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Renowned composer Sally Reid has won numerous awards from ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers), including Faculty of the Year (1991), Outstanding Educator (1996), and Innovative Use of Technology in Teaching (1995). Her works include compositions for voice, piano, orchestra, and winds, and she worked in electronic music as well, mostly between 1978 and 1986. Compositions featuring the alphaSyntauri include Ten Miniatures (1983), Etude for Oboe and Tape (1983), Miniatures for English horn, violin, alto saxophone, and piano (1983-1985), and Gabriel Cometh (for trumpet and tape, 1986).
Dr. Reid is currently a Professor of Music at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, TX. She is the Immediate Past-President of the International Alliance for Women in Music. Her web site is located at http://music.acu.edu/www/reid.
Why did you select the alphaSyntauri for some of your electronic works?
"These were pre-MIDI days, and someone in the hinterlands of West Texas with limited resources didn't have access to a Fairlight or a Synclavier. I had an ARP 2500, which of course is monophonic. Each voice must be set up (crude potentiometers make it difficult to return to a setting once it is changed), recorded onto tape, and then assembled into a piece in the old classical style - cut and splice.
"The alphaSyntauri was a wonder - 16 digital oscillators (albeit 8 bit) and it was multi-timbral!! You could have ten sounds in memory and play 8 stereo sounds (and 8 notes) at once. This was a miracle. Eventually I used two alphaSyntauris synced together - thus doubling the timbral and note capacity."
Did using the alphaSyntauri present any unique challenges?
"One of the biggest liabilities of the Syntauri was its sequencing capability. To add notes you had to turn a track into record mode and then play through to the point where you wanted to record. This made long pieces very difficult because you would have to listen to the beginning of the work over and over - and if you didn't like the performance you added - back to the beginning you went. Editing was very crude, as was the notation companion program, Composer's Assistant.
Sound design (additive synthesis only) was equally crude, but I got the Decillionix, which was another card which fit into the Apple II. It was an 8-bit sampler!!! That was fun! In one piece - the Miniature for Alto Saxophone - I played the sampled saxophone and then have the performer sneak in on the same pitch - to try to deceive the audience - so that for a second they couldn't be sure what was synthesized and what was real. This was all so new - such a kick.
"I learned a lot about timbre and digital masking from the alphaSyntauri - as some sounds masked the timbre of other sounds, etc., but it was a great instrument and I had a grand time pushing its limits."
At what point did you decide to leave the alphaSyntauri behind and explore other instruments?
"Well, the advent of MIDI was another miracle - suddenly much better quality sounds - with more control over the sounds - and better sequencing options - were available. The earliest instruments (1983 & 1984) - like the Yamaha DX7 had enormous capacity. I loved FM synthesis as bells and long decays were something it did best, and my TX-816 was like 8 DX-7 synthesizers in one. Each could hold 32 different programs in memory (playing only one at a time) and 16 different notes at once. Stacking three of these gave enormous depth - 8x32 programs and 8x16 simultaneous notes. Even the multi-timbral instruments that followed over the next few years could not offer that kind of depth - usually offering only 32 simultaneous notes - fewer for more complex timbres.
"AlphaSyntauri tried to retro-fit MIDI, but only provided MIDI OUT functioning. This was great, because I could export the work I had done and re-synthesize some of my older pieces, which I later did. But with the new MIDI instruments and the new sequencers (MAC based), the syntauri was quickly a dinosaur, although an amazing one. I still marvel at the ambition and the vision - to make a little Apple II (with the Mountain Computer card (w/the digital oscillators) do all that it did! Amazing."
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