The secret ingredient in SoB is the fact that much of it was recorded at half speed and played back at double speed. This doubles the tempo and also hugely alters the timbres, making the sound much brighter, punchier, and more sparkly than the usual rather ponderous Moog sound.
You can use an editor like Audacity to halve the pitch and you’ll hear the sounds become much more like the usual Moog timbres on later records from that era. (And yes, Carlos has admitted this herself.)
The records were a team effort. The arrangements were shaped by producer Rachel Elkind, and Baroque specialist Benjamin Folkman.
I’m just as impressed by the fact that Carlos built her own mixer (difficult, but not entirely exceptional) and multitrack recorder (extremely difficult, and definitely exceptional) for the recordings.
Creatively I prefer some of the other work, especially Beauty in the Beast, which is still far ahead of its time now, and By Request, which has some outrageously clever and fun arrangements of other music. (The Elgar pastiche is genius-level and just plain hilarious.)
You can use an editor like Audacity to halve the pitch and you’ll hear the sounds become much more like the usual Moog timbres on later records from that era. (And yes, Carlos has admitted this herself.)
The records were a team effort. The arrangements were shaped by producer Rachel Elkind, and Baroque specialist Benjamin Folkman.
I’m just as impressed by the fact that Carlos built her own mixer (difficult, but not entirely exceptional) and multitrack recorder (extremely difficult, and definitely exceptional) for the recordings.
Creatively I prefer some of the other work, especially Beauty in the Beast, which is still far ahead of its time now, and By Request, which has some outrageously clever and fun arrangements of other music. (The Elgar pastiche is genius-level and just plain hilarious.)