instrument maker in addition to being responsible for overall sound production. Unique timbre then became part of the composer’s lexicon. Moroder’s film score for Midnight Express (1978) using a bank of synthesisers played in real time as a substitute orchestra also illustrates this.

The practice of analogue replication through the early use of synthesisers and multi-tracking also allowed rock musicians to write incidental music for narrative films, such as Keith Emmerson’s film score for (Nighthawks 1982). This approach relied heavily on rhythm to simulate rock bands playing 1970s styles. The contribution here was, as in rock music generally, making distinct performers and performances integral to the realisation and sound of music, in addition to a compositional ‘fingerprint’ (Whalley 1994).

In using digital music technology to replicate an existing musical style, the prime focus was on the digital substitution of acoustic/analogue instruments and/or production techniques. Conventional musical syntax and grammar were largely accepted and reconstituted into familiar patterns. Western tonality, rhythmic symmetry, and the bonding of familiar performance gestures to known instruments and timbres were taken as a given, and pitch/duration based on consonants as an aspect of spoken language and expressed in notation were affirmed as constitutive elements of time (Menzes 1997). A consequence was that orchestration and production continued to be the primary concerns of this ‘electronic’ music.

As a result, the initial focus of the commercial development of digital music technology was the cost-effective reproduction of existing aesthetics (Jones 1992, Lehrman 1993). The constant question was how good, or at least acceptable in commercial terms, the musical results were compared to the style being copied. The pragmatic evaluation was based on the ease and cost of production in comparison to acoustic/analogue approaches. The immediate artistic problem in this context was in coming to terms with the new technology.

Since commercial equipment came with replicas of established instrumental sounds, and by implication a grammar of gestures with which people were familiar, many of the aesthetic problems of blending sound normally associated with new timbres were negated. Carlos’ orchestration techniques could be applied to simulate orchestral music and analogue synthesiser styles with reasonable certainty. The rock band with an established grammar of sonic space, recognised instruments and associated gestures, could also be simulated through familiarity with performance and production styles.

A required shift in skill in comparison to acoustic/analogue methods was facilitated by the increased flexibility of production techniques. Patch editing in combination with volume control of each individual instrument in a sequence could be applied to conventional orchestration balancing problems. Effects, either built into the sequence or added to lines, could aid in the thickening and spatialisation of sound. The final production of sound then included aspects of sound engineering and recording skills that were conventionally outside the composers’ and orchestrators’ control.

A main impact of the technology in replication was in allowing experimentation in the composition/production process without deterioration of sound quality, and the composition of scores in varied ways that were impossible through the con-