# Walter/Wendy Carlos Afficionados....... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2001, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810 "2001-10-06T19:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2001, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/1 "2001-10-06T19:12:56Z")
Please give me your opinion of the original **Switched-On Bach** versus **S-OB 2000**. I saw the original at Borders’ today, but didn’t buy it because I have 2000 already, and for some reason thought the very same works were on 2000 as were on the original. So what do y’al think? Thanks Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Lucki\_Chaarms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lucki\_Chaarms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucki_Chaarms)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2001, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/2 "2001-10-06T21:32:43Z")
Well, I’m not a Wendy Carlos afficianado, per se, and I don’t really know Switched-On Bach, but I have to weigh in and say just how awesome I think her work from “A Clockwork Orange” is. Dang that’s cool, especially the version of Ode To Joy with the vocoder effects. Very cool. LC ---
**Author:** ![Semp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Semp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Semp)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/3 "2001-10-07T01:07:12Z")
I have 2000 but not the original. I had assumed that 2000 was just a remastering and tidying up of the original, but I just looked and, skimming over the voluminous notes, saw that there were no Moogs used on 2000 (save for one which is “hidden”). The original, I am sure, is nothing but Moogs. But you asked if the music was the same, and I didn’t see any mention of it. I think it is, but I’m not sure. I think it is the same album played on newer technology, but that is mainly coming from the name of the disc just having a 2000 slapped on the end of it instead of a II or something like that. That wasn’t helpful, was it? ---
**Author:** ![King\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7bcc69/32.png) [@King\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/King_Rat)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/4 "2001-10-07T01:29:01Z")
This subject caught my eye immediately because in 1968 when I was 9 years old my parents purchased the original SOB and it was one of my very favorite albums. Here’s everything and more that you could possibly want to know about the differences between the various SOB albums (I only have the original so I can’t comment on the rest). [http://www.wendycarlos.com](http://www.wendycarlos.com) ---
**Author:** ![Revedge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@Revedge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revedge)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/5 "2001-10-07T07:12:14Z")
They are different. I was disappointed in SOB 2000. I thought that the original was cleaner in wome ways. (I shouldn’t say disappointed really. It just wasn’t what I expected.) ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/6 "2001-10-07T14:18:17Z")
I have the original. When SOB 2000 came out I bought the CD, and gave it away a short while later. Personally, and it **is** just my opinion, I vastly preferred the original. I thought it was a greater triumph of invention and re-interpretation, and just much more fun, and more intriguing, to listen to. The 2000 album used much more sophisticated musical tools, of course, and seems driven for the most part by the search for greater subtlety and similarity to ‘real’ instruments. These are entirely laudable aims, of course. But just not what I happen to want and enjoy about Carlos’ music. The original is the one I still listen to and enjoy. ---
**Author:** ![Chas.E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e99b99/32.png) [@Chas.E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chas.E)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/7 "2001-10-07T14:38:01Z")
I am particularly partial to the soundtrack for Tron. I bought the album on vinyl, it is quite a sound explosion. My friends that ran a stereo shop liked it too, they used it for demonstrating high-end stereos. So I got to hear it with unusually good reproduction. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/8 "2001-10-08T01:53:24Z")
I have both **Switched on Bach** and **2000**. I also have most f his other albums (I Like Walter/Wendy a _lot_, except for his own compositions. I think we should torture major crminals by strapping them down and making them listen to **Sonic Seasonings**. But maybe that would be considered “Cruel and Unusual”.)To tell the truth, I like the original better, but Carles him/herself likes th upgrade, because he/she had a chance to re-work some of the piecs that she didn’t feel “worked” the first time through. One thing I _do_ like is that she finally got a chance to do Bach’s “Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor” for **S-O B 2000**. To my knowledge, Carlos had never recorded that before (although have another recording on an un-named electronic performer doing it). **Important Note** : “Switched-On Bach 2000” is not a “remake” of Swtched-On Bach". The contents of the two albums are very different. If you like Carlos’ work, you might try to find his other albums: \*\*Swiched-On Bach II The Well-Tempered Synthesizer Carlos’ “A Clockwork Orange” Walter Carlos by Request\*\* Avoid **Sonic Seasonings** as you would The Plague. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/9 "2001-10-08T01:53:36Z")
I have both **Switched on Bach** and **2000**. I also have most f his other albums (I Like Walter/Wendy a _lot_, except for his own compositions. I think we should torture major crminals by strapping them down and making them listen to **Sonic Seasonings**. But maybe that would be considered “Cruel and Unusual”.)To tell the truth, I like the original better, but Carles him/herself likes th upgrade, because he/she had a chance to re-work some of the piecs that she didn’t feel “worked” the first time through. One thing I _do_ like is that she finally got a chance to do Bach’s “Tocatta and Fugue in D Minor” for **S-O B 2000**. To my knowledge, Carlos had never recorded that before (although have another recording on an un-named electronic performer doing it). **Important Note** : “Switched-On Bach 2000” is not a “remake” of Swtched-On Bach". The contents of the two albums are very different. If you like Carlos’ work, you might try to find his other albums: \*\*Switched-On Bach II The Well-Tempered Synthesizer Carlos’ “A Clockwork Orange” Walter Carlos by Request\*\* Avoid **Sonic Seasonings** as you would The Plague. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/10 "2001-10-08T02:48:44Z")
The original Switched on Bach was, to say the least, fresh, even raw. It was a radically new approach to Bach, and it succeeded in capturing listener’s attention as no baroque/classical album ever had before. 2000 lost that. It was far too polished. All those years of film background music showed through. While very beautiful, little was brought forward when compared against the original. 2000 is still worth purchasing, though, if just for her rendition of T&F (D-), for the subtleness she developed over the years came through in her absoutely captivating decrescendo. (The day I first heard her rendition, I brought my sister’s keyboard out to a remote beach on Superior, and went wild.) ---
**Author:** ![pharoah\_chromium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@pharoah\_chromium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pharoah_chromium)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/11 "2001-10-08T03:15:28Z")
The first recording was “built” as much as “played”. When the original Switched-On Bach was produced, there were still no polyphonic sythesizers. The only way to play a chord was to assign each of the keys its own oscillator, and patch, tune, and modulate each oscillator exactly the same. An earlier poster mentioned a “cleaner” sound in the original. One of the biggest problems was getting a sound that was “dirty” enough to sound like a musical instrument, which often involved adding noise to the patch. And of course, there was no sampling. I haven’t heard the new one, but even if it sounds better, it couldn’t be anywhere near the technical accomplishment of the original. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2001, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walter-wendy-carlos-afficionados/85810/12 "2001-10-10T08:11:57Z")
In her notes for the Prelude #2 in C minor, she says she experimented with the Balinese gamelan. That is an obvious influence in the T&F and other pieces. That’s exactly why I don’t like her version of the T&F (and most of the other pieces on S-OB2K). It should be dramatic and ponderous. Her rendition is much too bright and light. It’s a little like trying to play heavy metal on a toy piano or a banjo. All of the pieces on the original are on 2K. The only additional pieces are the T&F and the first track, “Happy 25th, S-OB”. I don’t see how you can say that S-OB2K is **not** a remake of the original S-OB. Admittedly, the new renditions are all very different from the original.