Lively up in here! Best synthesists -not keyboardists, synthesists.

As in sound explorers -not how fast they can squiggle out notes, but the quality of the patches themselves.
Analog or digital, no matter.

I have some favorites-olde school:
Eno, Barbieri(japan), Matsutake(YMO)

or jazz: Patrick Gleeson, Hancock(Sextant period) Zawinul



Modern?
Isan, Boards of Canada, Autechre


Just wanna see if there are some synth lovers here - seems mostly guitarists.
So, guitar synthesists included, like Fripp and Belew...

Others? Itis good to keep discovering.
Hi Hi Timbre! Away!

Although I'm not sure he counts, since he uses the computer to build his timbres. But check out his "Mortuos Plango Vivos Voco" and tell me that's not a magnificent sound palette.

Among players who actually twiddle the knobs themselves, I like Morton Subotnick for bizarre sounds and Thomas Dolby for seductive ones. And Robin Amos of Cul de Sac for structuring solos.

Did you ever see the world's biggest modular synth? http://web.media.mit.edu/~joep/synth.html

BTW I concur re Gleeson, who I thought of before I even clicked on this thread. Besides his work on Sextant, he did a "Planets" that's more subtle, yet arguably richer, than Tomita's. And everybody loves Eno; just yesterday I loaded up 801 Live on my mp3 player.

No problem with computer manipulation at all, nor musique concrete.

i don't own Mortuos PLango Vivos Voco, but found an excerpt on a myspace page of all places.
Exploring the timbral space inherent in voice and bells has personal resonance with me, as I have some unmixed metasynth experiments somewhat in that vein.
He is only 20 years prior plus a more schooled composer than myself by far.


I certainly have seen joe Palatino's wild patch jungle. I have some soundclips he made with that, and the semi-random liveliness of a self-running patch is a very cool thing indeed.

I was always to money-poor to get all the music I wanted, and Gleeson's work was pretty obscure, short runs. His work on sound design for apocalypse now was great, although I am not sure which parts are which on that. The overall effect worked to create the necessary surreality of the visuals - that first fan-to-slowmo-chopper had me hooked.


Please add more thoughts if you like - just reading your post juggled my memory a bit, and broadened the idea a bit...

Ron Geesin, Xenakis, David Tudor were all big influences for my formative years.
Eliane Radique impresses me with here roiling buddhist drones, done on a Emu modular she used for 30+ years. Talk about focus and dedication to an instrument - the opposite of gearlust driven modernists.

My personal technique evolved using lo-fi tape manipulation, then synthesis combinations, and now incorporating computers. It is all a continuum to me, driven by a love of sound. I guess John Cage was the primal listening influence for me, in that everything became equally valid, with opportunity for beauty everywhere. Windchimes, garbage truck, Bach. All good.

And yeah, hard not to love the Eno man.
Roger Eno is good too, yeah.

Ha, you made me ramble. THX.

HEY, I just flamed myself. eep.

Tomita and Wendy Carlos
The Professor

I pretty much wore that Xmas gift out. I loved his description on the back of that record, of synthesizers being just as natural as any other instrument, using the example of thunder as sound of electricity...I read and re-read the cryptic equipment list, wondering at these exotic terms such as bode shifter and oscillators...:)





And Walter/Wendy's "Sonic Seasonings" is the first subtle electronic song cycle I had ever heard. So different than Switched on Bach or all the Moog "novelty showpieces"- it had an integrity of its own, without gimmicry. My library had this, and I kept checking it out repeatedly.
In retrospect, it was extremely influential to my personal ambient style...

Although I'm more familiar with Barbieri's work with Porcupine Tree than his work with Japan.

Back in about 1976 or so. He wasn't with Todd and the boys then. Then just worked for Bob Moog showing what the Mini, the Sattelite 6 and the Micro could do in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing.
GAC

And Kraftwerk, who make understatement an art.

and the Sal-Mar construction.

A synth built out of the wreckage of a mainframe destroyed by rioting students.