Lecturing before a packed house at an Audio Engineering Society meeting in 1979. Wendy Carlos described and illustrated a number of her techniques for shaping timbres, orchestrating electronic textures, and recording complex sound material. Her remarks had to do with subtle details of technique that she had developed over the years, but which commercial electronic musicians were generally not familiar with. At the end of her talk she quoted a famous scientist as saying that there are only two kinds of science - physics and butterfly collecting. “I am a butterfly collector." Wendy concluded. “I have just shown you some of my favorite butterflies."
In Keyboard’s first cover story on Wendy [Dec. ’79]. Dominic Milano thoroughly explored her pivotal role in shaping the current electronic music scene, starting with the making of Switched-On Bach. He also talked a great deal with Wendy about her technique, philosophies, and equipment, like that interview, the discussion below has to do with ‘butterflies,’ with a near-fanatical concern for subtlety and delicacy of detail. Having worked for many years with electronic musicians, I am constantly impressed by how the differences between merely adequate and top-level music depend precisely on these line details. And no musician illustrates this fact better than Wendy Carlos.
[…]
