The Philosophy of Synthesis

The Current that sweeps away “the current”

In the realm of cinematic space music, the focus too often shifts from the music to the machine that makes the music. (see footnote ¹)

My goal is to remain primarily focused on the composition and performance, and not the hardware. I’d like to think when composing for a dome environment, the spatial awareness required of the composer helps inform the composition much more than the hardware limitations. By this I mean not only the performance “space”, but the requirements of the musical setting; the form, the development, the orchestration…which is itself informed by the “hardware”. This is true for both acoustic AND electronic orchestration.

But it might be closer to the truth that the synthesizer and recording hardware of the 1970’s enforced a kind of musical argot in the same way that classical composers approached instruments like the harpsichord or valveless trumpet. The capabilities and limitations of the sound creation “machines” combined with the musical modes-of-the-day created the lightning-in-a-bottle that inspired generations.

Take for example Mozart’s horn concertos, composed originally for “natural” valveless horns, but now performed with modern French horns, or Bach’s Goldberg Variations, composed for dual manual harpsichord but now performed almost exclusively on piano.

Similarly, a live performance of a Vangelis piece would probably lean into modern synthesis devices over the expensive and temperamental Yamaha CS-80, the 50-year-old “king of synthesizers”, which wasn’t entirely reliable 50 years ago.

Nevertheless, we strive to emulate those early sonic signatures. Not as pastiche or parody, but as a genuine artistic exploration of both a style and a sound that have become iconic. I liken these styles to undiscovered continents that were briefly sighted but not fully explored, as the current of innovation rapidly zigzagged from fashion to fashion, just as innovation pushed it forward. More of a tidal wave than a tide.

It would be nice to take a step back and explore a musical moment that came and went very quickly.

Memory Wheel is an art project that explores retro 1970s and 1980s epic cinematic synthesizer-based planetarium music.

Concepts to think about:

• Interface as Instrument: knob-per-function layouts reduce cognitive load (to a point). May drive and constrain the types of sounds you hear.
• Signal Path Integrity: Maintaining a “human” element in purely electronic textures. Our ears are good at spotting imperfections, which can both be fatiguing AND reduce fatigue by adding complexity and interest.
• Legacy Workflows: Why do we still reach for the texture of the Mellotron or the instability of the VCO? Is there more to it than nostalgia?

This article serves as the first in a series of technical deep-dives into the Memory Wheel studio workflow. We will examine the specific signal chains used in recent planetarium commissions and how simple oscillator textures often provide the most effective foundation for complex celestial visuals.

“The machine does not make the music; it merely establishes the gridiron upon which the game unfolds.” — Studio Note, 2025

FOOTNOTE “the machine that makes the music” Because I am not using AI music creation techniques, I am the machine (in this case) that makes the music. As AI music takes up more and more of the domain space, it might be interesting to talk about the methods and means that produce these generated units of content, but that will be a job best left to future historians to think about. Or possibly the machines that do the thinking for them.