Battle of the Synthesizer Giants: Wendy Carlos vs. Jarre vs. Vangelis vs. Tomita

Tomita's classical pretensions and goofy conceptual audacity are v endearing, plus his recordings tend to be filled with surprising twists and turns. But I think I like the overall *sound* of Vangelis more.

I certainly own and listen to way more Tomita, altho that's largely thx to my wife

I thought of including Tangerine Dream, but IMO they're in a bit different category: less melody-driven, more (art) rock-oriented, plus most of their albums have other prominent instruments beyond synths.

when i was a kid tomita was pretty well known- jack horkheimer used one of his debussy arrangements as the theme song for his astronomy show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkJheh1XcAQ

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can i write in synth sorcerers EDGAR FROESE or KITARO? otherwise, VANGELIS!

Klaus Schulze or death... only joking... or am I?

I need to dig into Tomita again I guess, he was one of the first on the chopping block when me and my friends "outgrew" anything that seemed overambitious, but Jarre seems like the easy vote here. Been trying to grok Vangelis since the epic Vangelis/Jarrett throwdown of a few years ago, sometime I can get kinda into him and sometimes it's like "why do people revere this bro?" but Jarre is just bitchin imo

Leaning towards Wendy Carlos here. Switched-on Bach is not a novelty in my world!

Jarre is more often than not all slickness and no substance. Carlos has always sounded calculated to me. Vangelis could create some sublime shit going back to Aphrodite's Child. His cornball stuff really began to take over in the mid '80s so his great - to - crap ratio is pretty high, IMO.

FITE!

what is "substance" in this context?

In my opinion it'd probably be an overall lack of compelling melodies or thematic passages in deference to some often nifty sequencer parts. Oh - and pretty pedestrian sound programming.

Don't get me wrong -- I really like a lot of Jarre's '70s output but it's always just seemed "nice".

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Wendy Carlos by a mile, though her work almost doesn't fit in with the others.

Also, no love for Laurie Spiegel? Guess her work was only known to PBS viewers, maybe.

(Please note that I haven't been back to ILM since embedding was a thing so I bet I'm doing this wrong.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpCHcfZ5Bno

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what the hell is up with ilm and its army of Vangelis stans

Carlos > Jarre > Vangelis > Tomita

really pretty vangelis-produced pop single from mid 1970s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ2oKn3PP2Y

er, not a single. from a LP. sorry.

That entire album is a pretty strange listen but I love it. Veers from lovely tracks like that one- gorgeous synthy pop songs - to some weird bubblegum-y stuff to meditative cosmic ballads. I wish someone would reissue it since og pressings are ridiculously expensive.

I went with Vangelis due to the fact I listen to him more than the others. Bladerunner and Oxygene are the only albums of the above synth wizards that I listen to more than once a year, and my god do I have a hard on for the CS80. Vangelis' Spiral is another winner, and his bit from Heaven & Hell used on Sagan's original Cosmos (and later mixed with the beats of Pen Expers off of Autechre's Confield at their live/dj gig during 1999's inaugural Coachella) will always stick with me.