Irmin Schmidt

Irmin Schmidt used the ALPHA 77 as a crucial part of his setup with Can, particularly for processing his organs and electric pianos. In his own words,

The Alpha 77 was designed to my wishes. It was built by this electronic engineer who made extremely complicated stuff for cardiology hospitals. The idea of it was that it was giving me the facility to be spontaneous. In the early '70s, with synthesizers, you had to fiddle around until you found the sound. I wanted something where I could just, with one switch, alter the sound of the organ or the piano. So I could go through one line for the organ, one line for the piano, and then for instance, with one switch I could take the organ and ring modulate it. And that was what made the sound so special.