Suzanne Ciani

Working closely with the late Don Buchla, Ciani became one of the most talented and promotional voices for the pioneering “West Coast” Buchla modular synthesizer. Ciani continues to inspire with her mastery of the Buchla 200e, which she uses both in the studio and for live performances.

In this videoclip of 1980, you can see that she plays a Phophet 5 synthesizer,

Per Suzanne's interview with Women in Sound Feb 4, 2019:

I use Digital Performer if I’m recording and a MOTU interface. I have a Genelec quad [loudspeaker] setup that I love. I have a Focusrite preamp that I love for my piano. I have a nice [Neumann] U87 that I brought from my New York studio. I use a matched pair of Schoeps [microphones] on the piano. My bowed Vocoder is still sitting there. There’s a storage space downstairs where I keep other instruments that I can bring up to the studio. I might have one other instrument like a [Sequential] Prophet 6 on a stand. I had a Moog One here last week. That was pretty big. I’m into minimalism.

Suzanne Ciani, one of the first and most influential female electronic music composers and synthesists, creates a short sonic sketch using the Moog Model 15 modular synthesizer app. Ciani explores the custom-programmed sounds she designed in the app alongside Moog technicians as they hand-build the app's hardware modular namesake at the Moog Factory in Asheville, NC. Ciani's unique patches are available as a free expansion pack in the Model 15's in-app store. The Moog Model 15 App is an iOS version of the iconic 1970’s instrument. It is designed to evoke the joyous experimentation and sonic bliss of it’s predecessor’s vintage hardware, the Moog Model 15 App meticulously recreates the look, feel, and sound of its highly expressive analog namesake.

Listed to the "gear" section of her Eventide web site dedicated page.

In this video, electronic music and sound design pioneer Suzanne Ciani explores the Moog modular System 55 for the first time in decades. Ciani came to the Moog factory in Asheville, NC to play the first System 55 newly handcrafted by Moog in over thirty years. The patch, created and performed live, was shot in one take and features a sequence designed on the 960 Sequential Controller that's driving three 921B oscillators into a 904B High Pass filter whose cutoff is being modulated by a 921 oscillator. A second set of 921B oscillators is also being played manually into a 904A Low Pass filter whose cutoff knob is also being modulated by the 921 oscillator. The resulting sound of each is then sent through its own dedicated MF-104M analog delay for ambience. The audio has been captured directly with no eq, compression, or editing applied.

In this photo you can notice the Synclavier II with monitor console. On the top of the monitor you can see a vintage rack version of Eventide SP2016 Reverb.

Reflecting on vintage gear, she says “my favorite one was the SP2016 which I used to make the wave sounds on The Velocity of Love.” The synthesized “waves” which appear on Ciani’s first two solo albums (and provide the namesake for debut Seven Waves) are an integral part of the compositions. “Each wave was made for the emotion of the [specific] piece,” she explains. “Using this particular five-channel digital delay [on the SP2016], I could make hugely convincing waves.”

You can notice it on the her right side, running H9 Control App. In another videoclip produced by Moog Music she plays a Model 15 on iPad.

In a user-uploaded photo from Electronicbeats, Suzanne Ciani is seen with the ARP Omni Mark 1 Synthesizer prominently positioned at the center.

Suzanne Ciani is seen using the Moog One in this Promo Video by Moog.

Per Suzanne's interview with Women in Sound Feb 4, 2019:

I use Digital Performer if I’m recording and a MOTU interface. I have a Genelec quad [loudspeaker] setup that I love. I have a Focusrite preamp that I love for my piano. I have a nice [Neumann] U87 that I brought from my New York studio. I use a matched pair of Schoeps [microphones] on the piano. My bowed Vocoder is still sitting there. There’s a storage space downstairs where I keep other instruments that I can bring up to the studio. I might have one other instrument like a [Sequential] Prophet 6 on a stand. I had a Moog One here last week. That was pretty big. I’m into minimalism.

Per Suzanne's interview with Women in Sound Feb 4, 2019:

I use Digital Performer if I’m recording and a MOTU interface. I have a Genelec quad [loudspeaker] setup that I love. I have a Focusrite preamp that I love for my piano. I have a nice [Neumann] U87 that I brought from my New York studio. I use a matched pair of Schoeps [microphones] on the piano. My bowed Vocoder is still sitting there. There’s a storage space downstairs where I keep other instruments that I can bring up to the studio. I might have one other instrument like a [Sequential] Prophet 6 on a stand. I had a Moog One here last week. That was pretty big. I’m into minimalism.

Listed to the "gear" section of her Eventide web site dedicated page.

Eventide has been around for over 45 years, and Ciani has been a close friend almost since the beginning. An early adopter of one of our first products, the H910 Harmonizer, she continues the legacy by including an H9 in her current setup. The H9 Multi Effects is listed to the "gear" section of Eventide artist page dedicated to her.

Listed to the "gear" section of her Eventide dedicated page.

Wrote the foreword, as featured on the front cover.

In a user-uploaded photo on the Arturia website, Suzanne Ciani is shown using the Arturia BeatStep Pro, highlighting its role in her music production setup.

Featured in this November 23, 2021 video by Moog Music Inc.

Electronic music pioneer and modular synthesis icon Suzanne Ciani invites you inside her seaside home studio for a dynamic improvised composition that demonstrates the unique sonic character of Animoog Z integrated with her Buchla modular system.

In the hands of one of Animoog’s earliest adopters, “Currents” presents a captivating representation of the evolved app’s striking new visual and auditory features, incorporating imported and enhanced presets from the original Animoog. An “unexpectedly powerfully expressive tool” for live performance, according to Ciani, Animoog has been a staple of the five-time Grammy award-nominated composer’s musical repertoire for years.

Mentioned in the description of this November 23, 2021 video by Moog Music Inc promoting Animoog Z.

Electronic music pioneer and modular synthesis icon Suzanne Ciani invites you inside her seaside home studio for a dynamic improvised composition that demonstrates the unique sonic character of Animoog Z integrated with her Buchla modular system.

In the hands of one of Animoog’s earliest adopters, “Currents” presents a captivating representation of the evolved app’s striking new visual and auditory features, incorporating imported and enhanced presets from the original Animoog. An “unexpectedly powerfully expressive tool” for live performance, according to Ciani, Animoog has been a staple of the five-time Grammy award-nominated composer’s musical repertoire for years.

Pianissimo II was performed on a one‑of‑a‑kind, hand‑built Yamaha CFIIIS nine‑foot concert grand piano and a seven‑foot Yamaha DC6 II Disklavier grand piano, at Star Wars creator George Lucas' prestigious Californian Skywalker Sound studio, in a "cathedral‑like room." Skywalker Sound is part of the Skywalker Ranch film complex — home to those very clever Industrial Light & Magic bods, whose special effects grace many of the world's top action movies — and was reputedly built especially for popular US vocalist Linda Rondstadt.

The CFIIIS was recorded using two B&K 4006 microphones, a Boulder mic preamp, and a DCS DCS900 24‑bit A/D converter, while the Disklavier was recorded using two Neumann M50 microphones. Recording was accomplished in24‑bit with a Tascam DA88 digital 8‑track and a Rane RC24T PAQRAT recording converter. Coincidentally, this allows 24‑bit recording in stereo on a DA88. The album was assembled and pre‑mastered with the Sonic Solutions Mac‑based audio editing system, which was created by James Moorer, a music software genius whom Suzanne knew from her days of studying computer music at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. A Sony PCM9000 was used to finally transfer the album for mastering.

The CFIIIS was recorded using two B&K 4006 microphones, a Boulder mic preamp, and a DCS DCS900 24‑bit A/D converter, while the Disklavier was recorded using two Neumann M50 microphones. Recording was accomplished in24‑bit with a Tascam DA88 digital 8‑track and a Rane RC24T PAQRAT recording converter. Coincidentally, this allows 24‑bit recording in stereo on a DA88. The album was assembled and pre‑mastered with the Sonic Solutions Mac‑based audio editing system, which was created by James Moorer, a music software genius whom Suzanne knew from her days of studying computer music at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. A Sony PCM9000 was used to finally transfer the album for mastering.

The CFIIIS was recorded using two B&K 4006 microphones, a Boulder mic preamp, and a DCS DCS900 24‑bit A/D converter, while the Disklavier was recorded using two Neumann M50 microphones. Recording was accomplished in24‑bit with a Tascam DA88 digital 8‑track and a Rane RC24T PAQRAT recording converter. Coincidentally, this allows 24‑bit recording in stereo on a DA88. The album was assembled and pre‑mastered with the Sonic Solutions Mac‑based audio editing system, which was created by James Moorer, a music software genius whom Suzanne knew from her days of studying computer music at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. A Sony PCM9000 was used to finally transfer the album for mastering.

Evidently this lengthy ongoing project will involve Suzanne reverting back to her compact and bijou collection of electronic instruments, with the 88‑note Kurzweil K2500 taking centre stage as the master keyboard controller: "I used to have these very strong opinions about different manufacturers and I always said I'd never use a Kurzweil. I just didn't like the sound. Then when I moved into this house, before I had my equipment sent from New York, Joe loaned me his Kurzweil, and it won me over. I started investigating, got involved and started talking with the Kurzweil people. I found them to be a very dedicated and excellent company. I like the way they do business and where they're coming from. They really do care, and the K2500 and K2000 are both sophisticated instruments with a lot of depth. So I'm a Kurzweil convert!

"I'm very fond of these 'orchestras‑in‑a‑box' like the Proteus 2 — on which I wrote Dream Suite — and I'm trying out Roland's new MCC10 Orchestral module at the moment. I get a big kick out of opening up something and taking out an instrument that weighs only 10 ounces! I want something which I can carry over my shoulder, so I've just got a tiny little portable Korg, because one of my needs is to be able to write whilst on the road. I like Korg machines too. I like the company and what they do."

In this early 80s TV mini-doc, Suzanne Ciani can be seen (and heard) creating the vocal queues for the arcade pinball machine Xenon. Her Bode Vocoder can be seen in the rack shot at 0:43, and (presumably) this is the vocoder we are hearing Suzanne talk through in the segment opener.