- Alex Szalay Music Projects
Early Electronic Music Instruments
-
In the mid 1970's with my brother Andras we have designed and built several analog
synthesizers,
some of which are still operational. We used these with our band Panta Rhei
as well as in various recording projects on other band's albums. We also bult various guitar effects,
sequencers, mixing consoles.
MUZIX81
-
My brother, Andras Szalay has been
the principal designer of the Sinclair ZX81-based MUZIX 81 sequencer and digital
audio processor (1981). This was built and widely used before MIDI appeared. About 100
systems have been sold, all over the world. The story of the system appered in March 2009, at the
Retrothing
website.
The system used a click-track recorded on a tape to synchronize, and enabled a sophisticated hierarchical pattern editor, with its own shorthand language to create and transpse sequences. I helped to write some of the software components of the system. The software still exists, and is described and downloadable from here.
Using the MUZIX81 System
-
We also got mentioned/reviewed in various magazines at the time.
-
The system was widely used in Europe from Hungary (Gabor Presser,
Omega, PR Computer) to Germany (Frank Farian, Boney M etc) and the UK. We also used it on our
PR Computer album, which sold over 100,000 copies in
the mid 80s. Using this system, Gabor Presser has recorded an LP called
"Electromantic", whose title song
was the music of the BBC Nightly News intro for more than a year.
Working with Zoltan Jeney
In the 70s and 80s I have worked a lot with New Music Studio, a group dedicated to exploring avant-garde music in Budapest, Hungary. One of those pieces (Szazeves Atlag -- Hundred Year's Average) appeared on an LP containing the compositions of Zoltan Jeney.