SOB@50!

This October marks the 50th anniversary of the release of Wendy Carlos’s landmark synthesizer LP Switched-On Bach. There may be official celebrations in the works; I haven’t looked into that yet. For now, what I’m proposing is an entirely unofficial celebration. If the right people jump on board, it could maybe turn into a bit more than that.

At the moment, my concept is preliminary and subject to change. If you have ideas or concerns, let me know! (email via midiguru23@gmail.com works well.) I don’t even guarantee at this stage that the concept is going to fly at all — it just seems like the right thing to try.

My basic idea is this: Anybody who wants to can submit a recording for possible inclusion in a compilation. At the very least, we’ll put up a soundcloud channel for the collection. Possibly YouTube, possibly a Facebook page — who knows?

I don’t tweet, but if you do, I suggest the hashtag #SOB@50 for discussions and publicity. (I don’t even know how hashtags work. If that doesn’t work, please suggest something different.)

What follows are not ground rules — they may change. This is just what I’ve thought about so far:

1. All submitted music should be drawn from the classical repertoire, and must be in the public domain.

2. Faithful note-for-note renditions are not required. Elaborate rearrangements and mashups are certainly allowed, but we have to be able to hear the classical piece, and it has to be a principal part of your creation.

3. The use of samples is allowed, but not encouraged. Using an orchestral sample library for a faithful recreation of a symphonic piece will not earn you any gratitude unless it’s extremely well done.

4. This will be a curated collection. What this means is, I’ll listen to everything I receive and pick out what in my opinion are the 12 or 15 best pieces. Yours may or may not be included. This restriction is necessary for several reasons. First, audio quality does matter. Second, you might choose the same piece that someone else does. In the interest of variety, there will probably be only one version of any given piece. Third, pieces that diverge too far from a recognizable classical source won’t qualify unless you’re so amazingly brilliant that we can’t resist. Fourth, you’ll need to sign an agreement allowing us to use your recording. If we don’t get the paperwork, we’ll have to toss your track.

5. I may enlist the help of a few other people to decide what to include. The use of the words “I” and “my” above is not intended to be definitive.

6. Instructions on how and where to send your submissions will follow shortly.

7. It would be very, very useful to have a couple of people involved who can help get the word out when the compilation is released. I’m not an expert on online publicity. I could use some help!

8. No, there’s no money in it. (Unless something changes, and if it changes the paperwork requirements will go through the roof.)

9. No, I haven’t mentioned this to Wendy yet. Nothing here should be read as implying an endorsement on her part. This is just for us, for the synthesizer-loving community, and it’s just for fun.

10. Your entry may earn a few extra points in the judging if it was recorded using an actual modular synthesizer (either hardware or software).