MIDI
Ed Cornett was hired by Yamaha to head the team in charge of creating the DX7. His story of the long hours, creative and innovative team members and the support of the company uncover the key elements that came together to create one of the most successful musical instruments of its time. Ed grew...
Ralph Goldheim worked in music retail before jumping the counter and exploring a career in manufacturing. He worked with George Luther for several years before joining Oberheim Electronics, Roland and Alesis. Then he was on the ground floor of a new and exciting company that would be called Line 6...
Dave Oppenheim is the founder of Opcode Systems, a Palo Alto, California software company that pioneered MIDI sequencing for MAC OS and Microsoft Windows. With Dave’s programming, the company created such software products as Vision, Studio Vision, Galaxy and Max. Among the many users for Dave’s...
Don Buchla grew up with a passion for music and a passion for engineering. When he combined the two loves, he created electronic musical instruments the world had never dreamed of before. His early synthesizer work parallels the similar work Robert Moog was doing on the East Coast while Don was...
Marco Alpert has had a fascinating career in the music industry and lucky for the NAMM Oral History collection he shared many of his stories with us. Marco was an electronic music composer in Los Angeles when he happened to meet the two founders of E-mu. Marco was hired to promote the innovative...
Barb Fairhurst was hired by Dave Smith to manage the business elements of his newly-formed company he called Sequential Circuits, back in 1977. The following year, the company released its first product, the Prophet-5 synthesizer, which helped revolutionize the electronic keyboard and synthesizer...
Avery Burdette, the product manager for Yamaha Corporation of America, began his long love of music pushing down the pedals of his mother's organ as a small child while his mother played. Avery played trombone in school bands before forming a Southern-Rock style group in high school. He also worked...
Richard O’Donnell was vice president of Yamaha Corporation of America at a very historic time in the company’s growth and development, the 1970s. Richard worked on several projects including managing the operations for the Everett Piano Plant in Michigan, which Yamaha purchased to expand its piano...
Steve Oppenheimer grew up playing music, as did his younger brother, known as Larry The O. Steve was seven when he made his TV debut singing “Big Rock Candy Mountain” on a children’s show. After high school he toured with several bands before attending Berklee College of Music in Boston. His...
Erik Norlander is the perfect musician to have come into his own as a performer as the synthesizer and other electronic musical instruments were being developed in the 1980s. In addition to touring and recording, Erik also worked within the industry at Alesis Electronics where he was the...