{"id":11803,"date":"2024-06-20T13:09:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T17:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/?p=11803"},"modified":"2025-09-17T12:02:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T16:02:59","slug":"who-is-wendy-carlos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/who-is-wendy-carlos\/","title":{"rendered":"How Wendy Carlos pioneered the evolution of synths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:15px\"><strong>Illustration: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/abellehayford.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Abelle Hayford (opens in a new tab)\"><strong>Abelle Hayford<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">It can be hard to pin down exactly when synthesizers made their way into mainstream music.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>By the mid &#8217;80s, they were everywhere in pop, thanks to the widespread sale of the Yamaha DX-7. It carved a new lane for digital synthesis; 32 polyphonic presets were coded onto the synth\u2019s hard drive, popularizing the bright, glassy tones of digital waves over the notorious warmth of analog synths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, it was especially difficult to program since digital synthesis was still in its early stages. The interface was so complicated that just about everyone who got their hands on one stuck to its presets, hence the limited array of synth sounds that you can recognize in almost any &#8217;80s pop hit. For example, take a listen to Sade\u2019s \u201cTar Baby\u201d from 1985\u2014doesn\u2019t that electric piano sound a bit familiar?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/7FAKnnZKZNY53jZliV5IiF?si=7M61pE6cSiKkaz6GXlmsQQ\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The &#8217;80s didn\u2019t birth synthesis, though; on <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/george-clinton-q-and-a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Parliament-Funkadelic\u2019s<\/a> seminal 1975 album <em>Mothership Connection<\/em>, you can hear Minimoog riffs scattered throughout tracks like \u201cSupergroovalisticprosifunkstication (The Bumps Bump).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/0HMn6Mj64KFPE0FYivxt3c?si=Z1v1EqTgQQynbw2iweiTeg\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If we look even further back, you can hear more Minimoog on <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/who-is-sun-ra\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sun Ra\u2019s<\/a> 1970 free jazz solo, \u201cJourney to the Stars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/5jyjXHOimkUHt6cmASB2qj?si=KfRLBuxzS_2aAv6E2eWGhw \" width=\"100%\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Clearly, we need to go even further back to tell the whole story; in order to find the point where synthesizers truly hit the ground running, we need to look at the success of Wendy Carlos and her debut album, <em>Switched-On Bach<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Before Wendy Carlos: Raymond Scott and the early days of synthesis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>But first, some context. Let\u2019s rewind to the earliest days of synthesis and look at Raymond Scott (1908 &#8211; 1994), who founded Manhattan Research Inc. in 1948 to explore musical synthesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To call the machines built by Manhattan Research impressive would be a complete understatement; at the time, they were otherworldly and completely unheard of. In fact, much of the technology used in today\u2019s synthesizers came directly from his work. After a successful career writing commercial jingles and big band jazz, Scott grew tired of dealing with his instrumentalists\u2019 mistakes, and decided to build musical machines that would never mess up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some of these, like the aptly named Bandito the Bongo Artist, could compose basic rhythms and grooves on their own with only a couple knobs and buttons to create variation. Others like the Electronium (commonly referred to as his magnum opus) could do just about anything he wanted it to; it arpeggiated chords, wrote its own melodies, and drummed complex patterns. It was the most advanced synthesizer of its time, and it was the size of a massive desk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can hear some of his best synthesized compositions\u2014including the sample from J Dilla\u2019s famous \u201cLightworks\u201d\u2014on <em>Manhattan Research Project<\/em>, and many of his previously inaccessible works were recently released on the compilation <em>Three Willow Park<\/em> (a few of my personal favorites are &#8220;IBM Probe #4,&#8221; &#8220;Mood Piece,&#8221; and any of his many versions of &#8220;Portofino&#8221;).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/track\/3AygMhKDtZyzN8Ch0tcy3L?si=GZqPF277T-Cm-f4el-xwng\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As Scott became more well known for his machines, he became friends with fellow inventor Bob Moog (1934 &#8211; 2005). Moog was developing similar instruments around the same time, so the two naturally formed a working relationship. Moog contributed parts such as VCAs and oscillators to many of Scott\u2019s later synthesizers, and thanks to Scott\u2019s advancements and breakthroughs, Moog was able to propel his own instruments in the market for other musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of these musicians who got her hands on a Moog synthesizer would change the history of synthesis as we know it: Wendy Carlos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who is Wendy Carlos?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Wendy Carlos (1939 &#8211; present) was a trained and natural musician, learning the piano at age six and composing for woodwinds as early as ten. She studied music and physics at Brown University, teaching lessons in electronic music on the side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was during this time that she met Bob Moog, and soon, she was helping him design and build the first commercially-available Moog synthesizer. In fact, it was Carlos who convinced Bob to add touch-sensitive volume control to his synths\u2014a factor which was instrumental in advertising them as &#8216;real&#8217; instruments. In return, she got some of Moog\u2019s synths and began using them to compose jingles and pop songs to financially support herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Switched-On Bach<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Nearly ten years after she met Moog, she shared an old version of Bach\u2019s Two-Part Invention in F Major (recorded on one of Moog\u2019s instruments) with her friend and business partner Rachel Elkind, who convinced her to pursue the concept more seriously. Thanks to Elkind\u2019s previous experience as a record producer, Columbia Records granted the duo artistic freedom to pursue a synthesized album of Bach\u2019s compositions as a part of their \u201cBach to Rock\u201d sales campaign (this campaign, until including Carlos&#8217; music, did not have a single modern rendition of any of Bach\u2019s works planned).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the synthesizer could only perform one note at a time, the recording process was tedious. But, to say the least, it paid off. <em>Switched-On Bach<\/em> was the best selling classical album ever when it was released in 1968, and the first to go platinum. It put the synthesizer in a new light for the general public, and introduced it to many for the first time as a legitimate musical instrument. Thanks to its success, the Minimoog (released soon after her album) flew off of shelves nationwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Gender identity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>It was in 1968 that Carlos also began hormone replacement therapy and started using the name Wendy Carlos. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.synthforbreakfast.nl\/wendy-carlos-playboy-interview-1979\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">In a series of interviews published in the May 1979 issue of <em>Playboy<\/em>,<\/a> she told the public about her transition. In the article, she described coming to terms with her gender identity as a very young girl, but as a people pleaser, learned to deny it publicly, despite her gender dysphoria. The interviewer repeatedly tried to unnecessarily bring sex and sexuality into the conversation, but she turned him down, refusing to be fetishized. In her own words, \u201cMy fantasies were more sensuous than sexual. Like cuddling. Or the love of silk or satin rubbing against my skin.\u201d She talked about growth throughout her transition, feeling alone and even suicidal throughout most of her life, but finally feeling \u201cpeaceful and relaxed for the first time in [her] life\u201d thanks to the changes that estrogen brought to her body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was perhaps the first time that the public was educated about trans women, by a trans woman, on such a public scale. And, despite some dated terminology and disrespectful questions from the interviewer, Wendy handled everything with grace. She explained the many changes that hormone therapy brings, talked about the grey area surrounding biological sex (a subject rarely discussed even today), and even advocated for the use of the word \u201ctransgender\u201d instead of \u201ctranssexual,\u201d terminology that became commonplace a couple decades later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her transition gave her a sort of freedom that she hadn\u2019t experienced before; she no longer felt trapped in the lie of living &#8220;as a man,&#8221; so she could pursue what she wanted to openly and proudly as herself (before transitioning, she had stopped performing live entirely because of the distress that being onstage in men\u2019s clothes brought her).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>A Clockwork Orange<\/em> and other film scores<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Hollywood quickly hopped on the synthesis wave, and in 1971, Carlos was hired to score Stanley Kubrick\u2019s sci-fi film <em>A Clockwork Orange<\/em>. This score brought new sounds to science fiction; the synthesizers she used were capable of creating futuristic sounds that people had never heard before, and audiences loved it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At one point in the film, she used <a href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/what-is-a-vocoder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a vocoder<\/a> in a cover of Beethoven\u2019s Symphony No. 9, which many credit as one of the vocoder&#8217;s breakthrough moments in the mainstream as well. She continued working on scores after this, combining orchestra, chorus, and electronics to create music for Kubrick\u2019s cult classic <em>The Shining<\/em> and hallmark sci-fi film <em>TRON<\/em>, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/album\/7eA1RWzxtmV8x4DO1IKHfI?si=w_Z4l_O6QdGaPo-G4uAMlA\" width=\"100%\" height=\"80\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allow=\"encrypted-media\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It should be noted that Wendy Carlos was not the first to compose an electronic film score\u2014we have Raymond Scott\u2019s work on <em>Forbidden Planet<\/em> to thank for that. It was entirely synthesized, unlike Carlos&#8217; scores which incorporated acoustic instruments as well. In her <em>Playboy<\/em> interview, Carlos also mentions drawing inspiration from the synthesized score of <em>Close Encounters of the Third Kind<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The ongoing legacy of Wendy Carlos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>After such breakthroughs, Carlos took a step back from the limelight, but she never stopped innovating. In many of her more recent compositions, she has explored concepts like alternate tuning systems, ambient music, and surround sound, never ceasing to explore the full potential of all sorts of musical concepts. In 1992, to celebrate <em>Switched-On Bach<\/em>\u2019s 25th anniversary, she released an entirely re-recorded and reimagined version of the album with lots of extra material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also continued to build and modify her own instruments, just as she did in college with Bob Moog, even building a digital synthesizer long before the popularity of the previously mentioned DX-7. However, unlike Moog, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.synthforbreakfast.nl\/wendy-carlos-playboy-interview-1979\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">she never sold them,<\/a> as she \u201cnever thought of [herself] as having a whole lot of business acumen.\u201d Rather, she devoted herself to her own work and her own happiness, and in doing that, solidified her status as an innovator and an icon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Without Wendy Carlos, synthesized music as we know it would not exist. She shifted the musical landscape and inspired generations of young musicians after her, especially trans musicians, to forge their own path. Next time you watch <em>The Shining<\/em> or hear a Bach prelude, keep Wendy Carlos in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Explore more in-depth explorations of historic musicians, gear, and genres:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-1 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/tag\/history\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Learn more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Learn about how Wendy Carlos helped bring synthesizers into the mainstream and pioneered the evolution of the instrument. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":11804,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1693,1692],"tags":[1745,1386,666],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Wendy Carlos Pioneered the Evolution of Synths - Blog | Splice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn about how Wendy Carlos helped bring synthesizers into the mainstream and pioneered the evolution of the instrument.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/who-is-wendy-carlos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Wendy Carlos Pioneered the Evolution of Synths - Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Learn about how Wendy Carlos helped bring synthesizers into the mainstream and pioneered the evolution of the instrument.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/who-is-wendy-carlos\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Blog | Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Splice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-20T17:09:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-17T16:02:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Wendy_Carlos_BlogPost.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Vera Much\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@splice\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Vera Much\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/who-is-wendy-carlos\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/who-is-wendy-carlos\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Vera Much\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/6677a2c295136446eac30ee5dd272724\"},\"headline\":\"How Wendy Carlos pioneered the evolution of synths\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-20T17:09:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-17T16:02:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/who-is-wendy-carlos\/\"},\"wordCount\":1591,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/who-is-wendy-carlos\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/splice.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Wendy_Carlos_BlogPost.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"film &amp; 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