heresy anyway- too conventional, making the synth a glorified organ. (He was right to a large extent.)
Scott’s were of course hand-made and not commercially available for synthesizers. I suppose the RCA-Princeton synthesizer could technically be said to use “digital sequencing,” as I think the sequencing was done through a computer interface programmed via paper tape (though I guess we’re talking about an analog computer). I don’t believe it had a keyboard (at least not a music keyboard), so all music produced on it technically counts as “sequences.” For example:
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
Actually, it's apparently Subotnick who didn't want the "black and white keyboard", or so he says in the I Dream Of Wires documentary, anyway. He felt that if he had a conventional keyboard, he'd simply end up making the same kind of music he did at the piano or whatever.
And I do agree that a lot of synthesists largely do just that, ie they play the synth in a similar fashion to what they'd do on a piano or an electric organ or whatever. As much as I like someone like Keith Emerson or Wendy Carlos, a lot of the music each of them play could have been realized using earlier technologies.
Julian Paul Brown used one on Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come's "Galactic Zoo Dossier"
also, on one of the early Battiato LPs, I believe he is credited with using a VCS2!
Bookmarks