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| The Well-Tempered Synthesizer | 
 enlarge | Artist: Wendy Carlos
Label: East Side Digital
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $11.94
You Save: $5.04 (30%)
Buy New/Used from $8.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (14 reviews)
Sales Rank: 23902
Format: Enhanced, Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 618161
UPC: 021561816121
EAN: 0021561816121
ASIN: B00005OKS2
Release Date: October 2, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great Album, but. . . August 8, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have always enjoyed this album and Switched on Bach ever since they came out in LP form when I was young.
The thing that ruins the CD for me is the very last track on both albums, where Wendy discusses the making of the album, called Well-tempered experiments.
I think that is fun to listen to the first time you play it, but then it is obnoxious when you are playing it as you work around the house. Your home is filled with music, then suddenly, there is talking and some obnoxious noises. It just shouldn't be there.
And to do this to both albums is very disappointing. It is hard to ignore, as it is a 9 minute track!
I solved this by burning both albums onto another CD and eliminating the experiment tracks. But I would rather have the original CD's and eliminate those tracks.
As good as I remembered it! March 3, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I heard "The Well-Tempered Synthesizer" when it was first issued; like many people I was stunned by the strange, beautiful sound created by a "machine". Then I read about the difficulty of making the recordings, which took tremendous time and thoughtfulness, and this made me appreciate the human element more than the technology.
Imagine someone who, to cook breakfast, designs a henhouse, raises chickens, gathers the eggs, grinds wheat to make bread, picks fresh strawberries...all for a breakfast that could be made more easily using traditional sources or methods. Pardon the clumsy metaphor, but this is what Carlos had done: giving me Bach, by creating a new kind of chicken to get to the egg.
The sounds one hears in this recording are not as sophisticated as more modern synthetic voices, but they are still pristine and haunting. There is a sort of lonely, cosmic emptiness to the sound, but this is not discomforting; in fact, the music triumphs over the strangeness that no human hand or throat moved during the process, except at the keyboard and the 747-cockpit looking control panel of the Moog synthesizer.
Having a CD of this music is a joy, and the music delights.
More of the quasi-same July 2, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Many people know the first Wendy (then Walter) Carlos album, the more than justly acclaimed Switched-on Bach, a marvellous album representing a sort of Best of Bach but also the first album totally executed on the Moog Synthesizer and the one that helped more than a bit the world to know and embrace the new sounds and peculiarities of what at the time wasn't even considered an instrument. For me it was the album that turned me on to electronic music and to this day is one of my favourite instrumental albums regardless of genres. Funny then that only recently did I find the need to purchase other Carlos' albums! However, The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, while not reaching the heights of its predecessors is a very good album indeed, introducing a welcome variety by adding other musicians to the mighty Bach and Scarlatti's music seem particularly apt to be translated. Quite interesting also Monteverdi's, while Handel's is a bit weak but still pleasant enough. Hats off once again to Bach's, there is a special empathy that makes the performance invigorating and memorable. I'd definitely recommend this one to whoever owns Switched-on Bach and to fans of electronic music in general.
 Go Moog! April 9, 2004
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
I love that electronic sound and Walter/Wendy's arrangements. I have been listening to my dad's LP of "Well-Tempered Synthesizer" since I was a small child and now it's getting somewhat scratchy, so I'll buy the CD. I also enjoyed the music in "A Clockwork Orange".
Stop complaining May 19, 2003
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
...This album, Carlos' follow up to Switched On Bach, is actually better than it's predecessor. This is to be expected as the technology improved, but perhaps more importantly, Carlos' feeling and attention to detail improved as well. The timbres are lighter and airer, and there is a greater sense of rhythm and intensity. And there is always something eerie about this work, and with most of her early recordings. The sounds are fluttery, elusive, sometimes off tune, and the pitches waver. I'm always struck at how bold her sound is, compared to other artists like the ethereal Isao Tomita, and this album is all the more rich and powerful because of it. If you have to own one of her early recordings, this is the one to get. The haunting final Monteverdi piece, with its strange, beautiful, and terrifying electronic vocals is worth the price of admission alone.
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