SYNTHESIZER MEDLEY: THOMAS DOLBY, HERBIE HANCOCK, HOWARD JONES, AND STEVIE WONDER
Tue, July 24, 2007 
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It was in Wonderland, Stevie Wonders' studio, that the idea was hatched for kicking the medley off with a human computer dialog. Larry Duhart, Hancock's keyboard engineer, describes the scene. "Herbie, Stevie, Bob Bralove [Wonder's chief engineer], and I were trying to figure out how to make the introduction more exciting. We figured that since this was all about computers and synthesizers, why not set it up so the public sees the computer tell us what to do? So everyone sampled their voice into an Emulator II, and we used these voices as input stimulus. Bob typed in the actual phrases for the computer to say in Herbie's or Thomas' voice, for example. So onstage, when the computer asked Herbie to identify himself, and Herbie would say his name live, you hear the computer answering him as if it were emulating his voice, logging him in as a human unit." |
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England and America join hands to rock the Grammys (1985) with Herbie Hancock on Yamaha KX1, Thomas Dolby and Stevie Wonder on Kurzweil 50, and Howard Jones on Yamaha KX5.