My name is Micke. I'm a newcomer to this list(but this is my second posting).
I have a question for the John Carpenter experts here on this list, that I've been wondering about for a long time.
here you go:
Does anyone of you know what type of vintage synthesizers/keyboards Carpenter used for the recording of the 1976 score to ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13???
If I'm not mistaken there's a Rhodes electric piano present on some of the tracks but I'm completely at lost when it comes to that powerful and tough bass line that can be heard in the main-theme and in some of the other cues. The same goes for the "spacey" sounding string-synth chords that feature in both the opening music and the end credits music. This latter (polyphonic)sound could be a Polymoog or one of the early string-machines..I dunno
Please, can anyone help?
Thanks in advance
cheers, Micke L
P.S. I just heard from a guy that the laser-disc of this movie is supposed to have a commentary track by Carpenter so perhaps he mentions something about the synths used after all, anyone knows about this?
The Film Society of Lincoln Center had a special showing of Carpenter's films last week as a Halloween special at the Walter Reade Theater. Carpenter made a couple of appearances for a Q & A, but I don't have the program guide, which may contain the information you want. You may try their website at www.filmlinc.com to see if they have a transcript. I believe one lecture was on his synth music.
Stop me if I'm wrong on this one, but seeing that Carpenter is an admirer of Howard Hawks's films, was there a story that he incorporated Jerry Goldsmith's theme for Rio Lobo (a Hawks flick) in the score for Precinct?
Stop me if I'm wrong on this one, but seeing that Carpenter is an admirer of Howard Hawks's films, was there a story that he incorporated Jerry Goldsmith's theme for Rio Lobo (a Hawks flick) in the score for Precinct?
Carpenter acknowledges the influence of Goldsmith's theme for Rio Lobo in his commentary on Assault on Precinct 13. The entire film is an homage to Howard Hawks, of course.
He does not mention the specific instrumentation, except to say they they were primitive synthesizers and needed to be re-tuned often.
I just found this old thread of mine and can now answer my own question: all the synthesis for Assault On Precinct 13 (1976) was done with an expanded Moog modular series IIIP (containing 5 box units) - Dan Wyman of Sound Arts, LA did all the programming just as he did for Carpenter's subsequent scores to Halloween (1978) and The Fog (1979).
